Fritz Vahrenholt, PhD Chemistry: In 2012, Germany decided to close its nuclear plants, which were concentrated in the south. It reshaped the grid, building huge DC cables from north to south. The wind is more abundant in the north. A total of 6100 km of cable will have to be built by the time the last nuclear power stations shut in 2022. 400 km have been given the go-ahead and 80 km have been built, just 1.3% of the total. Due to opposition to these cables, plans have been torn up. The government now plans to build them underground, increasing the cost eight fold.

Howard Cork Hayden, Emeritus Professor of Physics: The solar industry employs 210,000 people, while there are only 190,000 employed in coal mines. Considering the tiny amount of solar electricity produced, the solar industry employs about 70 times as many people for the same amount of electricity. The coal industry is developing plans to compete with that kind of job creation. They will get rid of all that heavy machinery and hire millions of miners to use picks and shovels.

Craig Rucker, CFACT: Wind turbine installations impact vast amounts of habitat and crop land. Offshore wind turbines impact vast stretches of lake or ocean and like ships will not the worst ocean storms. Arizona’s Palo Verde nuclear plant generates 3,750 megawatts of electricity from a 4,000-acre site. The 600-MW John Turk ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant in Arkansas covers 2,900 acres; gas-fired units like Calpine’s 560-MW Fox Energy Center require several hundred acres. All generate reliable power 90-95% of the year.

Holger Douglas: Der Stromverbraucher muss für jenen »grünen« Strom zahlen, der gar nicht erzeugt wird, weil in die Netze wirklich nichts mehr passt oderweil noch keine Leitungen gebaut sind, um den Strom abzutransportieren. Doch den Betreibern sind 20 Jahre Einnahmen garantiert - ob sie Strom liefern oder nicht. [The electricity consumer must pay for electricity produced by wind turbines no matter if it is produced or not, can not be used, or is produced, but there are no transmission lines to deliver to customers. Environmental extremist law at its worst.]