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Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time

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Re: Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time

#141

Post by stefan_ »

pydry wrote: post #115
stefan_ wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then Russia refused to install the turbine, proving it was a ploy all along. Like the maintenance in the first place. Which is why they acquired gas storage in Germany, then ran it low timed with their illegal war of aggression. This is a theme of course; Russia invented another gas crisis every few years with Ukraine. It should have been a warning sign when they settled them by taking payment in the form of Sovi…

They installed it and then they took the pipeline down for planned maintenance. it's a little rich to accuse them of playing games with gas after the stunt Canada pulled and most especially after a western partner subsequently blew up the pipeline and blamed it on Russia. Clearly certain western allies decided that Germany couldnt be trusted to make its own decisions about where Germany gets its energy.

Prices going up 1000%? Time for maintenance!

If you want to see their approach to maintenance while prices and needs are high, watch them put oil refineries back in operation days after drone hits.

Re: Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time

#142

Post by bad_username »

valicord wrote: post #133
greenleafone7 wrote: post #128

Breaking news: "Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in for the first time" for the 10th time this year. Also on other unrelated news German economy is rocketing to the bottom, their industry is dying with thousands of layoffs, closing factories, and complains on energy prices and they can't even maintain their rail and road networks for the first time since forever. The signs of decline are not even signs anymore th…

[flagged]

Even if the entire Germany stopped existing overnight, this would barely make a dent in global carbon emissions and planet destruction rate.

Re: Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time

#143

Post by inigyou »

atoav wrote: post #29
NishanStepak wrote: post #4

Part of this is about a new way to store energy. In the Netherlands, they have started storing heat energy with sand, in Germany, they are using bricks. This has some advantages. It allows the direct use of heat for industrial processes and heating industrial and commercial facilities. They can either convert energy into electricity or use the heat directly. This technology can be used with a wide variety of energy s…

I know someone who runs a mineral water company. His biggest expense was the energy cost for washing the glas bottles. He now built a absolutely massive solar farm that feeds directly into heating a well insulated underground water tank. At the time he told me about it (ca two years ago) he said according to his research it is not unlikely to be the biggest such hot water storage in Europe. The amount of energy neede…

Was this electric or direct water heating?

Re: Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time

#144

Post by RandomLensman »

inigyou wrote: post #124
RandomLensman wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany joining the Russian invasion was never anything even remotely in the option space at all - utterly inconceivable in 2022. (Not aware of Russia seeking any such support there either.)

Probably not directly invading, but there was a strong possibility of Germany supporting the Russian invasion, just as they're doing with the invasion of Iran.

There was absolutely no possibility for Germany supporting the Russian invasion.

Re: Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time

#145

Post by inigyou »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #89
foota wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> only ~20-30% of the energy in the fuel turns into useful work, while electricity is much, much more efficient. So, we need much less of it. Isn't a lot of energy used for heating, not work?

Yes but by a weird coincidence most of that heat can be provided by heat pumps at a similar 3-5x ratio.

(it's not a coincidence, it's the exact opposite formula. You can only get 20% out of a certain heat engine because running it in reverse would be a 500% efficient heat pump, and the closed loop can't be more than 100%. This still applies even if the engine isn't built to be able to act as a heat pump, because some other engine could.)

Re: Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time

#146

Post by grunder_advice »

softwaredoug wrote: post #107

The next frontier will be meat consumption. Particularly red meat. A single 1/4 beef hamburger emits 7-12 kg of carbon[1]. Compared to ~1.5kg of carbon driving your car 3 miles[2]. Not telling you to go full vegetarian, but I'm personally far less interested in a beef product unless you're going to guarantee its an extremely expert prepared steak. Most beef is mediocre. 1 - https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-im…

Beef is already too expensive for most people. Americans are probably the exception but I can assure you that most Europeans do not have beef heavy diets. Even culturally, pork (and now chicken) were the proteins of choice.

Re: Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time

#147

Post by hvb2 »

GuB-42 wrote: post #63

I have heard this news many times, technically not wrong, but each time with a different metric. This time it is production over a year. It reminds me of the Voyager probes that left the solar system half a dozen times, each time taking a different definition of what marks the edge of the solar system. Anyways, we are now getting to sensible metrics, which is good.

It's the sporadic good news item in a sea of bad?

Moving away from fossil fuels is a big task, these are the first signs that things are happening.

Re: Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time

#148

Post by WarmWash »

Helmut10001 wrote: post #22
novaRom wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But so is German industry - every day in the news either insolvency or workforce reduction and moving production to Eastern Europe - main reason often stated "expensive Energy". I wonder what are the stats for industrial production in 2025 or total energy consumption in Germany?

You make it sound like there is a causality here. I would be careful. German GDP is declining for other reasons, not for their commitment to renwables. Also, by all measures, living in Germany still means you get one of the most comfortable, secure and free lives on earth. I wouldn't give up on Germany so fast. They still know how to work and often work, even if there is no reason to work (i.e looking at their curren…

>They still know how to work and often work, even if there is no reason to work (i.e looking at their current regulations, which rather motivate you to _not_ work).

Ummm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_a...

At least according to the list, Americans work ten weeks more a year than their German counterpart.

I would bet everything that life, at least right now, is comfy. But I don't see it as remotely sustainable.

Re: Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time

#149

Post by peterpost2 »

inigyou wrote: post #122
peterpost2 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain your thought process please.

You're not doing any better. The right reaction to a comment like that is to downvote and flag it, instead of adding to the spam.

Same applies to you too.

I actually was curious about his reasoning though.

Re: Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time

#150

Post by lopis »

threatripper wrote: post #111
softwaredoug wrote: post #107

The next frontier will be meat consumption. Particularly red meat. A single 1/4 beef hamburger emits 7-12 kg of carbon[1]. Compared to ~1.5kg of carbon driving your car 3 miles[2]. Not telling you to go full vegetarian, but I'm personally far less interested in a beef product unless you're going to guarantee its an extremely expert prepared steak. Most beef is mediocre. 1 - https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-im…

How many miles does the burger drive my car? Not to question your numbers but they lack context. Also, it would be good for nature if there were fewer or no humans on this planet. But then there would be no human here to enjoy nature.

Nihilistic bullshit isn't the hot take you think it is. The problem isn't too many people. The planet couldn't handle billions more if we used resources correctly. Is your idea of "humans enjoying nature" extreme deforestation and water scarcety?
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