Chart of the day

(click to enlarge)

From this very good Wall Street Journal column on the role of subsidies in energy production. Excerpt:

In Germany, renewable energy from projects that qualified for feed-in tariffs between 2004 and 2008 will cost consumers [euro] 122.3 billion (about $175 billion) between 2008 and 2030 -- 46% more than the same amount conventional energy would cost, New Energy Finance predicts. In Spain, renewable energy from projects started under the country's feed-in tariff between 2006 and late 2008 will cost [euro] 53 billion over the Spanish tariff's 25-year life, the firm projects, a 75% premium over the likely cost of the same amount of conventional power.

Government subsidies are a great deal for energy companies, not so much for consumers.