Germany’s goal is 80% power generation by 2050. The only sour note is that, according to Bloomberg at least, the increase in feed-in tariffs used to guarantee the necessary investment in wind and solar are costing customers and smaller businesses dear. This, says Bloomberg, will have a general chilling effect on the German economy, effectively being an additional tax. Whether this turns out to be the case, we’ll have to wait and see.

In the meantime, an article in Cleantechnica disputes any idea that there is a general dislike of clean energy subsidies in Germany. Pointing to a series of polls taken from 2011 to June 2012, author Zachary Shahan notes that: “The majority (51–61%) of respondents said that renewable energy growth was ‘too slow’, while another 30-33% said it was ‘just right’. When asked the main reason for hikes in energy prices, only 8% blamed renewables.” The chief culprit? “Corporate greed, monopolies, market failure,” said 34%.