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Europe braces for mobile network blackouts

reuters.com

191–200 of 436 posts

Re: Europe braces for mobile network blackouts

#191
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they were not. Their geolocation and battery technology means it wasn't feasible regardless. It was sabotaged to begin with. No other efforts needed. https://zeihan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/13-globalwinds...

Location? Germany has huge amounts of wind, especially in offshore. Your own map even shows this. We also have plenty of solar, enough that the conservatives introduced a solar installation LIMIT to keep fossil fuel and nuclear competitive. As for storage, with large enough over-capacity it's really easy to retrofit old coal plants to work off head capacitors, and we have plenty of those. It's just no good if there i…

The idea that this is just a matter of political will is nonsensical in the extreme, it's impossible to understand how anyone can believe this except via massive propaganda. Here's a graph of German solar/wind power production:

https://energy-charts.info/charts/power/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE&...

Notice how it frequently drops to near zero. For example the morning of the 22nd where total wind+solar production in Germany was just 1.34 GW. Peak load in Germany often reaches 65-70 GW.

The people saying renewables cannot work and power must come from coal, gas or nuclear aren't evil conservatives, they are rational people who understand what renewables can and cannot do. The fact that the left systematically refuses to accept this reality is now not only destroying the European economy but flat out endangering lives. How long must the rest of us put up with this sort of rampant irrationality?

Re: Europe braces for mobile network blackouts

#192
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make the case that it's unreasonable to not want Soviet nukes in Cuba.

Apples and oranges. US is not and never was plundering Cuba, unlike Russians who plunder every single state in their sphere of influence until nothing is left. This is not about some nukes on Cuba, this is about living like a normal person and not in a corrupt, fascist despotism where you die decades prematurely and nobody cares.

You're going to have a hell of a time convincing anyone that the Cuban missile crisis nearly started a nuclear war because the US felt bad for Cuba.

Re: Europe braces for mobile network blackouts

#193
post #74

"Russia's decision to halt gas supplies via Europe's key supply route in the wake of the Ukraine conflict has increased the chances of power shortages." Europe's decision, Germany especially, to be reliant on Russia for energy when they could have not shut down nuclear plants and built more.

This place started to think in memes I feel. Every issue comes with the automated arguments, the same ones every time. If the topic is energy someone must write the "they shouldn't have closed those Nuclear power plants, silly environmentalist". Anyway, France is full blown nuclear state and they are having energy issues too, because as it turns out nuclear power plants require long regular maintenance periods. Maybe…

Thank you! Agree with all of it except

>Maybe EU wanted to have Russia as a reliable petrostate as an alternative to the USA so they can do their thing without USA?

The decision to rely on Russia was made when USA was a net energy importer, with some dependence on natural gas from Canada, and terrible dependence on oil from whoever could offer any.

To add to that, nuclear was phased out to a large degree because it gets in the way of renewables, as it's impossible to regulate. Nuclear reactor is pretty much an on/off thing and can't safely operate on power levels much under 100% continuously, and if it's off, it can only be restarted in a day, or even a few days. It makes balancing the grid including a lot of intermittent renewables, a huge headache. Renewables already provide more electricity in EU than nuclear ever did, and they cost a lot less to build, and almost all of them were built in less time than it takes to build a single nuclear reactor.

Speaking of the future, all of this discussion is meaningless again, because of time. If we start today, electricity will be 100% solved by renewables everywhere in EU before any new nuclear can be commissioned.

Re: Europe braces for mobile network blackouts

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Question: could Russian disinformation have played a role in germanys policy here? Perhaps they were pushing anti nuclear viewpoints for a decade leading up to this? To be clear, I have zero evidence either way, I’m just curious how large an effect these campaigns have had on public policy across the world

> Question: could Russian disinformation have played a role in germanys policy here? As a German, no, that was quite voluntary. People like me completely agreed. I only woke up on 24 February. I'm from East Germany, speak some Russian, and have been to Russia a few times, and to Ukraine too, for months actually. I did not care about the Krim annexation either. I think because it was peaceful, and because I did not se…

Fascinating how a large portion of germans were enamoured with a murderous corrupt dictator yet they speak with disgust about peaceful east european allies and look down on them and sanction their economies at first signs of dissent. Truly one for science books. Is it because of the age old “dream” of sharing east europe with russia? If so, east europe shouldnt sit idle. It should respond in kin.

