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"Yes, many are. And then there are those, that are a bit more cash strapped (like the 300k households cut off from electricity each year) or work in energy inte

"Yes, many are. And then there are those, that are a bit more cash strapped (like the 300k households cut off from electricity each year) or work in energy intensive industries fearing for their jobs." I don't think the US collects national stats but it sounds like Germany is pretty average in terms of "energy cost burden" amongst European countries. [1] I found stats for CA AND TX, 700k/40M disconnected in CA in 2016 and 900k/30M in Texas vs Germany 330k/81M - for whatever it's worth, didn't check methodologies. [2] [1] https://energytransition.org/2017/11/is-33000-german-households-without-power-a-lot/ https://energytransition.org/2017/11/is-33000-german-househo... [2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-13/in-great-american-blackout-millions-go-dark-due-to-unpaid-bills https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-13/in-great-....

woodpanel 6y ago
I disagree. Germany has a pretty comfy welfare state, compared to the US and still 300k are cut off from electricity. Regarding energy cost burden: Germans pay the world’s highest price for electricity, whether it is in nominal dollars/mWh or in relative purchasing power parity/mWh [1] [1] https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/ea2f7700-2b1e-4611-a5dd-64917e356043/Energyprices2020.pdf https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/ea2f7700-2b1e-4611-... figure 7
- altarius 6y ago
  Agree on the high prices, don't agree that "Energiewende" was necessarily bad for the poorest Germans, exactly because it's a "comfy welfare state". Society decided it was worth the cost and they're paying it. Just want to point out that, if I'm not mistaken, at that point only heating was covered by welfare but not electricity. In case anyone assumed it should have been covered by welfare and ppl somehow still got cut off. The point was that high energy prices do not necessarily mean that more people are without power or that the poor are necessarily worse off - like everything it's a broader societal issue. Btw, I do agree on the disadvantage for energy intensive industries. Industry power prices there are ~3x US prices afaict.

woodpanel 6y ago

I disagree. Germany has a pretty comfy welfare state, compared to the US and still 300k are cut off from electricity. Regarding energy cost burden: Germans pay the world’s highest price for electricity, whether it is in nominal dollars/mWh or in relative purchasing power parity/mWh [1] [1] https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/ea2f7700-2b1e-4611-a5dd-64917e356043/Energyprices2020.pdf https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/ea2f7700-2b1e-4611-... figure 7

altarius 6y ago
Agree on the high prices, don't agree that "Energiewende" was necessarily bad for the poorest Germans, exactly because it's a "comfy welfare state". Society decided it was worth the cost and they're paying it. Just want to point out that, if I'm not mistaken, at that point only heating was covered by welfare but not electricity. In case anyone assumed it should have been covered by welfare and ppl somehow still got cut off. The point was that high energy prices do not necessarily mean that more people are without power or that the poor are necessarily worse off - like everything it's a broader societal issue. Btw, I do agree on the disadvantage for energy intensive industries. Industry power prices there are ~3x US prices afaict.