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

ise.fraunhofer.de

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

#251

Post by one_level_deep »

jskrablin wrote: post #133
TomK32 wrote: post #93

Earlier 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…

Yeah, targeting individual transport with inefficient public transport and bicycles while restarting abandoned coal power plants and abandoning running nuclear power plants is going to work wonderfully indeed.

The linked article might help clarify things. The percentage of power from coal and nuclear power were both down considerably:

“The electricity production from lignite was down 21 percent, hard coal was down 23 percent, natural gas was down 4 percent, and nuclear declined by 57 percent, compared to 2022 values.”

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

#252

Post by ben_w »

JanSt wrote: post #176
2-718-281-828 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Heating is one thing we have tackle we have _to_ tackle or we have tackle_d_? duh ... -- i am german and i find sloppy use of language annoying especially if it invites orthogonal interpretation. people should reread what they write publicly and then fix it if necessary.

eagerly waiting for you to respond in German

"Englische Sprache, schwere Sprache."

(There's a saying which surprised me when I moved here: https://lal.de/blog/deutsche-sprache-schwere-sprache/)

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

#253

Post by scbrg »

ceving wrote: post #244
scbrg wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never really understood the point of comments like this. So, there are conditions where cycling isn't feasible. Sure. Does that mean people in general couldn't use bicycles more? No, of course not. Did GP suggest that everyone that lives within 5km of work must bike every day . No, not that either. For every solution it's easy to find a situation where that solution doesn't apply. So what? That doesn't mean the…

"Alps" was a pars pro toto. See here for a complete list of mountains: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountain_and_hill_rang... And this are the raining days: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1892/umfrage/... It is raining more than half of a year in many cities.

Fair enough, and thanks for teaching me the term "pars pro toto". Today I was one of the lucky 10k :)

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

#254

Post by _ph_ »

harrid wrote: post #216
JanSt wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 AfD, which is a far-right party most would never consider to vote for. The AFD is currently the second most popular political party in Germany and the strongest in many parts. It's also better described as center-left.

No, the AfD is a right extremist party, one of their leading figures, Björn Höcke can now legally be called a Nazi.

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

#255

Post by ulfw »

jwr wrote: post #193
Taig wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The European electricity market is working quite well, imports and exports are expected to happen. Countries prefer to import electricity when it is cheaper than producing it themselves. Germany has more than enough capacity installed to handle its energy needs (even if a lot of this is still fossil). Germany does not have an "often unstable electricity grid", not at all. That information is simply wrong.

In other words, shutting down nuclear plants means a) replacing the energy generation with coal (mostly lignite), or b) importing energy from other countries, which generate it from coal (mostly lignite) like Poland. Importing will likely be "cheap", because we all agree to collectively pretend that externalities like CO2 emissions or catastrophic pollution from coal plants are not a thing. Can't see how any of these…

Oh no no. Germany loves importing nuclear electricity from France, Czech Republic and others too. Makes the government feel good about having quit nuclear, because somehow when it comes from across the border it's not so bad anymore.

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

#256

Post by mhandley »

sofixa wrote: post #174
mhandley wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but there's little point in electrifying heating until you have a cleaner grid. Right now, the marginal source of power in Germany is coal and in the UK is mostly gas (occasionally coal). If you switch your heating to electric heating, that's how the electricity would be generated. With gas as the marginal source, if you switch from a modern condensing gas boiler to an air-source heat pump with a COP of 2.5, you…

> but there's little point in electrifying heating until you have a cleaner grid That's not true. Both endeavours are long - if you wait to start electrifying heating until the grid is fully decarbonised, you'll be waiting for a decade before starting another decade-long thing. If both are done in parallel it sill, of course, be much faster.

I guess you're talking about as a country. But as an individual in the UK, I'm better to wait. Switching now doesn't help CO2 emissions and sometimes hurts, prices will likely be lower in future as production scales up, I can invest the money in the meantime, and I can get a brand new heat pump at the point it actually does help. Instead I've focussed now on better insulation.

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

#257

Post by _ph_ »

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.

No, we didn't. Germany constantly reduced the am amount of coal in the mix. Admittedly starting at a way to high level, but it was constantly reduced. One can argue that the reduction could have been faster, but that are the mistakes of the past. Germany is now aggressively expanding renewables and as the article shows, successfully so.

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

#258

Post by sweetdreamerit »

ceving wrote: post #217
TomK32 wrote: post #93

Earlier 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.

An e-bike would be the solution (not when it rains or snows, of course).

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

#259

Post by mahkeiro »

locallost wrote: post #185
mahkeiro wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electricity generation is decreasing year over year in Germany since 2015… but the fact is that it should be increasing to electrify heating and transportation. What is really happening is that industries are moving out of Germany to help pretend that the country CO2 emissions are better as no one really count imported CO2 in finished product.

Perhaps, but it was until now not electrifying heating and transportation, so reduction is obviously a positive thing. Nothing beats emissions of a kWh you saved. The question might be, was there something sacrificed to do that, e.g. did economy suffer? This would be bad, but it's not the case, the GDP is still going up. The savings are related to energy efficiency and this will reap benefits basically forever.

There is no saving (or marginally) it’s just heavy industries and energy consuming process leaving Germany (BASF for instance). Overall just a displacement of the problem. We don’t care about GDP, what matters is global CO2 emission. In 2023 13.4% of new cars are electric in Germany but electricity production is the lowest in 15 years, go figure.

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

#260

Post by malermeister »

jskrablin wrote: post #133
TomK32 wrote: post #93

Earlier 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…

Yeah, targeting individual transport with inefficient public transport and bicycles while restarting abandoned coal power plants and abandoning running nuclear power plants is going to work wonderfully indeed.

With individual transport, you move ~2 tons of metal for a payload of one person, a weight/person ratio of 2.

With high-speed rail, you move ~400 tons of metal for ~450 people, a ratio of ~0.9. [0]

This does not even account for factors such as inherently more efficient transmission from steel to steel vs rubber/concrete and the more efficient electric engines of a modern train compared to the combustion engine. Neither does it account for the fact that rail goes at more than twice the speed.

How is public transport the inefficient option, again?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_3

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