Saved by the wind?

the usage of wind and sun to base our energy consumption on nature
A report by Maximilian Vesper
I. Overture
Nuclear
Energy
Renewable
Energy
Energy
 Production
Once upon a time there was a living organism that in a
mysteriously strange way developed in order to
dominate the world. It once began with bacteria
which later converted and adapted to the
environment. By then, everything was normal and
there was nothing to worry but soon after the new
emerging species developed and continued adjusting
them to their environmental factors over hundreds of
years it quickly got out of control. This living
organism spread and just a few thousand years later
dominated the world, calling the entire planet their
own. This living organism that made the entire food
chain and Earths balance in nutrition and raw
materials suffer from its existance is today entitled
"human."
Since human existance there always has been a need
for materials to support the progress of
technologization and to continue granting higher
living standards evolve and become present, in any
way supported by nature. The biggest thread to our
society is apart from the continiously emerging
shortage of oil the generation of energy as this has
become a critical point over the past 20 years. Finally,
the in a way ignorant living organisms have realized
that the way they are producing their energy today is
not as efficient and as balanced and as eco-friendly as it
could be and there is a desperate need for a method
that is generating the required amount of, primarily,
 
Fossil
Fuels
electricity and other substancial energy branches in
harmony with nature.
Not just because of the most recent incident at the
nuclear power plant Fukushima in Japan, and most
people I think will agree, the shares of renewable
energy in the total generation of energy including but
not limited to electricity need to be broadened. If we
take a look on the bare numbers today, in early 2011,
we have to admit that there is still a desperately long
way to go until we achieve the goal we have decided
too late to aim at. Despite the fact that there already
has been significant changes to where our electricity is
coming from we as human beings being responsible to
save our planet from the effects of our miscalculation
and misinterpretation have to do more, obviously, to
be able to life in a certain harmony with the nature as
species did earlier in the Earth's reference. But surely
this harmony begins with the switching from non-
renewable energy to energy that can be produced or
generated from particles or matter surrounding us that
is not in any way taking a piece out of our atmosphere,
to put it into words.
This raises the question for what has been done
already in terms of generating electricity using
renewable energy and this is one of the key questions I
am trying to answer in a simple way on the following
pages.
2
Index
I. Overture 2
II. Now and then 4
III. Generation of renewable energy 6
a. Usage of the sun 6
b. Usage of the wind 8
IV. Private energy generation 10
V. Epilogue 11
VI. Annex 12
II. Now and then
The United States, Japan and most importantly
Germany. These three states I will compare in the
following text to find out how the shares of renewable
energy have been broadened over the past 20 years.
Currently, countries and most importantly energy
companies are looking for ways to generate the largest
possible amount of energy for the lowest possible
price. This is displaying the capitalist thinking of the
worldwide enterprises. Unfortunately, that thought in
this area has to be eradicated and changed as
continuing this thought could lead to further damage
to our already polluted Earth and it could lead to the
expiration of raw materials meaning an end for our
energy production and the end of possible revenues for
the company. This has been the key argument for
governments and individuals to convince companies
investing in renewable energy - a sustainable way of
generating electricity and warmth.
  1,6%
5%
 
8%
36%
 Fuels
  Nuclear
 Energy
23%
  Biomass
  Wind
28%
  Energy production Dec. 2010 (source: Bundesministerium
Oil
  Coal
  Gas
  Nuclear
  Renewable
US energy production in 2006 (source: "Many Eyes")
If we take a look on the percentages of produced
energy in the United States of America (US of A), we
can see that oil is still the number one resource used
for energy generation. If you think about it and the
development of the methods themselves you might
notice that those techniques that were discovered and
introduced earlier are still used the most. First, oil was
used as petrolium to brighten or lighten rooms and
houses, then we managed to generate energy through
the oil we found below the surface and we including
the US of A thought that we are just taking what's
there and simply taking unused substances away won't
affect nature in any way. That's the image we kept up
since we managed to use coal in terms of energy
generation. Years later we noticed that above the oil
there is a sort of bubble containing a gas that was
previously always either left where it is or for some
reason released to the atmosphere. We found out
throughout tests in chemistry laboratories that this gas
can also be used for energy generation and this is what
 
