... and yet Germany looks awful on https://app.electricitymaps.com/map . Is that a measurement problem, or something else that we should know?
On this map Germany always looks bad until you zoom out enough to see the USA.
Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
121–130 of 430 posts
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
> seeing loads of wind turbines everywhere The wind turbines are only there to hide the giant, coal-powered power plants that Germany had to restart because the tree-huggers who run that country decided to ditch nuclear. I very much doubt the veracity of this article.
Ah yes, notorious tree-hugger Merkel in 2011.
All kind of idiot (objectively) environmentalists were fighting against nuclear for decades in Germany and other countries. They weren’t the only factor but nuclear was already effectively dead by 2011 in Germany.
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#123Germany's energy consumption per capita has dropped about 20% since its 1980s peak and has been trending down fairly sharply since 2007 [0]. AfD is polling extremely well on the back of a "stop this madness" environmental platform.
German renewable energy policies have been a failure at securing human prosperity.
[0] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-energy-use?tab...
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#124Germany is “green” same as California: high air pollution with most energy imports of any state in the nation. Blood diamond economics applied to energy. I predict that France will become an international leader in nuclear energy, while Germany will kill the most birds.
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#125Earlier 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…
The people from Solar Roadways actually got support from several governments in the US. It's totally bonkers. They never had a proper functioning system. The whole idea is ridiculous and people pointed it out since the beginning. But it generated so much news that governments were so ready to jump on it. And they are STILL at it. So here we are, 10 years later, and still talking about putting solar panels in places where they will: break, get very dirty, be hard to fix and replace. We can't have good things because money and politics talk, not science.
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
As someone from the Alps, I'd really see a source on that. Most alpine roofs are built to survive extreme snow loads. My father just covered his roof in solar and that roof was built in the 70s.
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#127Earlier 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…
Just to add: the German NPPs were not able to regulate output fast, b/c they were of an older generation.
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Coal use is at a historic low in Germany, thus it is not possible that nuclear plants were replaced with coal. Statistics are reflecting reality, your facts are actually just guesses and opinions.
> Coal use Should be at zero before anyone even starts thinking about closing nuclear power plants.
Strong disagree. That would imply that Germany should be criticized more than the US, but this cannot be. The US did not close its nuclear plants, but is still at 60% fossil fuels.
I don't think this is a coincidence because when Diablo Canyon was extended, the first thing that happened is that they asked for a billion dollars so they are able to even run. Nuclear is an expensive distraction and a hog of resources (time and money)
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#129Earlier 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.
What's wrong in building nuclear power plants?
And before teaching lessons to Eastern European countries, remember that the West had 50 years after the WWII to build up the economy and infrastructure. It would be only fair to let Eastern European countries to develop for the same period, without demanding them pay the costs of higher energy prices.
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/energy-crisis-fu... ... or, if you prefer that, straight from the German government statistical office itself: https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Branchen-Unternehmen/Energ...
That was December last year, the last plants were closed this year, the comeback of coal was minimal an mostly caused by the need of France to import electricity, since their nuclear plants failed.
> the comeback of coal was minimal
As the moment of writing, Germany is producing 12% of its electricity with coal.