Earlier quoted context omitted.
What Germany gained is more pollution, higher CO2 emissions and a lot of hopium that current energy fubar will somehow be resolved sometimes in the unspecified future using semi specified technology (there is no large scale energy storage solution available for renewables and it will stay like this for some years to come). Shutting down nuclear was a political decision, fueled by pure ideology (and some Russian help…
The grid in Europe is so stable that you can literally use it to synchronise a clock by counting the oscillations. Error over time: 0
Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
231–240 of 430 posts
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
Heating is one thing we have tackle, but also transportation which uses up 27.1% of energy in German. Individual transportation should be a main target, we would all shift from cars to public transport or bicycles. About 40% of distances driven with cars are shorter than 5 kilometers, a distance that's perfect for a bicycle. On top of that, car owners tend to underestimate the cost of their cars[1] [0] https://www.um…
I would like to see you cycling 5 km in the Alps against the wind in the rain. Cycling is fine. I do it 7 km to the work. But only because it is flat. And only when the weather is fine.
For every solution it's easy to find a situation where that solution doesn't apply. So what? That doesn't mean the solution is worthless. Last I checked, the Alps didn't cover all of Germany - did they move recently?
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#233Grams of CO2 per kWh: France: 43 Germany: 398 https://abload.de/img/img_20230705_133511_84efdp.jpg The reason? Germans hate nuclear and prefer coal as a stable energy source.
Most of the population changed their mind and is pro-nuclear. But sadly the only party really supporting nuclear energy is the AfD, which is a far-right party most would never consider to vote for. Nuclear phase-out is part of the Green party identity; the CDU had Merkel going against nuclear after Fukushima and can't really go back, the FDP agreed, the SPD is also against it.
The earth receives 5000 times more energy from the sun than mankind needs! It is free. Just use it.
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Renewables are the cheapest source of energy PROVIDED the cost of providing energy when they are generating zero energy is paid for by someone else. This argument keeps coming up and is entirely wrong and very misleading. Renewable energy due it its intermittent nature creates a problem and does nothing to solve that problem. The cost of that solution must be factored into the cost of energy from renewable generation…
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US does invest in it, almost all new capacity added is renewables, has been for several years now, and this will not change unless something happens. The fastest grower is Texas of all places simply because it's really cheap. Birds are not an environmental issue, it was just a made up talking point that was debunked. Windows and cars are responsible for an order of magnitude more bird deaths.
> Birds are not an environmental issue, it was just a made up talking point that was debunked. Windows and cars are responsible for an order of magnitude more bird deaths. Can you share the reference? Thank you
It references the EIA Annual Energy Outlook 2021
edit: sorry, my bad, the data comes from elsewhere
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
public transport can be efficient if done correctly and funded accordingly (Japan, Switzerland)
I'd like to add Singapore because they buy their excellent MRT trains from Germany.
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They were not, there is even less coal used since nuclear plants were shut down than before. They were counterfactually . This means that if nuclear hadn't been shut down, much less coal energy would have been needed. > 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. No, p…
People should complain about emissions and the lack of emission reduction. If Germany is producing a lot more than France, and this concerns you, you should complain even more bitterly about Poland because their emissions are 1) 2x as bad as Germany 2) in contrast go Germany they are not going down since the country is dreaming of nuclear energy. Renewables can and do replace coal, as they obviously did in Germany. I…
Whataboutism.
Upd: I see you also do it elsewhere: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36599216.
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#238Electricity, maybe. Energy? I wish. This headline would be more true if we had transportation fully electrified and all buildings heated with heat pumps, but last I heard the proposed law to require the latter transition to be started in 2024 was dropped again, and they're also still debating about starting to require transitioning the combustion engine fleets to electric by, what was it, 2030? I also still see stick…
Why does energy used never include the sun directly?
In the summer we use less heat because the sun is giving us the energy instead. So maybe we should be counting the heating we don't use during the summer as renewable heat instead.
I suppose this would help account for efficiency also. If a house is deemed to need X kWh to heat a year. The difference between the gas used can be used to derive a figure for the 'renewable' energy used, whether from renewable electricity, solar heat, or negawatts.
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no whataboutism, I wasn't saying Germany might be bad, but look at someone else. I'm asking a question about the logical conclusion of what you're saying: the most important thing is to keep nuclear plants alive before coal is removed. Sure, but it can't be right. Many countries are doing that, e.g. the US, and failing to decarbonize as quickly as Germany. So it's illogical and irrational. Furthermore there c…
> Sure, but it can't be right. I don’t follow. I mean you might be right. But using US as an example hardly make sense because they didn’t really try to ‘decarbonize’ that hard.. > because Germany is a leader in fossil fuel reduction this century Germany was emitting ~500 grams per kWh back in 2000 and 385 in 2022. That not that spectator at all considering they weren’t at all trying to change this until the mid 2010…
Re: Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
#240No doubt the entire discussion on HN will be about nuclear.