we did. These three branches are those that were
discovered the first being a reason for them still having
the major shares in our energy production. In case the
question of why there is not more of nuclear energy
produced in the United States, there is a simple
slution for that. Have you seen on a map how large the
country itself is? They have so many oil and coal
bassins and production sites that is is simply not
neccessairy for them to continue building new nuclear
power pkants and thanks to major incidents in that
energy productin branch such as Chernobyl,
Harrisbourgh and now Fukushima several reactors
have been taken offline. If we now take a look on
Germany today, we see a smiliar picture reagrding
fossil fuels and their discovery.
24%
7,2%
65,7%
0,8%
Fossil
Water
für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit)
Currently, photovoltaic-based energy generation is not
even 0,7% of the national energy production and
therefore it is not a part of the graph above. Due to the
massive coal mines in the Rhineland area Germany
discovered a long time ago our energy production
depends on that area which has been a key factor for
the French and Belgian invading the Rhine-Ruhr area
in 1923 to weaken the energy and weapon production
of Nazi Germany. This dependence on coal, oil and
gas (fossil fuels) is still the case for Germany but we
are actually on a good way to broaden our dependence
on natural, renewable resources. Germany is currently
producing 10,3% of its energy from eco-friendly and
renewable resources such as wind, water and the so-
called biomass. Compared to other states this is a
pretty good rate. France for example is still generating
close to 80% of its energy from nuclear power plants
and barely investing or encouraging their power
providers to invest into renewable, eco-friendly energy.
4
 Other
  is realistic to prognosticate another and thighter
Nuclear
 5%
  increase in the generation of any kind of renewable
16%
  energy due to the continiously occuring protests for
Gas
  Oil
10%
  52%
Coal
  If we take a look on the evolution of photovoltaic
17%
  energy generation throughout the world in megawatt
Japan energy production (source: Handbook of Energy and
Economic Statistics in Japan 2000, pp. 190-196)
While Germany is moving forward, Japan is focusing
on the nuclear energy as they currently have 55 nuclear
reactors according to the "ZDF Heute Journal" in the
country itself and on oil as well as coal energy
generation as these technologies have been
implemented years before nuclear electricity
generation was even imaginable. Japan is continuing
to focus on nuclear power as they are currently
planning to build 5 more reactors around the country
because of the fact that this method of generation is
very efficient, does not rely on nature and can provide
the required amount of energy to keep the hi-tech
country Japan alive. This is what it is currently like in
Germany, Japan and the United States of America.
Over the past several years Germany managed to
increase the amount of produced renewable energy
massively. From 1990 to 2009 Germany was able to
increase the amount of giga-watt-hours (GWh)
generated from photovoltaic and wind systems by
more than 500%.
While there have been only 71 GWh of electricity
created in 1990 by so-called wind-parks or modern
windmills, the amount has risen to 40 000 GWh in
2008 followed by a small drop to 38 639 GWh in 2009
due to the financial crisis and the operating companies
and individuals facing financial problems influencing
the usage and expansion of wind-based energy
generation. This rise is an increase of more than a half
thousand percent. With photovoltaic-based energy
generation in Germany there are similar statistics to be
proud of. While there were only 1 GWh of electricity
produced from solar cells, the number has risen to 6
578 GWh in 2009 without facing a drop but rather
another and tighter increase as solar cells are less
expensive for companies and individuals and due to
the harsh summer in that year making the systems
even more profitable for the owner. The amount of
energy generated from photovoltaic installations is
that low in Germany because the hours of sun-light
each year would not justify a permanent and broad
installation of these systems throughout the country.
Experts have published prognosis' years ago on the
future of renewable energy througout Germany. Every
year, these expectations have been outnumbered and it
5
"making the switch" and due to the 2011 Fukushima
incident.
we can see that the European Union is clearly
