I'll let others decide.
ENERGY IS EXPENSIVE IN GERMANY – CAN THIS BE A GOOD THING?
The high cost of energy in Germany is a result of the country’s transition from fossil fuels and atomic energy to renewables. This could be seen as a marker for a poor market environment – or the opposite, as Mathias Röckel explains.
https://www.dotmagazine.online/issues/powering-and-greening-IT/energy-is-expensive-in-germany
What German households pay for power
Power prices in Germany are among the highest in Europe. The high costs partly are due to the mandatory support for renewable energy sources – but most customers continue to support the country's energy transition regardless. Wholesale electricity prices on average have been in decline in recent years, but surcharges, taxes, and grid fees raise the bill for Germany's private households and small businesses. However, market observers say that power costs are often not even high enough for customers to look for cheaper alternatives. At the same time, the 2021 energy price hike in Europe is upsetting government plans to ease the financial burden on housheholds by reducing fees and surcharges on consumption.
https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/what-german-households-pay-power
I don't know why Alan posts links to articles which he hasn't read. It appears he just reads the headlines which he puts in bold.
Germany is the Bogeyman he trots out whenever renewable energy comes up. Both of those articles are pretty balanced regarding Germany's transition to renewable energy.
From Alan's dotmagazine article...
Energy is but one factor for companies to consider
If energy is a vital factor to your success, be aware you will pay more for power in Germany than in some other European countries. But high costs are not necessarily a marker for poor market environment. In fact, quite the opposite can be the case. Take, for instance, the data center industry.
Frankfurt is among Europe’s top locations for data center providers -- and data centres are energy thirsty. The data center community in the Frankfurt area has seen continuous growth over the past years, managing to surpass even the Frankfurt Airport (the fourth largest airport in Europe) in terms of power usage. The data center industry example illustrates that energy cost is but one factor to consider regarding your business. In the data center industry, other considerations include security, availability, latency, connectivity and geography. At the end of the day, what is more important to your customers: your production cost -- or the quality you offer in comparison with the price you charge?
Regarding Germany as a business location, look at the the country’s economic statistics and consider this:
While paying more for energy to enable a more sustainable future is something that does make entrepreneurs stop at first and think hard, it would be hard to find an industry prevented from flourishing due to the price of German energy.
From Alan's cleanenergywire.org article...
Although in early 2019 they paid the highest nominal power prices of all customers in Europe, a stable majority of Germans continue to support the energy transition and consider it generally beneficial for the economy. A possible explanation for this carefree attitude is that the financial impact of rising power prices on the household budget is not substantial for many people, since it constitutes only a relatively small fraction of their total income.
If power prices are counted in real terms, the country actually ranks in the midfield compared to fellow EU states. In Bulgaria, for example, power prices are only one third of those in Germany. But not only are power outages much more common, Bulgarians on average also earn only one ninth of the average salary in Germany, newspaper Tageszeitung (taz) reported. In 2015, only 2.3 percent of the households’ disposable income were spent on electricity, similar to mid-1980s levels. In 1998, the respective figure was 1.78 percent, as the liberalisation of energy markets led to a temporary price drop.
Also regarding total energy bills, Germans spend a low share of income in EU comparison, according to the German Economic Institute (IW). German households pay just over 9 percent of their average monthly income for energy, on par with consumers in neighbouring France and the Netherlands. In contrast, Bulgarian households spend more than 25 percent on electricity, gas and petrol. Greeks and Hungarians share second place at 20 percent. The share is lowest in Luxembourg with just 4 percent. The IW notes that its latest report is based on figures from the first half of the year, and therefore does not reflect the recent increases in gas prices.
