EE Jeez - Do you believe in a Higher Power?

Originally posted here.

http://www.renewablesinternational.net/eeg-rip/150/537/79862/

Hmmm... Land lords can make hot water/air with a heat pump and then sell the hot water and space heating by the kwh-th to the renters. Would this arrangement get around the surcharge?

Another way to get around the surcharge could involve district heating systems. You could imagine a home/business owner who has photoelectrics and an auxiliary heat pump but is also connected to district heating. These end-users could back feed hot water into the system if they had surplus power. The idea would be to trade heat back and forth with the system rather than electricity. With all the surplus power in the summer it might make sense to back feed cold water into these district heating systems for a few months to provide cooling. I live in a similar climate to Southern Germany so I don't need an AC system but I was at the Vet yesterday and they had AC and it was nice. If I had cheap AC available I'd use it. In Germany the heat pump earns its keep in the winter but this same tool could provide some wasteful comfort in the summer as well.

Advertising went through a funny genre back 50s when electricity started getting cheap... All those adverts with a tag line about how the housewife can free up her day by getting a Whirlpool washing machine and dryer. Save time for the things you want to do... What was that Electricity character's name? Shockley? Buzz? Can't remember... Point is, green power producers need to encourage consumers to buy their product too. Key inspirational jingle... Picture a dog sticking his head out the window with a flappy smile. The screen asks... Do dogs love the wind? Switch to a time-lapse of daisies following the arc of the sun. Do Daisies love the Sun? Switch to a handsome man closing up a dishwasher and selecting the Leaf button. At Bosche we build our Green Means Go products with a clean power mode. Quick clips showing a sunrise then sun hitting solar panels on a roof then cut to a water heater control panel... Green Means Go appears on the display... switching on. Clip to a shot of a stainless steel refrigerator... Then another Green Means Go appearing on a control panel... Make ice... Find out more at www... Key happy ending jingle...

I find the application of the surcharge to self-consumption to be rather despicable - like old school silent movie villain tying up the girl to the train tracks evil. It's a joke of a bad bad idea... A smaller FiT would be preferable and more logical than a tax on self-consumption. It's clear the opposition isn't just playing dirty - they're playing stupid filthy. Green power doesn't have the option of playing dirty... It needs to Play Smart... That could be the tag line of a poster. They're playing dirty. We're playing smart. Yeah... it's hokey... but it's true. There's a moral angle that can be addressed with a play on words... Do you believe in a Higher Power?

The advocacy needs to spend a lot more time thinking about consumption rather than production - specifically the controlled consumption of Green Power and the controlled avoidance of Filthy Power. It will take some time to get things rolling but Germany can significantly reduce the cost of the surcharge and show that Photoelectrics/Wind can be economically integrated into the system.