progressing. In 2000 the European Union and Japan
produced nearly the same amount of sun-light-based
energy and compared to the United States, the EU
and Japan produced 4 times more. While in the
following years after 2000 Japan increased their
production by 300% and becoming the worlds most
eco-friendly energy producing state in 2003 according
to the European Photovoltaic Industry Association
the European Union nearly doubled their photovoltaic
production by 2004 and was generating nearly 7 times
the amount of 2004 making the EU producing the
most sun-light-based energy. There might be some
doubts now about Germany's participation in that
area but those will "fly the nest" when you realize that
in this 700% increase by 2009 mentioned, Germany is
responsible for generating about 65% symbolizing a
positive trend and convincing other governments to
perform similar actions such as increasing supportive
financial benefits for individuals or companies
investing in the contruction and installation of not
limited to but including photovoltaic systems. In
Germany alone we have seen a massive increase in
renewable energy in total from sub 1 percent in 1971 to
more than 10 percent in 2010 and the goal set being to
cover at least 47% of the national energy consumption
with renewable energy has come more than 10% closer
over the past 40 years.
While the modern use of wind and solar power has a
fairly short history as its usage started the earliest at
around the 1930's, the traditional, ancient way of
generating power thanks to the wind is obviously
quite old. From 3000 B.C. they used wind as a sort of
natural power for their boats. Then from around 2000
B.C. humanity used the earliest built windmills to
grind grain in the area of Babylon and then around the
11th century A.D. brought to Europe by crusaders.
Since 1930 then about 600k windmills provided
electricity and water-pumping in suburban areas and
as wind energy became unpopular the 1970 US oil
shortage was approaching leading to a boom in US-
American wind energy. While wind turbines were able
to produce a 150 kW of energy in the mid 1980s, they
are now available in rates from 1 MW to 4 MW (1000
kW to 4000 kW) and while they were first designed to
supply remote-areas with power in the late 1980s and
early 1990s, about 1995 the industry increased
producing PV cells due to the huge pressure green-
energy compaigns have put on the governments.
III. Generation of renewable energy
I. Usage of the sun
As we all know, generating energy by using the sun-
light requires solar panels that generate energy by
using similar principles to those used in chemical
batteries but in order to understand how these
instruments of power generation (solar panels) are
working, we need to go back to chemistry class as the
element that has driven the revolutionary invention
and evolution of computers is the same element that is
used in solar panels and solar cells. It is simply silicon.
As we know from chemistry classes an atom is always
trying to have the maximum number of electrons on
their outter bands which is eight. The silicon atom is
unfortunately only carrying four electrons on its outter
band by default so if two silicon atoms contact each
other they are passing on their four electrons to the
other one resulting in a very intense bond. Also neither
a positive nor a negative charge exists at this point
because having eight electrons is purely satisfying the
needs of that certain atom. Imagine it the following
way. A silicon atom has four hands symbolizing four
electrons and every of these tiny hands grabs a
neighbours' hand. Then it feels good in that so-called
crystalline structure and that results in a stable
connection, or grid, if you like.
Barack Obama inspected the solar cells at Nellis Air Force
Base 2009 (courtesy: Associated Press, Charles Dharapak)
As the production of solar cells and solar panels or
photovoltaic panels requires silicon to be delivered as
plates, you can imagine that it takes years for silicon to
become a large purely silicon element such as a plate.
Anyhow, as two silicon-based plates can not generate
power due to the mentioned circumstance that they do
not have a positive nor a negative charge they are
chemically connected to an element that has a positive
or negative charge such as phosphorus. This element
is having five electrons so in combination with the
earlier mentioned silicon it provides eight electrons
resulting in a stable connection plus one additional
electron which is not able to quit the structure as it is
 
