Global Economic Commentary: Germany’s Emerging Energy Sources are Becoming Popular

It is not an exaggeration to describe the development of emerging energy in Germany in recent years as "rapid progress".

According to the latest data released by the German Federal Renewable Energy Association, Germany's emerging energy sources, namely energy produced through the use of wind, water, sun, biomass and geothermal energy, exceeded 200 billion kilowatt hours in 2006; in addition, 3.3 million tons of Biomass fuel is biofuel. The proportion of renewable energy in Germany's total energy supply has increased from 6.8% in 2005 to 7.7% last year, and the output of emerging energy can meet the annual demand for electricity and power fuels of more than 1 million households.

In the power industry, Germany's renewable energy power generation reached 71.5 billion kilowatt hours in 2006, accounting for 11.6% of the total power generation. Compared with 2005, the proportion increased by 1.1 percentage points. At this rate of development, Germany's original target of emerging energy power generation accounting for 12% of total power generation by 2010 will become a reality this year; the target of 20% of total power generation by 2020 can also be achieved ahead of schedule. The development of biofuels is faster. In 2006, the output of biofuels in Germany increased by more than 40% compared with the previous year, and the proportion of Germany's transportation power fuel consumption also increased from 3.6% to 5.4%, which is close to the EU's 2010 target of 5.75%. %The goal. In terms of heating and hot water supply, emerging energy sources play a role equivalent to 98 billion kilowatt-hours of power generation, and their proportion of heating energy consumption has also increased from 5.9% a year ago to 6.2%.

Emerging energy is clean energy, which is both environmentally friendly and renewable. Accelerating the development of emerging energy is of great strategic significance to Germany. First of all, it is beneficial to environmental protection. It is estimated that in 2006 alone, Germany's newly increased emerging energy production, which replaced traditional energy sources, could reduce more than 10 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. If Germany's energy consumption relied entirely on traditional energy, carbon dioxide emissions would have increased by 99 million tons in 2006. It can be said that without vigorous development of emerging energy sources, the international convention to prevent global warming that the EU strongly advocates cannot be realized.

The second is to improve energy security. Germany relies on imports for 97% of its crude oil, with an average annual import volume of about 110 million tons. In addition, it also needs to import a large amount of refined oil products, reaching 37 million tons last year alone. Natural gas imports also account for a large proportion. If there are variables in the import channels, energy security will inevitably be affected. Therefore, accelerating the development of emerging energy has become a consensus among all walks of life in Germany. Germany's goal is that domestically produced emerging energy sources will account for 20% of all energy consumption by 2020. Lackmann, chairman of the German Federal Renewable Energy Association, said: "Germany is gradually reducing its dependence on expensive and environmentally harmful imported energy." According to statistics, as renewable energy replaced part of the import, Germany saved import costs last year. 4.2 billion euros.

The third is to focus on the future. EU member states generally believe that due to dwindling world oil reserves and strong demand growth, oil and natural gas prices will show a long-term upward trend, and oil prices may double from the current level of US$55 per barrel by 2050. To cope with this change, EU countries must prepare early. Although emerging energy does not yet have a competitive price advantage, as technology matures, productivity increases, and traditional energy prices rise, its price advantage will become more apparent. In the future global competition, whoever occupies the commanding heights of emerging energy will win the initiative in competition and development.

Today, as traditional industries such as steel and coal are gradually disappearing, and the textile, clothing, leather and shoemaking industries are gradually shifting, emerging energy sources are increasingly becoming pillar industries in Germany. The rapid development of new energy has not only replaced some traditional energy imports, but more importantly, created hundreds of thousands of jobs. Since the production of wind energy, hydropower, solar energy, biomass energy and geothermal energy is a high-tech field and has comparative advantages in Germany, it is considered to be the guarantee of Germany's future social welfare.

In order to maintain and expand its technological advantages in the emerging energy field, the German federal government recently decided to invest an additional 2 billion euros in the "High-tech Strategy" plan from 2006 to 2009 to support and Reward companies for their innovative plans in the emerging energy field. With the development of the emerging energy industry, the export of related technologies and equipment from Germany is also showing a good trend. Taking wind power equipment as an example, Germany's export revenue reached approximately 6 billion euros in 2005, accounting for about half of the global wind power equipment trade volume.