And why 70% of Republicans are so unapologetically clueless...
By Brad Friedman on 2/7/2013, 4:07pm PT  

This is a map of annual sunlight in the U.S. and in Germany (on lower right), according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory...

Yet, this is how Fox Business Network "reporter" Shibani Joshi explained, on Fox "News" today, why it is that Germany leads the world in solar energy production, while "the hopes for solar in the U.S. have dimmed":

They've got lots of sun. Right? They've got a lot more sun than we do. ... In California, it's a great solution, but here on the East Coast it's just not going to work.

Sigh. See Media Matters for the full Fox video and actual facts and stuff, including the actual reason why solar energy is so successful in Germany, where, last year it powered about a third of the country's energies need on a single Friday in May, and a full 50% of its energy needs the next day on Saturday. (On average last year, solar accounted for some 4% of the country's energy needs, with other renewables there accounting for about 20% total. That, as the country, in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, moves away from nuclear entirely and attempts to replace all of that power with clear renewables. See our "UPDATE & CORRECTION" below for more details.)

And, while taking in all of the misinformation from Fox above, keep in mind that yesterday PPP released the results of its 4th Annual TV News Trust Poll which finds, among other things, 70% of Republicans still actually trust Fox "News". Even more incredibly, some 67% of Republicans trust Fox more than any other source.

Can't imagine why Republicans are so obscenely misinformed these days.

[Hat-tip @alutz3 on the Twitters.]

UPDATE & CORRECTION 2/9/2013: Fox' Joshi has now filed a correction, of sorts, buried on the Fox "News" website (as opposed to front and center on one of their highest watched programs, Fox and Friends, where she originally misinformed millions of Fox viewers. See below for that update and a correction of our own...

Joshi now writes somewhere on the Fox "News" website:

I incorrectly stated that the chief difference between the U.S. and Germany’s success with solar installations had to do with climate differences on a "Fox and Friends" appearance on Feb. 7. In fact, the difference come down more to subsidies and political priorities and has nothing to with sunshine.

The rest of her article goes on to argue why fracking and natural gas are still much better alternatives than solar anyway. So her agenda is the same, but she's offering different arguments to support it now. That's what suffices as "reporting" on Fox "News".

For our own part, we have a correction to make as well. We originally reported above that "solar energy is so successful in Germany" that "it powers, on average, about 30% of the country's energy needs, despite being at a higher latitude than Seattle."

In fact, as BRAD BLOG commenter "Sven O" noted below, solar only accounted for an annual average of about 4% of the Germany's energy needs last year, with, as Reuters reported last year the country getting about 20% of its annual electricity from both solar and other renewable sources.

The Reuters article notes, however, that last May when the country's latest solar power record was shattered, solar in Germany supplied "a third of its electricity needs on a work day, Friday, and nearly half on Saturday when factories and offices were closed.":

(Reuters) - German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour - equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity - through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday...
...
Norbert Allnoch, director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry (IWR) in Muenster, said the 22 gigawatts of solar power per hour fed into the national grid on Saturday met nearly 50 percent of the nation's midday electricity needs.
...
The record-breaking amount of solar power shows one of the world's leading industrial nations was able to meet a third of its electricity needs on a work day, Friday, and nearly half on Saturday when factories and offices were closed.

Government-mandated support for renewables has helped Germany became a world leader in renewable energy and the country gets about 20 percent of its overall annual electricity from those sources.

Germany has nearly as much installed solar power generation capacity as the rest of the world combined and gets about four percent of its overall annual electricity needs from the sun alone. It aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Germany has nearly as much installed solar power generation capacity as the rest of the world combined and gets about four percent of its overall annual electricity needs from the sun alone.

We regret our original error.

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