When Chicago’s mayor, Richard Daley, visited Germany some years ago, he was struck by the concept of “green roofs” — flourishing gardens atop homes and businesses. He came back to Chicago and founded the most ambitious green roof program in the United States.Edward Regan, an assistant general manager at Gainesville Regional Utilities in Florida, spent 10 days in Germany last year on a trip with other utility executives. Among the things that struck him were Germany’s “feed-in tariffs” — requirements that utilities pay a fixed, above-market price to producers of renewable power. Upon returning to the United States, Gainesville implemented the first citywide feed-in tariff in the United States.
It makes sense for the United States to search abroad for expertise, because Europe has taken the lead in ushering in the new-energy revolution. Germany enacted feed-in tariffs in 1991. It now leads the world in the production of solar power, despite ample cloud cover. For Americans — raised in a culture of large cars and large houses, in which the cost of energy is an afterthought — seeing how the other half lives can be illuminating.
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