Antinuclear

Australian companies going to Germany to develop renewable energy technologies

Germany’s renewable energy incentives and regulations attracting Australian companies Yahoo News, By Emily Stewart for The BusinessOctober 29, 2014, 1

An Australian company which invented a renewable energy electricity generator says it was forced to move its operation to Germany because of a lack of opportunities in Australia.

Ceramic Fuel Cells, a Melbourne-based CSIRO spin-off company, said its generator could cut electricity bills by up to 50 per cent for households and small businesses.

But the company moved its operations to Germany two years ago to benefit from generous German government subsidies not on offer in Australia.

“This is what we need right now,” the company’s Germany-based managing director, Frank Obertnitz said.

“We are at an early stage. We need to commercialise the product and the incentives in Europe are much better for that.”

Germany is in the middle of an energy transition it calls Energiewende, which aims to shut down nuclear plants, reduce carbon emissions and increase electricity produced from renewable sources.

“After Chernobyl, and then Fukushima, the German population said no to nuclear,” said Dr Patrick Graichen of the influential think-tank, Agora Energiewende.

The program was accelerated after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Before then, Germany was heavily reliant on nuclear and fossil fuels………..https://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/a/25372077/germanys-renewable-energy-incentives-and-regulations-attracting-australian-companies/

October 29, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, business