being hold in place by the protons, positively charged
particles in the nucleous of the phosphorus. Although
phosphorus is now fine with it, silicon does not really
need that additional electron so this generated plate
out of silicon and phosphorus is obviously negatively
changed because electrons are generally, in case they
are not a part of antimatter, negatively charged. We
can think about that as an impurity but not a negative
one as we used to think about it but in this particular
case a solar cell is not going to work without it.
To generate some electricity a positive charge is now
desperately needed because as you know from a
magnet, positive and negative charges have to be
together in order to make things work. The required
positive chargement is created by bringing a four-
electron pure silicon plate in contact with a chemical
element offering only three electrons such as boron. As
this results in one electron too less it is positively
charged and, in case you haven't forgot the things
mentioned earlier about the silicon-phosphorus plate,
positive and negative charges will seemingly fit
together and resulting in a perfect "sandwich" but that
is not really the case. Just read on and you will know
why. Now, in order to suck some energy out of that
silicon-sandwich wires that are conductive are being
put in it.
When the positively and the negatively charged silicon
plates came into contact, an electric field was created.
The free electrons on the negative side are literally able
to see the holes, specially constructed for them to fit,
on the positively charged side and they sort of "run" for
hell, utterly fast, towards them in order to fill these
gaps but as more and more electrons are approaching
and trying to make their way to the positively charged
side to fill the holes, they form a sort of barrier leading
to an equilibrium, a balance between the two sides,
generating an electric field that is comparable to a
diode allowing the electrons to shift to the negatively
charged side but not the other way around unless one
hole needs to be filled. This is where we are now.
Some electrons have made it and some didn't.
Now that we have the solar cell itself, we can focus on
what is happening with the rays sent to Earth by the
sun. As the sun provides us with all types of energetic
particles we just need to choose the one that fits best
into our chemical evaluation - which is in this case the
photons that are behaving like a hammer to the solar
panel as it bombards the silicon's electrons that are
being pointed to the sky, in detail: in an appropriate
6
angle to the sun rays which can be calculated
throughout the degree the sun is standing above the
horizon. Anyway, you remember the 9th "lonely"
electron mentioned? That is disconnected from the
plate they have just filled the hole in due to the heavy
bombardement of photons coming from the sun. Then
this electron is being pulled back to the negatively
charged plate as there a phosphorus atom needs it to
lend a hand and another electron can fill a gap on the
positively charged plate and this electron waited and
waited just like girls waiting for a changing cubicle at
a clothing store to be free.
Thanks to the conductive wires we put into that
"sandwich" we manage to capture all the voltage
generated by the electric field - that combination is
leading to electricity being generated.
Free
Photons
  Electrons
  Voltage
  Conversion
To put it in simple words and to compress all that a
little bit, we can say that photons sent from the sun are
being sort of absorbed by the solar panels and free
electrons are creating a voltage that is being captured.
That electricity is then transferred to ampere metres to
measure the output and then forwarded to several
instruments in order to convert the direct current
(DC) electricity coming from the solar cells or panels
into alternating current (AC) of 120 volt or 240 volt,
depending on the country's electricity system, at a
frequency around 50 Hertz in order to make the
electricity suitable for common household devices and
in order to continue forwarding it and injecting it into
the electricity network where it is flowing to where it
is needed. That is how energy is being generated by
using the sun.
Although the initial costs for building and setting up a
solar energy system are pretty high thanks to the
conductive wires used in it compared to non-
renewable energy generation based on fossil fuels like
gas, oil and coal, experts expect photovoltaic energy
systems to become much cheaper over the coming
years as the problem of energy shortages is
prognosticated to be increasing meaning that the price
will be more competitive to other energy ressources
than it is now. Further, to be really efficient a quite
large area of space needs to be covered with solar
panels consisting of solar cells and the factor of
efficiency being the main point for investors to keep
their cash on fossil fuels differs between locations as
this type of energy generation is the most effective with
the most hours of sun each day as clouds on the sky are
resulting in a serious drop of produced or generated
energy - but that can actually happen as well in areas
with heavily polluted air as the CO2 then absorbs the
7
photons rather than the solar cells themselves and
during the process of conversion from direct current
(DC) to AC a small percentage of the generated
energy is lost. Seen in a long-term perspective that risk
of a lack of efficiency due to pollution can be taken
down as the switching from fossil fuels or nuclear
energy completely to renewable energy ressources
results in approximately 40% less air pollution,
according to statistics of the federal bureau of
environmental affairs of the United States of America.
Although a surplus of energy generated during the day
can be captured and stored in batteries as a backup
and then released later during the night or during
clowdier days, we have to keep in mind that solar
systems are not generating energy at night. Even tho
sunlight reaches the Earth by being reflected by the
Moon during night, it is not enough to be used for the
generation of energy using photovoltaic panels yet.
PV cell area of 2 squaremiles in Nevada, USA (source:
renewable energy blog on Google's Blogger service)
Despite the look on all the negative aspects of solar
energy there are some brighter sides to get into your
mind. For example, solar energy panels will be able to
generate electricity for decades and are fairly
maintenance-free as they do not require someone to
add any fuel or refill a tank, they do not smell
offensively and they have barely any moving parts that
could be resulting in any fault by the system. Further,
these panels can work independently and do not
necessarily need to be attached to a power or gas grid.
Further, it contributes in reducing the emission of
dangerous green house gases and therefore is not
contributing in any way to global warming as it does
not even pollute any kind of gas or liquid such as CO2
or nitrogen or even mercury like older and non-
renewable types of energy generation which at least
partly do release them.
All that might make it reasonable that the percentage
of PV cells installed is increasing by about 48 percent
each year.
II. Usage of the wind
When we look out on fields in some parts of the world
we often recognize large modern windmills. These
wind turbines, how they are actually called, are today
responsible for about 1,6% of Germany's energy
production, being above the average but still not
enough to call our country eco-friendly. What this part
is about can't be much clearer actually. It is about how
wind turbines work and what is positive or negative
about them in case we decide to profit from them
which parts of us already do.
Before we take a look on the components of a wind
turbine, lets think about how the wind that is
necessairy for wind turbines to produce energy
actually starts moving. Well, as the sun is shining on
the Earth and heating up land the air masses around
that particular area are absorbing some of the heat and
then starts rising because as we know from
Geography classes a mass of hot air is lighter than the
  Contra
  Undecided
equivilent amount of cool air as it carries water
particles with it. When the light and heated up air
masses rise they leave behind a gap and cool air
quickly approaches to fill that space and this rush of air
masses to fill in the gap is wind.
Offshore wind park (source: LaCoastPost, Len Bahr)
Now, lets take a look on the parts a wind turbine
consists of. Actually, there is not very much to mention
here as it commonly only is made out of three crucial
or essential parts. Part one which most people see first
after recognizing the tower it is built on are the rotor
blades. The usually three rotor blades are simply
barriers for the wind and as they are turned slightly
inverted they are being moved by the wind and by
doing that it transfers its kinetic energy to the rotation
process of the rotor blades. As it rotates it sets the
rotor hub and then the second important part of the
wind turbine into motion, the shaft, which is attached
to the center of the rotor with the mentioned rotor
hub and is spinning if the rotors are being moved by
the wind. At the end of the shaft, there is an electrical
generator which is the third and last important part of
the wind turbine. Actually, a generator is a rather
 
