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Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023

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Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023

#111

Post by iSnow »

Aachen wrote: post #65
a_bonobo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Maybe this is my tech bubble, but try to find a country with higher Linux/PGP/OpenStreetMap use. I am still trying to put my finger on what the culture difference is precisely, but also outside of tech there's more thinking about what the right/correct/fair thing to do is, even if that brings greater net harm in the end. Example: closing down nuclear because it's not a perfect solution and has risks and waste (ignori…

With all due respect, renewables are not decades away, they are at a major inflection point right now. While I deplore the shuttering of Germany's NPPs, nuclear would not have been a solution to the decarbonization challenge, as the times to build NPPs and the costs are prohibitive.

Renewables are the cheapest source of energy right here and now, we should invest way more into researching grid-scale storage solutions.

Also not so sure about NL being more relaxed, they have a cultural war at their hands over nitrogen emissions from agriculture, and it has shaken up their political system.

Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023

#112

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

locallost wrote: post #91
cubefox wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They absolutely were counterfactually. If nuclear power hadn't been shut down, much less coal energy would have been needed.

They were not, there is even less coal used since nuclear plants were shut down than before. Nuclear and coal are getting continuously replaced by renewables. Coal end date is set to either 2030 or 2038 (I forget). The country people should be complaining about is Poland. It's the worst emitter of co2 in Europe and it will not do anything about it for 10-20 years because it wants to build nuclear plants.

> The country people should be complaining about is Poland. It's the worst emitter of co2 in Europe

I don't have the numbers with me so I cannot check this right now, but I believe your comment to be incorrect. Germany must have more CO2 emissions than Poland from Coal alone since Germany is the largest user of energy from coal burning in Europe.

Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023

#113

Post by Taig »

mahkeiro wrote: post #75
Taig wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany actually replaced the nuclear energy with wind & solar. The argument that remains is that instead of phasing out nuclear, reducing coal would have been preferred. The decision to phase out nuclear has long been made (for good reasons). Keeping them active or even building new reactors of that kind is not an economically viable solution. The price Germany pays for this is higher carbon emissions for the time b…

Germany didn't replace nuclear energy at all. Germany is producing less electricity than when nuclear reactors were running.

And what conclusion do you draw from this, or rather, how is this relevant to this thread?

Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023

#114

Post by ffgjgf1 »

thiago_fm wrote: post #67
mutlimind wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not viable, because renewables do not provide basic load for the grid. It is "stochastical" energy. There are no economical viable ways to store that "random" energy. There are several times in the year, where there is not enough wind and sun to feed the grid.

There are solutions being developed to store energy which will address the grid issue.

Fusion power plants are also being developed. How is that an argument for anything?

Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023

#115

Post by the-dude »

sparkling wrote: post #97
lopis wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the meantime, Switzerland is installing solar panels on train tracks [0] instead of, I don't know, people's roofs. There is so much promising tech coming out in terms of energy storage and we're seeing almost zero investment from governments. Everything's backwards. [0] https://www.techspot.com/news/98944-switzerland-installing-s...

Why are people so obsessed with "solar roadways" or "solar train tracks"? This is a joke, a gimmick, it makes absolutely no sense. Well, except for the startups that are getting massive subsidies and grants for these clown projects. There are still millions of open-space square meters all over the country. Think of flat-roof warehouses, supermarkets, parking facilities and more. Those places are easy to access, easy…

Most of the roofs you mention are not built to support load.

Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023

#116

Post by jillesvangurp »

Garvi wrote: post #4

Actually Germany recently shut down all of it's nuclear plants and replaced them with the dirtiest fuel possible: lignite coal burning plants. Statistics are a peculiar thing.

That last part of the sentence is not true. Coal usage is down overall since they started closing nuclear plants over a decade ago. There are a few new gas plants though. There was a shift from gas to coal last year for cost reasons.

And coal is scheduled to be decommissioned completely. We'll see if Germany can stick to the schedule of doing that by 2035. But that's the official plan so far.

Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023

#117

Post by atoav »

sparkling wrote: post #97
lopis wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the meantime, Switzerland is installing solar panels on train tracks [0] instead of, I don't know, people's roofs. There is so much promising tech coming out in terms of energy storage and we're seeing almost zero investment from governments. Everything's backwards. [0] https://www.techspot.com/news/98944-switzerland-installing-s...

Why are people so obsessed with "solar roadways" or "solar train tracks"? This is a joke, a gimmick, it makes absolutely no sense. Well, except for the startups that are getting massive subsidies and grants for these clown projects. There are still millions of open-space square meters all over the country. Think of flat-roof warehouses, supermarkets, parking facilities and more. Those places are easy to access, easy…

Solar train tracks or roadways are a dumb person's idea what innovation looks like.

Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023

#118

Post by wongarsu »

Findeton wrote: post #90
Taig wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany actually replaced the nuclear energy with wind & solar. The argument that remains is that instead of phasing out nuclear, reducing coal would have been preferred. The decision to phase out nuclear has long been made (for good reasons). Keeping them active or even building new reactors of that kind is not an economically viable solution. The price Germany pays for this is higher carbon emissions for the time b…

Renewable energy is unpredictable, thus you need a backup source of energy for when there's no wind, sunlight or rain. It's yet unfeasible to store large amounts of energy unfortunately so that means using either natural gas or coal, because you need to be able to rapidly increase/reduce/regulate the energy output. It's coal at the moment for Germany and that means more pollution and dirty politicians that don't care…

Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine coal was on its way out due to purely economical factors: coal plants are more expensive to operate than natural gas plants.

Of course recent months changed that since a lot of our gas used to come from Russia. If we went all-in on nuclear we could reactivate (East) German uranium mines that were closed shortly after reunification. But (traditional) nuclear also loses on economic factors, on top of being politically untenable.

Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023

#119

Post by ajsnigrutin »

sparkling wrote: post #97
lopis wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the meantime, Switzerland is installing solar panels on train tracks [0] instead of, I don't know, people's roofs. There is so much promising tech coming out in terms of energy storage and we're seeing almost zero investment from governments. Everything's backwards. [0] https://www.techspot.com/news/98944-switzerland-installing-s...

Why are people so obsessed with "solar roadways" or "solar train tracks"? This is a joke, a gimmick, it makes absolutely no sense. Well, except for the startups that are getting massive subsidies and grants for these clown projects. There are still millions of open-space square meters all over the country. Think of flat-roof warehouses, supermarkets, parking facilities and more. Those places are easy to access, easy…

Solar on roofs is a solved problem, chinese make the panels, and hundreds of locals installers install it.

If you want grant money, you need something new, like a solar monorail!

Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023

#120

Post by shakow »

sgbeal wrote: post #48
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A source for a piece of popular news that was covered by every single media out there and is only a quick google search away? https://www.google.com/search?q=germnay+nuclear+lignite I swear, sometimes HN users can be so pedantic, they'll demand source that the earth is round or that the water is wet. I used to be afraid that ChatGPT would make our jobs redundant, but seeing how people can't find basic info by themsel…

> I swear, sometimes HN users can be so pedantic, they'll ask for the source that the earth is round or that the water is wet. Without a citation, any statement of ostensible fact is just unfounded rumor.

Source?
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