14 DAY TRIAL // The online media community might have kept fairly silent on this topic so far, but now that the news finally broke, it seems to be spreading like harmful fumes emitting wildfire.
To cut a long story short: rumor has it that Germany's high official decided that 23 new coal-fired plants are to be built in this country, supposedly to help control the costs of electricity.
As they explain, this measure was rendered necessary by the fact that the renewables industry is yet unreliable and quite expensive, whereas nuclear power has fallen off the German energy almost completely.
Therefore, coal is to be used as a go-between whilst this nation is trying to let go of traditional energy sources and push towards more environmentally friendly ways of generating electricity.
In all fairness, speaking from a strictly financial standpoint, the decision to build these 23 coal-fired plants so as to avoid Germany's becoming dependent on electricity imports seems quite a rational one, although environmentalists will probably fail in seeing eye to eye with the country's high officials on this topic.
Reporting on these recent developments, Canada Free Press explains how Germany's investments in renewable energy sources have failed in meeting their expectations as far as power generation goes.
Apparently, wind power is the one green energy source which proved to be the most tricky to harvest, given the fact that, as most people already know, this particular natural resource is rather unpredictable.
To put it bluntly, real-life environmental conditions seem to have pretty much taken the wind out of Germany's green-oriented sails. Literally.
On the other hand, solar power is now argued to have done little to meet the country's energy demands, whereas natural gas requires that fracking operations be carried out in order to get to it, something that also doesn't sit very right with environmentalists.
Still, burning significant amounts of coal in these new power plants is bound to significantly impact on the environment as a result of carbon emissions, so it is no wonder that debates are now raging as to whether Germany should be praised for trying to control electricity prices and prevent a potential crisis, or condemned for polluting the natural world.
From where we stand, this news indicates that our push for sustainable development with the help of renewables may very well be a touch-and-go type of problem, at least for the time being.