simple installation as it creates the necessairy electrical
voltage by electromagnetic induction. The simple
generator is consisting of a conductor, typically a coil
wire, and a number of magnets surrounding it. As the
rotor and shaft spin, the assembly of magnets are
beginning to spin in the same direction and this
rotation of the magnets around the conductor induces
voltage into the coil wire. That way the energy is being
generated in a wind turbine.
5%
13%
82%
Pro
Survey showing sympathy for wind energy (source: ZDF)
Currently, in Germany about 80% of people asked in a
survey done by ZDF television think that the amount
of energy generated from wind turbines should be
enlarged whilst only 13 percent are against it and think
that nuclear energy and energy generated by fossil
fuels are doing a good job and can continue to provide
us with electricity and 5% are still undecided in that
matter.
The positive thing about that is that no conversion is
needed as it is in the process of photovoltaic energy
generation because a wind turbine is producing an
alternating current (AC) as an electrical current
already. This means there is less energy lost in the
process of reaching the grid network for reaching
homes across the country. Further, as with the
photovoltaic systems, it does not release any polluting
and harmful gases or liquids leading to the fact that
this is an even cleaner energy source.
Although another advantage is the price because it is
possible to purchase and set up a small or large wind
turbine by anyone from poor farmers to the average
citizen in the suburb of a large city and even owners of
inner-town houses can install small wind turbines on
the houses roof or use the wind that streams through
the streets by putting a wind turbine in a horizontal
position towards the street, the wind turbine can be
damaged crucially by heavy storms or lightning but on
the other hand as it is not based on any fossil fuels, you
can generate energy from an unending source. This
makes you independent from not only the electricity
companies but also from the soil Earth has provided
us to live on. Although there might be many positive
8
aspects, there are also a few negative sides to consider
as these wind turbines create an awful lot of noise.
Some turbines create up to 70 decibel of noise.
Further, wind turbines have proven to be fatal for
some animals as many birds have hit wind turbine
rotors crushing their bones and therefore killing them
plus, some consider wind turbines not to be an
aesthetical bonus for the landscape as most modern
wind mills or turbines look ugly and do not fit into the
landscape. Also, those areas that are statistically best
for the construction of wind turbines are mostly far
away from cities leading to an increase in the cost of
energy transfer.
fact, only the costs of the first few wind turbines would
be extremely high as it still has to be seen as a niche
energy ressource that has several competing streams
like Biomass and Photovoltaic. If wind energy has
become a so-called mainstream energy resource that is
helping to provide large amounts of energy for the
nation and the European Union, which is a goal set by
European leaders anyway, the costs for the
construction and installation of wind turbines and the
appropariate devices to connect them from for
example offshore locations with the power grid on the
mainland will massively decrease, according to
Greenpeace and the minitry of environmental affairs.

