Onshore Wind Drives Germany's Renewables Revolution, but Is It Too Much of a Good Thing?


Onshore wind power is the wunderkind of Germany's path-breaking clean energy transition. Stretching from the gusty coasts of the North and Baltic Seas all the way now to the Alps, the nation's land-based wind turbines (23,000 as of 2012) account for virtually all of Germany's 30-plus GW of wind-generated green electrical capacity. This generates nearly 40 percent of the country's entire carbon-free electricity production, roughly equal to 40 nuclear reactors. By expanding its supply ten-fold since 1998, it has exceeded the rosiest forecasts of green-thinking optimists -- and costs have plummeted, too. It is no exaggeration to say that onshore wind has turbocharged Germany's Energiewende, the epic transition of Europe's foremost industrial heavyweight to an all-renewable power supply.

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