It’s no secret that the environment is taking some big hits in our current industry heavy world. Pollution has reached an all time high and most experts agree that if we don’t do something soon, the effects to our planet can be both devastating and permanent, if it’s not already too late. So now renewable energy, energy that isn’t super polluting coal or oil, is now one of the big things that governments are trying to push to reduce our carbon footprint. Of course there has been a lot of push back, mainly because oil is one of the biggest industries on the planet and they don’t like things muscling in on their turf. Billions have been spent on trying to convince people that renewable energy just isn’t viable due to high initial costs, or not enough energy that can be produced, or just straight up scare tactics. Germany has just proven that renewable energy can be a viable solution after all.

On May 8th, a particularly sunny day actually supercharged the solar and wind energy production. The renewable energy actually produced 55 gigawatts of the 63 gigawatts being consumed. Combine that with traditional energy production and the result was, they were actually producing more energy than the entire nation was using. That effectively meant that for a time, energy costs were negative and people were actually paid to use energy. This isn’t the first time it’s happened. Denmark experienced something similar when an especially windy day helped produce 140% of the nation’s energy consumption. The excess energy was exported to other countries. Germany is considered one of the world’s frontrunners when it comes to renewable energy and has pledged to run entirely on renewable energy by 2050. Other nations no longer have an excuse to at least step up their renewable energy efforts.