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Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

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Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#71

Post by DavidKarlas »

GravitasFailure wrote: post #7
tut-urut-utut wrote: post #2

German energy policies are insane. Shutting down nuclear energy without replacing source. Already planning shut down of coal plants, also without any plans for replacement. And with Green Party in power it can only become worse. But we shouldn’t worry as long as we can import expensive dirty energy from other countries and complain it’s them and not us not doing enough to stop global warning.

Or import ridiculous amounts of nuclear power from France.

People keep saying that but looking at https://app.electricitymap.org/zone/FR it seems reverse... That is probably happening in summer at nights...

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#72

Post by uniqueuid »

Dunedan wrote: post #67
uniqueuid wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

52% of Germany's energy production in 2021 was from renewables [1], which are productive now, don't need decades of planning and construction, have zero costs for waste and a perfectly clear risk profile for the next centuries. I don't see how wind and solar don't make sense. [1] https://www.destatis.de/EN/Press/2021/09/PE21_429_43312.html

> 52% of Germany's energy production in 2021 was from renewables 44% in 2021 according to the graph you linked and 52% in 2020.

You're right, thanks!

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#74

Post by mikewarot »

avsteele wrote: post #26

Please correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is that nuclear doesn't ramp up/down very well either. Most nuclear plants use fission for the base load but gas or other fossil fuel generators for the variable part. Since in Germany green power in the form of solar/wind are even more variable, this makes Nuclear + Solar/Wind a bad combo. Wind and solar don't even make sense for Germany given their climate/geograp…

Nuclear reactors actually produce a family of decay products as they run, some with longer decay times and neutron absorbing cross sections than others... things get less stable as you rapidly ramp levels up and down, so it is avoided at all costs. Uranium based fuel generates about 1/10 of its operating heat for a very long time, which is why it has to be kept in cooling ponds after removal from the reactor.

Coal plants take time to get to temperature and pressure, furthermore the generators themselves have a limited number of stop/start cycles, as cracks radiate outward from the center of the rotor shaft over time. (They are cast in a centrifugal fashion, in a vacuum, to reduce voids to). Periodically the center of the shaft is bored to remove the cracks, but there is a finite amount of material that can be removed.

Gas turbine spool up/down quickly, but cost 2 or more times the cost of other fossil fuel sourced generation.

Hydro is awesome, if you have it, but global climate change is causing precipitation patterns to shift.

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#75

Post by quickthrower2 »

rvnx wrote: post #37

What if we ban all cryptocurrencies mining in order to save energy ?

There is no “we” that can do this, no world government.

Also by implication there is a lost of bad energy uses we must prohibit. What else is on the list?

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#77

Post by progbits »

fsh wrote: post #36

I am afraid this thread is going to be heavy on strongly held opinions and very light on facts and figures. In a futile attempt to compensate, here is the history of gross electricity production in Germany [1]. And here is the electricity import/export statistics [2]. [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Energymi... [2] https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Infografiken/Energie/stroma...

While we are adding charts: [1] shows carbon intensity (g CO2e / kWH) per country for EU.

[1] https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/daviz/co2-emission-i...

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#78

Post by cmarschner »

fsh wrote: post #36

I am afraid this thread is going to be heavy on strongly held opinions and very light on facts and figures. In a futile attempt to compensate, here is the history of gross electricity production in Germany [1]. And here is the electricity import/export statistics [2]. [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Energymi... [2] https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Infografiken/Energie/stroma...

So, to summarize,

1. Germany is a net exporter

2. Germany has reduced the production from fossil fuels from about 70% to about 37% within 30 years.

3. At the same time it cut nuclear power from around 28% to about 10.

4. It looks like without reducing nuclear power it could have replaced the equivalent amount of fossil fuels (achieving less than 20% fossil fuels by 2020). However, energy consumption has also gone up since 1990, so it would have required building more reactors.

5. Renewables have replaced about 25% of energy production in the last 10 years.

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#79

Post by danjac »

_Microft wrote: post #48
dvt wrote: post #4

This is insane to me. Nuclear is the best long-term option for ecologically-friendly energy generation. This is absolutely a bad move, and the coal industry has done a great job of demonizing nuclear power.

We experienced fallout from Chernobyl (radiation levels of wild boar meat and some mushrooms are still under surveillance today) and we were designated nuclear ground zero in case that the Soviets tried to invade Europe. What attitude towards all things nuclear do you expect to arise from that?

Perhaps one that is relevant to the future of your children rather than the fears of your parents?

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#80

Post by scotty79 »

fsh wrote: post #36

I am afraid this thread is going to be heavy on strongly held opinions and very light on facts and figures. In a futile attempt to compensate, here is the history of gross electricity production in Germany [1]. And here is the electricity import/export statistics [2]. [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Energymi... [2] https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Infografiken/Energie/stroma...

What happened to their hydro after 2002?
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