This graph on the left is displaying the estimated goal

for the European Union to base its energy
11%   consumption on renewable energy. This is not meant
4%  
Renewable  Energy   to be a goal for each and every country but an
Fossil  Fuels   estimated goal of the entire EU. 85 percent of the
Nuclear  Energy   energy required to power all homes across the EU
should be gained from renewable resources and the
shares of nuclear energy and fossil fuels shall be
85%   dropped to 11% and 4%. This estimation was made
before the Fukushima incident which could be leading
to a drastical change on the 11% of nuclear energy
which is currently mostly supported by France and
As we can see, there are positive and genatiove aspects Eastern European countries.
of wind energy and according to an expert who
appeared on "ZDF Reporter" recently, another 30 Reaching this goal seems to be nearly impossible but
offshore windparks would be needed to replace the we are working on it and everyone can help by either
energy currently produced by the 17 nuclear power protesting or making decisions by purchasing power
plants for Germany. Building them would take at an energy supplier that offers stricly clean energy.
another 10 years according to him and it would cost One thing is clear: there is still a long way to go.
approximately the same amount of money as the
nuclear power plants and their maintenance do. But in

9
 
 
IV. Private energy generation
 MW:
 per
 kW:
 per
 kW:
 per
 kW:
 kWh
Solar plants on US suburb. (source: Reuters)
Many private individuals that own a house or a certain
area of space that requires electricity for some reason
across Germany are currently thinking about installing
either a small wind turbine or even a photovoltaic
system. Currently, there are barely any means of
financial support coming from the government to
individuals planning to install a small wind turbine.
Although it cheaper than the photovoltaic electricity
generation, the government won't support you
financially for that. But for PV cells and systems there
is a possibility to receive bonuses from the state. Apart
from the fact that you are already paying less or
nothing at all to the power companies if the PV cell is
running very well, you can even sell energy that your
solar cell is producing to a local power supplier and
they will have to pay you for that. They are not even
able to cheat you on that as the German government
set new prices electricity companies have at least to
pay from January 2011 onwards based on the amount
of electricity you sell to them. So these are actually the
minimum revenues per 1000 Watts per hour.
 
