Sun and wind do not need the Strait of Hormuz
We are currently experiencing dramatically rising oil and gas prices and an irresponsible dependence on fossil fuel-producing countries.
Now we are paying the price for German Economics Minister Katharina Reiche and Chancellor Merz continuing to rely on fossil fuels – just like President Donald Trump in the USA. The consequences of this war, which violates international law, are being felt everywhere: at the petrol pumps, in industry, on the stock markets, in every wallet. Because now everything is becoming more expensive again. And it is harmful to the environment. Which costs even more. The number of war refugees will also rise sharply, with unpredictable consequences. Wars have always been and continue to be only pseudo-solutions.
Yet it’s actually quite simple: sun and wind are independent of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The sun shines on every roof in Germany and the wind blows everywhere. If the Iranian ayatollahs close the Strait of Hormuz to gas and oil tankers, neither the sun nor the wind will be affected. There is not a single country in the world that could not supply itself 100 per cent with renewable energy. We have two major sources of eco-energy, sun and wind, but also four smaller ones: hydropower, bioenergy, geothermal energy, and wave and tidal energy from the oceans. The sun alone sends us about 15,000 times more energy every second of our existence than all eight billion people currently consume.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has just proposed that the EU should return to nuclear power and build small and medium-sized nuclear power plants. The EU is to provide €200 million for this purpose. However, even 15 years after Fukushima and 40 years after Chernobyl, the nuclear disasters of the past continue to have an impact: thousands of deaths and millions of radiation victims, especially children.
Every child learns at school today that the solar energy transition is possible in a few years if politicians set the right course and if citizens get involved. But the German Minister for Economic Affairs and the German Chancellor, of all people, refuse to understand these simple laws of nature because they have made themselves dependent on the old energy companies and on foreign countries. The federal government is insisting on an antediluvian ‘Building Modernisation Act’ that will continue to rely primarily on oil and gas for several years to come.
And the federal government is fighting against the end of combustion engine cars in 2035, which the EU has decided. However, this does not give the German automotive industry any planning security, but rather continued uncertainty, which is poison for any industry. Both China and Tesla are delighted with this German stupidity, because now they can continue to do excellent business with their electric cars.
I know of Chinese people who can hardly believe their luck when it comes to German energy policy. By 2025, China alone will have installed more solar and wind power plants than the rest of the world combined. And India is well on its way to emulating the Chinese in the field of renewables.
These two billion-strong nations are leading the way in the energy transition and the global solar revolution. Germany was good at inventing the technology, but today, under Merz and Reiche, it is missing the boat when it comes to implementation. Helmut Kohl proved in 1990 that there is a smarter way with the German Electricity Feed-in Act and a purchase obligation for green electricity.
This law was the precursor to the most successful German law of all time: the German EEG, the Renewable Energy Sources Act, which has been adopted by over 70 countries and has led to a global solar revolution that we are currently witnessing in many countries, except Germany.
This EEG simply states: You get an economic incentive if you behave ecologically. But Reiche and Merz now want to slow down the rapid expansion of renewables. Trump is delighted and praises the German government for this, but Helmut Kohl is probably turning in his grave, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Trump and Reiche want to turn back the energy clock and slow down the expansion of renewables. It now turns out that Katharina Reiche was rightly nicknamed ‘Gas-Kathi’ when she worked for an EON subsidiary. She is living up to her nickname. While gas and oil prices are skyrocketing, a kilowatt hour of electricity from solar or wind power can be produced in Germany for five to seven pence: inexpensive, environmentally friendly and available for all time. Above all, however, it is independent of large foreign corporations and oil dictatorships. And without having to wage war. Wars will never be fought over sun and wind. The sun is 150 million kilometres away from Earth, which is a ‘safe distance’ that neither Trump nor Putin nor any other supervillain can ever reach. So, the oil price shock could have been avoided, or at least can be avoided in the future, if the right conclusions are finally drawn now: a rapid transition to 100 per cent renewable energies – worldwide.
One of the most crucial questions for the future is: war for oil or peace through the sun? The Iraq War, the Afghanistan War, the war over Venezuela and now the Iran War: all these wars were or are wars over fossil fuels. Sun and wind, however, are gifts from heaven. They are energies of peace.
A suggestion from the Süddeutsche Zeitung: Chancellor Merz should ask his daughters’ daughters what they will think of his current energy policy one day in the distant future. (Süddeutsche 7/8 March 2026)
