Germany: A Clean Energy Success Story Or Cautionary Tale?

Everyone agrees Germany is a renewable energy powerhouse. But not everyone agrees on how that’s benefitted the country. The web is littered with conflicting opinion pieces on the German experience – some claiming the country’s aggressive promotion of renewables is an oncoming economic disaster, and some saying those concerns are far overblown, if not totally false. So what are we to believe? In this week's show, we'll look at Germany's evolving relationship with renewables, the impact on electricity prices and the outlook for its nuclear phase-out. Then we'll travel to Japan, which is undergoing a rapid transition after a sudden phase out of nuclear in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. We'll ask if the country can make up for the nuclear gap. Finally, we'll travel to Ontario, where we'll look at the phase out of coal power and changes to the province's troubled feed-in tariff program. The Energy Gang is produced by Greentechmedia.com. The show features weekly discussion between energy futurist Jigar Shah, energy policy expert Katherine Hamilton and Greentech Editor Stephen Lacey.