Germany Is Showing The World How To Become A Green, Renewable Energy Powerhouse

http://www.businessinsider.com/germany-renewable-energy-production-is-living-up-to-the-hype-2012-7

To be blunt, Germany is the world's energy production guinea pig. For the past few years, Germany has been making drastic moves in the name of progress, self-suffice ncy, and the environment.

For one, they began to close their nuclear power facilities following the Fukushima disaster, even though it accounted for a quarter of its power production. All nuclear facilities are planned to be closed by 2022.

Around the same time, Merkel and Co. passed legislation that would cause the country to generate a third of its power through renewable sources in the next ten years, that figure jumping to 80% by 2050, reports the AP.

And now, they have released figures that support these broad and optimistic claims. Germany's energy industry association, BDEW, released figures detailing a production of 67.9 billion kilowatt hours of renewable energy for the first half of 2012, reports Reuters. This output represents a 19.5% increase from the same time frame in 2011.

More telling is this: renewables now comprise 25% of Germany's total energy production, a 4% increase from last year. The largest renewable source is wind energy, accounting for 9.2% of all energy production.

In addition, solar energy saw an increase of 47% increase from last year, coming in at 5.3% of all power production. Germany is the world's largest producer of solar power, its "installed capacity" representing more than a third of the world's total, reports Reuters.