>1
21,56ct
kWh
<999
25,86ct
kWh
<99
27,33ct
kWh
<30
28,74ct
per
These are the minimum revenues for solar cells on
buildings. For free areas of land like a field they have
to pay at least 21,11 cents per kWh. This is because they
are more remote areas that are not that easily to get
the power from in to the national power grid. But that
is not everything the owner of a solar cell receives
thanks to the EEG, the "Erneruerbare Energien
Gesetz." The government is supporting you by paying
around 11% of the costs for installing a solar cell on
your private rooftop. In previous years that number
was significantly higher but if you take a look on the
national debts which is fairly high compared to the
GDP you might understand why expenses in that area
have been reduced as well by 2011.
At least there is a decent amount of cash literally
pumped into the private sector although by doing that
they encourage people to quit their deals with energy
suppliers and therefore reduce the governments tax
earnings in some parts.
10
V. Epilogue

Pro   Contra   Undecided  

4%  

24%  

72%  

Even though the genertation of wind and solar energy
seems to be a difficult business, it is currently apart
from water power plants the only solution that brings
us further towards our goal which is creating
electricity without harming the nature. Anyway, in the
last 20 years we managed to broaden our dependence
on renewable energy by around 10% and the number of
installed photovoltaic cells is increasing by more than
40 percent each year whilst we still depend on nuclear
energy as more than 20% of German energy
production is generated by nuclear power plants and
about 80% in France.
power grid. If it really is an option everyone has to
decide for him-/herself.
In the diagram above, we can see that about 72
percent of people are supporting the thought of
reducing the dependence of Germany and the world
on nuclear energy, according to an ARD survey done
on 15th of March 2011. This also shows a clear boost of
support for Die Grünen political party according to
latest researches. They currently have 5% more than
usual.

Photovoltaic cells work with the photons that rip off

electrons and therefore uses the voltage to generate
electricity in direct current which is then being
converted to AC, alternate current, whilst wind
turbines work completely mechanical as the rotation of
the blades sets a bunch of magnets into rotation which
then is generating electricity.

In case a private person wants to install and profit

from a photovoltaic cell, the government has worked
out plans in order to support that person financially.
The amount is regulated by the EEG, the
Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz passed in 2004.
Germany is paying as a state around 11 percent of the
costs occuring when purchasing and installing the
solar system plus the law regulates the amount power
supplying companies have to pay for the energy private
individuals are sort of inserting into the national

11    
VI. Annex
Sources
"ZDF Frontal21", ZDF television, March 15, 2011
"ZDF Reporter", ZDF television, March 17, 2011
"Are we save enough", The Daily newspaper, March 16th, 2011
"Solar Energy", Roger Harris, Page 38ff.
„Sternstunden der Physik“, Roger G. Newton, Birkhäuser Verlag, Page 173ff.
„Naturwissenschaft“, Detlev Ganten, dtv, Page 144ff.
„Physik“, Kenneth R. Atkins, de Gruyter Verlag, Page 716ff.
"Solar Energy Engineering: Processes and Systems", Soteris A. Kalogirou, Academic Press, Page 12ff.
"Solar Technology: The Earthscan Expert Guide to Using Solar Energy for Heating, Cooling and Electricity
(Earthscan Expert Series)", David Thorpe, Earthscan, Page 12ff.
"Photoelectric Effect", Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, Alphascript Publishing
"Third Generation Photovoltaic Cell", Lambert M. Surhone, Betascript Publishing

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