Source:

Ashley Seager
guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday June 18 2008

The UK's approach to encouraging renewable energy has come under attack from Germany, one of the world's leaders.

Germany currently produces 15% of its electricity from renewable sources, compared to the UK's 4%. It has done this by instituting a "feed-in-tariff" (FIT) whereby generators of renewable electricity get paid above-market rates for power they feed into the grid. The UK has a "renewables obligation" system, meaning companies have to generate a given proportion of their electricity from green sources.

"Our system costs half as much as quota systems such as you have in the UK and Italy and is much more effective," said the German deputy environment minister, Matthias Machnig, during a visit to London today. "I have the figures.".....read more