Re: Europe braces for mobile network blackouts

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Question: could Russian disinformation have played a role in germanys policy here? As a German, no, that was quite voluntary. People like me completely agreed. I only woke up on 24 February. I'm from East Germany, speak some Russian, and have been to Russia a few times, and to Ukraine too, for months actually. I did not care about the Krim annexation either. I think because it was peaceful, and because I did not se…

Thanks for the perspective from east side of the wall. It was not voted on directly. Like removal of Deutschmark under Köhl, it was done by those governing without direct vote. The people didn't react, so you get what you tolerate.

If you are talking about reunification, we, the East Germans, definitely overwhelmingly wanted it. There was no need for a referendum, I will make that claim.

Remaining blocked off by not having any real money (GDR money was useless! Exchange rates, if you could exchange at all, were astronomical when you add the fact that East Germans had very little of even our own money to begin with), after we finally got the wall down and saw in brief visits to the West, getting Begrüßungsgeld (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begr%C3%BC%C3%9Fungsgeld), now we should stay isolated in East Germany?

Without reunification everybody who could would have moved to the West. Even so that movement existed even after reunification, but it was a lot less than it would have been without reunification.

Re: Europe braces for mobile network blackouts

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would they do that, what’s their motivation?

Question: could Russian disinformation have played a role in germanys policy here? Perhaps they were pushing anti nuclear viewpoints for a decade leading up to this? To be clear, I have zero evidence either way, I’m just curious how large an effect these campaigns have had on public policy across the world

It's possible. They also push anti-fracking campaigns.

Re: Europe braces for mobile network blackouts

#197
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe there's no simple answer for energy issues and countries don't simply build or close down power plants over single issue? Well, two things. One, pretty sure the push to shut down Germany’s nuclear plants was a response to a single issue, Fukushima. Two, one simple answer to this particular situation is to assess your energy independence before sanctioning the country you rely on for natural gas. Germany is ge…

> assess your energy independence before sanctioning the country you rely on for natural gas. Trump blurted that to the Germans around 2019. The press brushed it off as "highly misleading". https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/13/trump-is-exaggerating-german...

>Trump blurted that to the Germans around 2019. The press brushed it off as "highly misleading".

And the Germans literally laughed in his face: https://youtu.be/FfJv9QYrlwg

Pretty hard to watch now. The smugness is palpable.

Re: Europe braces for mobile network blackouts

#198
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make the case that it's unreasonable to not want Soviet nukes in Cuba.

Apples and oranges. US is not and never was plundering Cuba, unlike Russians who plunder every single state in their sphere of influence until nothing is left. This is not about some nukes on Cuba, this is about living like a normal person and not in a corrupt, fascist despotism where you die decades prematurely and nobody cares.

I'm curious what your definition of "plunder" is, considering the USA's track record towards Cuba.

https://www.reformer.com/opinion/columnists/usategui-us-poli...

Re: Europe braces for mobile network blackouts

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Question: could Russian disinformation have played a role in germanys policy here? As a German, no, that was quite voluntary. People like me completely agreed. I only woke up on 24 February. I'm from East Germany, speak some Russian, and have been to Russia a few times, and to Ukraine too, for months actually. I did not care about the Krim annexation either. I think because it was peaceful, and because I did not se…

Fascinating how a large portion of germans were enamoured with a murderous corrupt dictator yet they speak with disgust about peaceful east european allies and look down on them and sanction their economies at first signs of dissent. Truly one for science books. Is it because of the age old “dream” of sharing east europe with russia? If so, east europe shouldnt sit idle. It should respond in kin.

> they speak with disgust about peaceful east european allies and look down on them and sanction their economies at first signs of dissent

Wow this is such a bad comment. I will even be so bold and call it outright lies.

You seem to be talking about Hungary. A country that I actually really like, I was there in my (East German) youth three times, once on vacation with my parents, twice in youth camps, an East German group among Hungarian kids.

Hungary even then was very much oriented towards the West and very modern. Even the ice cream selection was an order of magnitude better than in East Germany, never mind that one could buy Western music and magazines. I loved the country. I loved the food. Well, maybe not some parts of the rooster in my soup.

The problem with Hungary's government now is that they are going down a path of "removing" any opposition and have moved towards autocracy. If they remained a democracy they could have whatever opinion they want. The problem is not their stance towards sanctions, for example, but that they are no longer a democracy.

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20220909IP...

That is not a German opinion, as you can see.

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