Trolleybuses, as far as I know, once came from Hungary, is that correct?
I think it was years ago that I read some small article that the last trolleybuses here in the country were abandoned. Although, I can't tell if that's true. At least I know that, about 10 years ago, Erfurt still had such ones. I think they had a complete city line that drove in a circle. If you already found your way out to the street of the railway station, the next mean to transport you further into the city that came along was a bus with "antlers". (Strange thing to see, if you don't know that something like that exists.)
Solar energy here has a bit more complex story than you draw it there... First, somehow this industry settled down in East Germany, out of all places it could choose. And there was a boom for years in that sector. 15 years ago, stocks like that of firms like Solarworld, they reached higher and higher with no real end in sight. But then, as people literally even started getting themselves solar cells in order to produce electric energy themselves that had to be injected into the electricity supply net by the big players in the field, and which the latter even had to pay the people with the solar panels, then politics interfered into the game and agreed on decisions and laws which were aimed at making this production of electric energy by people other than the big planers unprofitable in the long term. In short words: They undertook measures to get the ordinary people out of the supply market, in order to secure the profits of the big players - which own the big power plants. At the time, there were also the first peope which talked of a "decentralized electric energy production" - meaning "cover all the roofs with solar panels in order to produce the energy we use up, so we can maybe switch off one big power plant". I think this is something which the big players in the field wanted to prevent to happen under all circumstances. Not only that they would have had to share the profits from supplying people with electric energy, but also, in the long term, there would have been competition to their conventional power plants (masses of solar panels anytime reach the production capacity of conventional power plants) - and that's something they didn't want. These wishes of the big energy supply corporations were realized, now you only produce electric energy for yourself if you have solar panels, and they're as happy to still be the one who gets to cash in all of what people pay for electricity.
But, there was a price of that: The whole new industrial branch that had settled down in East Germany died through that. Because the attractiveness of solar panels dropped through all these measures, and because then China came along, capable and skilled to produce these solar panels way cheaper for everyone. All those new firms active in the solar branch died one after another. And East Germany, again, became a desert in terms of "importance for whole Germany".
There would have been much different potentials in the solar branch, but politics and greedy fat cats destroyed it.
So - it's difficult to say at how much extent energy supply through this method "fails". Through the politics done over a course of the last 15 years, it looks more like the electricity-producing industry behaves as stingy as stingy capitalists always behave - they want to make money with something for as long as they can, without changing anything in the concept and doing the least of maintenance to keep everything up an running. If someone coerces them to build new structures, they cry out loudly because for once they have to invest some of the money again which they usually cash in from the people like protection money.
no subject
I think it was years ago that I read some small article that the last trolleybuses here in the country were abandoned.
Although, I can't tell if that's true.
At least I know that, about 10 years ago, Erfurt still had such ones. I think they had a complete city line that drove in a circle. If you already found your way out to the street of the railway station, the next mean to transport you further into the city that came along was a bus with "antlers". (Strange thing to see, if you don't know that something like that exists.)
Solar energy here has a bit more complex story than you draw it there... First, somehow this industry settled down in East Germany, out of all places it could choose. And there was a boom for years in that sector. 15 years ago, stocks like that of firms like Solarworld, they reached higher and higher with no real end in sight.
But then, as people literally even started getting themselves solar cells in order to produce electric energy themselves that had to be injected into the electricity supply net by the big players in the field, and which the latter even had to pay the people with the solar panels, then politics interfered into the game and agreed on decisions and laws which were aimed at making this production of electric energy by people other than the big planers unprofitable in the long term.
In short words: They undertook measures to get the ordinary people out of the supply market, in order to secure the profits of the big players - which own the big power plants.
At the time, there were also the first peope which talked of a "decentralized electric energy production" - meaning "cover all the roofs with solar panels in order to produce the energy we use up, so we can maybe switch off one big power plant".
I think this is something which the big players in the field wanted to prevent to happen under all circumstances.
Not only that they would have had to share the profits from supplying people with electric energy, but also, in the long term, there would have been competition to their conventional power plants (masses of solar panels anytime reach the production capacity of conventional power plants) - and that's something they didn't want.
These wishes of the big energy supply corporations were realized, now you only produce electric energy for yourself if you have solar panels, and they're as happy to still be the one who gets to cash in all of what people pay for electricity.
But, there was a price of that: The whole new industrial branch that had settled down in East Germany died through that. Because the attractiveness of solar panels dropped through all these measures, and because then China came along, capable and skilled to produce these solar panels way cheaper for everyone.
All those new firms active in the solar branch died one after another. And East Germany, again, became a desert in terms of "importance for whole Germany".
There would have been much different potentials in the solar branch, but politics and greedy fat cats destroyed it.
So - it's difficult to say at how much extent energy supply through this method "fails".
Through the politics done over a course of the last 15 years, it looks more like the electricity-producing industry behaves as stingy as stingy capitalists always behave - they want to make money with something for as long as they can, without changing anything in the concept and doing the least of maintenance to keep everything up an running.
If someone coerces them to build new structures, they cry out loudly because for once they have to invest some of the money again which they usually cash in from the people like protection money.