User:Lheiler02/Renewable energy law

Germany[edit]
Main article: German Renewable Energy Sources Act

A chart summarizing German energy legislation is available.

Germany is a global leader in renewable energy legislation. To lower carbon emissions, Germany is undergoing an energy transition from things like fossils fuels to renewable energies such as wind power. This transition is known as Energiewende directly translating to 'energy transition'. The process of implementing these Energiewende started in the 1990s and continues to this day. To speed up investment to support Renewable energy systems, feed-in tariffs are put in to place with most offering a long term contract for twenty years. With these feed in tariffs, the primary consumption of energy while using renewable resources has grown from 1.9% in 1995 to 12.6% in 2015. This transition is also heavily supported by the German people; with 92% saying they support implementing more renewable energy systems. One of the most used renewable energy sources used is onshore wind powe r. Just over 35.5% of electricity from renewable sources comes from onshore wind power and it is claimed to be the most cost efficient renewable source. Some concerns with the increasing use of energy is that wind power can cause a decrease in diversity of species and can also be an eyesore to people living offshore. A study shows that hydropower has a lot of potential in the future. (FIX THE LAST SENTENCE)