Germany has become the world leader, and there's a very simple reason for that. When I first entered this industry in 2002, the Japanese were the leader. Then the Germans invented something called the feed-in tariff. Almost all the renewable energies--with the exception of big hydro, which has been with us for a long time--are supported by subsidies these days. They're all developing, and the costs don't yet meet the kilowatt-hour crisis on the grid, except in very special circumstances.
The feed-in tariff type of subsidy is a very interesting way of supporting this kind of thing. It's basically purchasing. The Bundestag passed a law and it had three characteristics. First, if you're a utility and somebody offers you renewable energy you must take it. Second, you must pay a certain tariff for it. I know the numbers for solar, and there are others for wind, biofuels, and all the rest of it.
The tariff for solar started at 55 euro cents a kilowatt-hour, which is about four times the regular rate of electricity in Germany. It comes down by 5% a year, and they're now starting to talk about accelerating the fall. The utility is obliged to pay that. The third thing that really makes it work is they're going to guarantee that rate for 20 years. That makes it financeable.
This is a way of transferring the subsidy from the taxpayer to the ratepayer. Like all utilities, the old utility goes to the regulator to increase their rate. It costs the average German ratepayer about 1.5 euros a month--which is about the cost of a cup of coffee in Munich. It works like a hot damn. The Italians are adopting it. The Spanish have adopted it. The Greeks are talking about it. That one thing has led to Germany just rocketing past Japan. Germany is now the leader in this technology.
Ontario's standard offer program has a similar arrangement. The problem with the program is that at 42 cents Canadian a kilowatt-hour it's quite marginal.