Jeremy Leggett: Renewed energy

A recent German experiment shows that renewable energy, harnessed on a national scale, can indeed replace fossil fuels and nuclear power

One of the loudest arguments of those who profess that traditional energy is needed even if renewables markets grow large is that modern nations cannot be powered properly without it. In particular, they say, renewables cannot meet baseload demand.

Late last year, a German economics ministry experiment showed that distributed power can indeed produce reliable baseload in a secure and reliable manner. Thirty-six decentralised renewable plants – a mix of biogas, wind, solar (photovoltaics, or PV) and hydropower – were linked by three companies and a university in a nationwide network controlled by a central computer.


Schmack Biogas AG, Enercon GmbH, SolarWorld AG and the Institute for Solar Energy Supply Systems (ISET) at the University of Kassel conceived and ran the experiment with 13 other partners, aiming to show in miniature via a “combined power plant” what could be done, if the will can be summoned on a national scale, to replace both fossil fuels and nuclear power.

The experimental network, capable of producing about 50 megawatt hours of electricity a year – 61% from wind (12.6MW of peak power), 25% from biogas (4MW peak), and 14% for PV (5.5MW peak) – was scaled to meet 1/10,000th of the electricity demand in Germany. It was equivalent to a small town with around 12,000 households.

The system met both continuous baseload and peakloads round the clock and regardless of weather conditions. During the day of the press conference to announce the results, there was no wind at all in Germany and the country was covered by cloud. Such intermittency of solar and wind, of course, means that bioenergy has to play an important role.

Guardian