Our Solar And Wind Import-Export Failures

Our Solar And Wind Import-Export Failures by Michael Silverstein and Kay Wood Germany gets more than 30 percent of its electricity from renewables, two-thirds is from non-hydro renewables (solar and wind). The U.S. gets 13 percent of its total electricity from renewables, but more than half comes from hydro. Clearly Germany is way ahead in terms of its solar and wind revolution. And one rarely noted consequence of that lead is the positive effects it has on imports and exports to neighboring countries. Consider these figures: Germany in the first six months of this year had an electricity export surplus of 18 Terawatt hours (a terawatt hour equals the sustained power of approximately 114 megawatts for one year), and is well on its way to having its third annual electricity export record in a row. The U.S., by way of comparison, imported almost 60 million megawatts from Canada last year while exporting just 11.4 megawatts. And even with our southern neighbor, Mexico, we imported 1.3 million megawatts while exporting just a bit more than 603,000 megawatts. Our country has a lousy trade balance. In dollar terms, part of this includes a lousy electricity balance. More solar and wind systems could help redress this imbalance. So maybe we should try harder to balance the books. *** Michael Silverstein is a long time environmental writer, and former senior editor at Bloomberg. Kay Wood is the author of an environmental graphic novel, The Big Belch.

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