Energiewende; the Death Knell of Utilities?

An important piece to read in the New York Times written by Sun and Wind Alter Global Landscape, Leaving Utilities Behind” is a tale of two scenes; one devastating for big utilities, the other a hopeful sign that the times are changing. And energiewende, the transition to renewables, is upsetting a lot of traditional, dogmatic thinking about sustainability.

Here’s one of the key excerpts from that article:

 ”Electric utility executives all over the world are watching nervously as technologies they once dismissed as irrelevant begin to threaten their long-established business plans. Fights are erupting across the United States over the future rules for renewable power. Many poor countries, once intent on building coal-fired power plants to bring electricity to their people, are discussing whether they might leapfrog the fossil age and build clean grids from the outset.

A reckoning is at hand, and nowhere is that clearer than in Germany. Even as the country sets records nearly every month for renewable power production, the changes have devastated its utility companies, whose profits from power generation have collapsed.”