Renewables accounted for 25% of their electricity production, not their total energy production, and certainly not their total consumption: Germany imports about twice as much primary energy as it produces, almost all in the form of fossil fuels. Source: IEA.
Renewables now account for 25% of German energy production
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Re: Renewables now account for 25% of German energy production
#112Re: Renewables now account for 25% of German energy production
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not gas, it's coal. Coal accounts for half of US electric production, versus a negligible amount of French production. Coal, however, is only seemingly cheap. Most of the actual costs of coal are externalized, and not seen at the meter. Rather, they show up at the doctor's office: http://solar.gwu.edu/index_files/Resources_files/epstein_ful... http://www.counterpunch.org/2009/03/12/hiding-the-costs-of-c... The P…
Read the link. The fracking revolution has led to a substitution of gas for coal in the US. Meanwhile, pressure from green activists in Europe has led to obstacles to fracking and nuclear power and an increasing reliance on coal imports. Renewables still suck as an energy source. The biggest piece of good news for the environment in Years is being driven by a "brown" industry in cowboy America, who woul have predicte…
Wait a few years before proclaiming it good. And keep a good eye on the water table. Everything has a downside, and this one might be more costly than you suspect. Might be fine admittedly, but the US is not doing this because it has found the secret to everlasting energy, it is doing this because currently it's options are very limited and domestic fuel plays extremely well politically compared to most of the other options, which haven't been going that well.
Re: Renewables now account for 25% of German energy production
#114In related news, German electricity is 30% more expensive than French, and 300% more expensive than American. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_pricing#Global_elec...
I don't think the purpose of going renewable is to save money -- it is more about energy security.
Re: Renewables now account for 25% of German energy production
#115Here in NZ we're 35% overall and 70% of electricity produced from renewables http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_New_Zealand
Re: Renewables now account for 25% of German energy production
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a pretty useless metric, though: every industrialized nation 'burns stuff', and if it happens that you can't produce at home, you need to import. While not a poster child, Germany is far from the worst offender as far as CO2 emission per capita goes.
I answered the grandfather's question "Does Germany import a lot of power?" Also, I think that is highly relevant. If you do not include imports, countries with few natural sources automatically will appear to be green. For example, I bet many small island groups will have close to 100% renewable energy production, including those with huge navy bases such as Truk and Diego Garcia.
> If you do not include imports, countries with few natural sources automatically will appear to be green.
Consider the flip side: Tracking imports won't help you with countries that have their own resources. What you need to track is energy consumption and production modes.
Re: Renewables now account for 25% of German energy production
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Define "technically renewable" and "theoretically sustainable".
A technically renewable resource would be one that renews itself naturally, at a rate exceeding that of consumption. Solar, wind, and hydro are renewable in the sense that we consume them as they are produced. Agriculturally-based power sources (wood, ethanol, biomass, algae oil generation) are renewable in the sense that the biological source grows back after it's harvested (assuming sustainable harvesting). A susta…
"Renews itself naturally at a rate exceeding that of consumption"
Over what period of time (or is the rate of consumption fixed?) and what region of space?
"at projected rates of consumption, would be sufficient for forseable demand until the end of time on Earth"
Not sure I believe 4B-year forward demand projections...
Isn't the amount of energy expended (and/or mass of raw materials mixed) per TWh produced what we really care about?
Re: Renewables now account for 25% of German energy production
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, all the things you mentioned, plus building the actual plant. As far as new breeder designs, it's a bit too late. Nuclear promised us "energy too cheap to meter" and construction and maintenance costs have kept going down. Meanwhile solar and wind have been regularly going down in price with each doubling of production. The case against nuclear isn't environmental; it's economic.
There are a number of arguments against nuclear. I'm not an uncritical fan, but I'm not a absolute opponent either. Nuclear represents high risks at multiple areas of operation: - The fuel, waste, and plants are all radioactive, in some cases for geological time periods, presenting unprecedented disposal issues. Perhaps not insurmountable, but very, very significant. - Scale of operations of nuclear plants means that…
Pebble bed reactors are nice - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor
But my major problem with most forms of nuclear is that from a geopolitical standpoint, if you are proposing a technology for clean global power, it has to by definition be something you would be able to share freely with a potential enemy. Most current nuclear power technologies, including the pebble bed, conspicuously fail at this.
Re: Renewables now account for 25% of German energy production
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
A technically renewable resource would be one that renews itself naturally, at a rate exceeding that of consumption. Solar, wind, and hydro are renewable in the sense that we consume them as they are produced. Agriculturally-based power sources (wood, ethanol, biomass, algae oil generation) are renewable in the sense that the biological source grows back after it's harvested (assuming sustainable harvesting). A susta…
"Renews itself naturally at a rate exceeding that of consumption" Over what period of time (or is the rate of consumption fixed?) and what region of space? "at projected rates of consumption, would be sufficient for forseable demand until the end of time on Earth" Not sure I believe 4B-year forward demand projections... Isn't the amount of energy expended (and/or mass of raw materials mixed) per TWh produced what we…
If you want to dig into the specifics of any given model, well, you'd have to dig into the specifics of the model.
If you look at the Timeline of the Far Future, somewhere between 100m and 800m years from now life as we know it on Earth becomes untenable (asteroid impacts, solar flux), if not before (other effects).
There are some practical upper long-term limits to human population on Earth. I suspect it's anywhere between a few hundred millions to low billions (I don't believe present populations are long-term sustainable).
There are other resource constraints which may serve to set an upper limit on energy consumption per capita. From this we can establish long-term energy demands, available supplies, and feasibility of these supplies.
4 billion year forecasting is rather more fantasy than science, so far as human endeavors go.