For once the SPD is showing some strong leadership - in renewable energy. The ancient city of Marburg with its castles and medieval churches is being dragged into the solar age. The story has been picked up by the New York Times:
This fairy-tale town is stuck in the middle of a utopian struggle over renewable energy. The town council’s decision to require solar-heating panels has thrown Marburg into a vehement debate over the boundaries of ecological good citizenship and led opponents to charge that their genteel town has turned into a “green dictatorship.”
The town council took the significant step in June of moving from merely encouraging citizens to install solar panels to making them an obligation. The ordinance, the first of its kind in Germany, will require solar panels not only on new buildings, which fewer people oppose, but also on existing homes that undergo renovations or get new heating systems or roof repairs.
[...]Marburg, a historic university town where the Brothers Grimm once studied, is a model of enlightened energy production and consumption. In addition to the windmills and solar installations, the town’s utility company buys hydroelectric power from Austria, is transitioning its fleet of buses and other vehicles to natural gas and even lights footpaths with solar-powered lamps.
Not everyone is happy about the Solarsatzung. Some are afraid that solar panels on the old structures will destroy the charm and turn off the tourists - a big business for the city. Leading the charge against the new regulations are the local Christian Democrats who claim the Eco-Dictators are infringing on the rights of property owners, even though home and business owners already have to comply with strict regulations - such as where to locate a fuel tank or what type of roof tiles can be used. The Tageszeitung asks why the CDU is pushing back so hard in Marburg when they were so pro-solar in Heidleberg:
Die Haltung der hessischen CDU steht vor allem politisch auf schwachen Füßen. Das zeigt ein Blick in die 150 Kilometer südlich von Marburg gelegene Universitätsstadt Heidelberg. Dort müssen ab 2010 bei Heizungserneuerungen in Altbauten 10 Prozent aus erneuerbaren Energieen stammen. Und nicht nur dort, sondern in ganz Baden-Württemberg. Angeordnet hat dies die Stuttgarter CDU-Landesregierung. Fragt sich, warum die CDU in Heidelberg als ökologische Innovation feiert, was sie in Marburg als Ökodiktatur bekämpft. (The attitude of the CDU in Hessen is politically very questionable. This is apparent if you look just 100 miles to the south of Marburg in the university town of Heidleberg. In that city any renovations in heating systems of old structures must have 10% renewable energy by 2010. And not just there, but in the whole state of Baden Wuerttemburg - as mandated by the CDU state assembly in Stuttgart. It's curious why the CDU considers something innovative in Heidelberg but tries to stop it in Marburg.)
Of course, when it comes to solar energy, Heidelberg, Marburg and virtually any German city is light years ahead of US towns and cities. In my town, which gets more sun than most German cities, you can count the number of solar panels on one hand.
I've probably mentioned this before, but we have solar photovoltaics and solar hot water. Some of our neighbors have solar hot water, but even though they see how well solar panels work for us they are not installing them. It's because they can't afford to. They spent their money on trucks and boats and SUVs and such instead. They took out home equity loans. They maxed out their credit cards. They did this because they wanted stuff. They made bad consumer choices, in other words, because there is no guidance for people in these matters in this country.
We did get rebates, which helped. But the government has got to step in with mandates that have teeth in them. In a place like this, which gets so much sun it's ridiculous to use fossil fuels for energy.
Posted by: Hattie | August 07, 2008 at 08:53 PM