Germany's feed-in tariff is largely responsible for the country's dominant position in the global renewable-energy industry. The role of ratepayer in unified Germany is reversible. Independent producers of renewable energy can sell power back to utilities, and utilities are required to pay a favorable set rate. A solar energy industry has blossomed where division once blocked the way.

That's a far stretch from the old model of utilities selling a commodity at monopoly prices. In the United States, those prices are subsidized. Opponents of renewables are rankled by taxpayer incentives for solar power, but remain silent on the subsidies we've all for decades enjoyed on coal, natural gas and nuclear.

This anniversary of reunification is somehow well timed, as we prepare for climate meetings in Copenhagen. The world is watching with anticipation to see just how ready the U.S. is to unite with the rest of the developed globe to control carbon emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires. Energy generation is our number one source of greenhouse gas emissions.

The "Iron Curtain of electricity"

Commemoration Day reminds me of two insightful statements by two brilliant people made in the past two years.

The first is by Kurt Yeager, Executive Director of the Galvin Electricity Initiative and former president and CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute.

"The electric meter is the Iron Curtain of electricity," Yeager told me in an interview during GridWeek 2007. When I drilled into this with him, he explained how internet-enabled systems could and should be applied to act in the interests of consumers, automatically buying and selling electricity without the consumer being directly involved. (He went on to describe how microgrids fulfill that goal, but I digress.)

The second insight -- actually more of an inspiration for the 25,000 people at Greenbuild -- came from Rick Fedrizzi, founding chairman, president and CEO of the United States Green Building Council. The USGBC devised the widely accepted LEED standard for rating green buildings, and hosts North America's largest conference on sustainability in the built environment.

"It is not about Washington, and it is not about Wall Street," Fedrizzi said of the sustainability movement in his closing remarks at Greenbuild 2008. "Change comes from within and it begins with us -- as individuals, as a community."

The theme of the conference was "Revolutionary Green," and it convened just days after the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. The atmosphere was celebratory and intensely purposeful.

"This movement inherits a grand tradition of courageous transformational change..." Fedrizzi continued, "from the Boston Tea Party to the Berlin Wall. We are the people we've been waiting for. We're the people this country needs now more than ever, and we need to welcome the whole world to come along with us on this amazing journey!"

Whether the Berlin Wall symbolizes for America's energy future the brutal division of the Iron Curtain or a revolutionary act of unification, one fact remains true. Demolishing the metaphoric Berlin Wall of the electric meter is an essential step toward our choice to have and leave a sustainable energy future.

"The choice is awesome and potentially eternal," writes Al Gore in his latest book. "It is in the hands of the present generation."

Enjoy more of Jürgen Müller-Schneck's photos at the Berlin Wall Web Photo Exhibition