KASSEL, GERMANY — Barrel-chested German dairy farmer Karsten Harriehausen was dressed in a thick blue sweater and denim overalls when he opened his barn to a group of American and Canadian journalists. He seemed delighted with the attention. His eyes shone. He gave his wife a hug. He milks 130 cows and 80 per cent of his income comes from selling milk to a co-operative. The methane from his and five other farms power a village of 800 people in Juhnde in lower Saxony and has become Germany’s famous bio-energy village. Visitors come weekly from around the world. The methane produced here is enough to power the entire village, although it’s more lucrative for Juhnde to sell the bio-gas at a premium and buy power back at market price. The week our team arrived, German dairy farmers were protesting the low price for milk and complained that there was more money in the manure. Harrieshausen shook his head when asked if he would survive without selling bio-gas. It was one of the few times he looked serious and didn’t smile.

My visit to Germany last month in search of green energy was a visit to the heart of a new revolution. Twenty years ago, questions about erecting wind turbines, solar panels and bio-gas plants were exotic ones. Today, Germany does not ask itself if it should convert. "Should it be done?" has long been eclipsed by "How fast can we get there?"

Germany has already exceeded the current 2010 European Union targets by supplying 12.5 per cent of its power from green energies. It is convinced it will provide 50 per cent of its energy needs with green energy, primarily wind power, by 2050. Germany has more than 21,000 wind turbines and 4,100 bio-gas plants, of which most are methane and crop producing power plants run by farmers, usually as a co-operative of two farmers or more. There are 100,000 solar projects in Bavaria alone. Until this year, Germany was the world leader in wind power. The United States has taken over but its land mass is 27 times greater.

Compare now to Ontario, where I saw my first wind turbine– on Wolfe Island – this year.

On October 1 the province introduced a feed-in tariff (FIT) program for green energy with tremendous incentives (to replace grants), based on the German model that was legislated in 2001. But say the critics: end the subsidization regime and green energy would collapse.

Ontario is three times the physical size of Germany – with about 1/6 of Germany’s population — but Ontario now sees and believes that green energy has a future.

Said a manager at an Ontario-based bio-energy company: "We are going to see a lot of advancements in a short period of time. In renewables, Germany is 20 years ahead of us."

And for good reason. Germany is not blessed with as much land and the argument replayed by government officials is that Germany only has 60 years left of fossil fuels. Importing oil from Russia, which the country does now, is not a pleasant thought. When rankled, Prime Minister Putin has been known to turn off the tap. Another incentive is the price of gasoline, which hovered at $2.06 per litre during my visit. That was more than double the price at Ontario pumps.

The most compelling motivation for green energy on both sides of the pond is that there’s money to be made for those willing to produce it. In 2005, the German feed-in tarrif program was so lucrative that the government felt compelled to reduce the incentives. "Farmers made more money than they needed to due to tax exemptions," said Christian Virks with the German Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection at a meeting I attended in Berlin. Bio-gas offers a second income to farmers, offered his colleague Dr. Hans Froese, a director with the German Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, noting that bio-energy is generated on 10 per cent of all of Germany’s farmland.

Germany has long convinced its farmers and landowners to share in the enthusiasm. Hesse’s state agricultural training centre, renewable energy department leader Klaus Wagner opined: "the farmers of the future may be the green oil millionaires."

But that comes with a caveat. Farmers need to own their energy solutions or join alliances with private enterprise that offer 50-50 ownership, he says. "We say, ‘pay attention farmers. Don’t let these companies overtake you. Recognize your chances.’"

"In Germany, over 50 per cent of renewable energies are owned by members of the community – individuals, community groups and farmers. This is why they got so far ahead of the game," said Jane Story, manager of Policy for the Canadian Sustainable Energies Association. "Ordinary people and farmers got into it. Farmers, of course, because they have the land. In the Netherlands, farmers own 60 per cent of the wind turbines and 64 per cent of the wind turbines in Denmark are owned by farmers."

She added that studies show farmers who own the energy sources earn substantially more than those who sign a lease.

If the German trend appears to indicate what is coming, farmers here are in for a feast of opportunities. By far the least expensive way to get into the game is by selling solar power from a roof top and at a guaranteed eye-popping selling price of 80 cents per kilowatt hour. If conditions are good, which includes a south facing roof, industry believers say you might pay that off in 10 years and sell power at a profit for another 10. "We’re just at the very beginning," said Story. "The wonderful thing about the feed-in tarrif program is that it allows everyone to be producers."