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Germany Records Historic 12B KWh Solar Feed-In in July 2026

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Re: Germany Records Historic 12B KWh Solar Feed-In in July 2026

#141

Post by ricardobayes »

spwa4 wrote: post #59
fhdkweig wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We stopped high sulfur when we realized it was causing acid rain. CO2 is also acidifying the oceans, so there aren't a lot of things we can pump into the atmosphere without consequence. Best to avoid doing that altogether.

We won't stop pumping CO2 into the atmosphere (Germany, India and China actually increased coal burning in 2026, in all 3 cases despite all the good news about solar installations). Also we can't prevent fossil fuel producers from digging up fossil fuels. And, because of entropy, reducing CO2 already in the atmosphere is a non-starter. For one thing, one can reasonably assume that would at minimum require doubling hu…

Germany's output is almost irrelevant in this context: it amounts to a mere 1.4% of the global output.

To add to that: there are no good alternatives to coal as the stabilizer in a renewables-fed grid, for Germany. They don't have hydro and don't have nuclear. Even Spain now runs some coal despite having near-100% renewable grid for a year. That big blackout was a big lesson for all grid operators. Please don't shame countries for running a small percentage of their grids on coal.

Re: Germany Records Historic 12B KWh Solar Feed-In in July 2026

#142

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

Glass half full, I suppose. Germany is in the grip of an unusual and prolonged drought -- clear skies, intense daytime heat, no rain. > https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78gn8zvrx4o I'm near Graz, in Austria, where we're also in the middle of a drought and in truth I can't remember a summer as hot as this one...

The comparison with France right is interesting. They are shutting down nuclear reactors because the drought means they don't have enough water to cool the reactors.

Base load, eh?

Re: Germany Records Historic 12B KWh Solar Feed-In in July 2026

#143

Post by astrobe_ »

eigenspace wrote: post #111
myk9001 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... don't make up shit and say that they made up for the nuclear exit by burning more coal, that is untrue. It's true, though. Emotions seem to be clouding your judgment. Renewables could've been replacing coal. Instead, they're making up for the lost nuclear capacity.

Renewables are replacing coal and nuclear simultaneously. Coal usage was consistently dropping before and continued to consistently drop after the nuclear phase out. I agree if coal was banned before nuclear, the new renewable capcacity added could have done more to replace a huge source of emissions faster. It was a failure of education, media, and political will that Germany phased out nuclear before coal. That doe…

According to [1], around 2022 nuclear was shut down, coal/lignite increased, imports increased, and consumption decreased - if I interpret those charts correctly.

[1] https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-c...

Re: Germany Records Historic 12B KWh Solar Feed-In in July 2026

#144

Post by Barrin92 »

umpalumpaaa wrote: post #64
eigenspace wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany's electrical prices are mostly in line with it's neighbours, not super high. If a company makes good usage of batteries, they could actually have quite low prices since the electrical price undergoes huge swings throughout the day. All spring through fall the spot price goes to or near zero at midday almost daily. Throughout the winter, wind is a bit more random but causes spells of high prices and spells of…

Even if prices were in line with Germanys neighbors, that does not mean a lot. Germanys industry is notoriously energy hungry. Germany is home of the biggest chemical companies in the world and they need easy access to gas, oil, electricity etc. Also the car industry is obviously still big. And so on. Most countries in the world lost their industrial base during the last 20-40 years but Germany kept it for the most p…

>Germany is home of the biggest chemical companies in the world

Some of them are worth keeping but also some of them actually should go. Close to where I used to live in Düsseldorf there was a plastic bottle factory that employed 500 some people and it only continued to be open because it was apparently impossible to let anyone go, the entire thing was long uneconomic.

Mind you even here in Germany our economy is 70% services, the bulk of the employment happens in the Mittelstand. The number of highly energy intensive companies is quite small. Reducing energy prices is good for consumers but more important are structural reforms. We have to good an education and too high a wage level to keep people working in plastic bottle factories. It actually made sense that some of those jobs left the US 30 years ago.

Re: Germany Records Historic 12B KWh Solar Feed-In in July 2026

#145

Post by ricardobayes »

spwa4 wrote: post #110
rawgabbit wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well... the holy grail is something that traps CO2, slows down hurricanes-typhoons, slows down desertification, makes urban heat sinks more bearable. What that could be, I have no idea.

You are obviously referring to trees. So assuming that's what you mean: that won't work. https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/why-dont-we-just-plant-lot-t... Trees quickly reach equilibrium at which point CO2 out equals CO2 in. While they can sequester some CO2 while growing, they also generally cause an albedo increase (forests trap heat). So, for arguments sake, the opposite would actually help more: destroying forests…

> the oceans will "seed themselves"

Yes they already do, as evidenced by the sargassum that wrecked this season for Florida and Mexico.

Re: Germany Records Historic 12B KWh Solar Feed-In in July 2026

#146

Post by f6v »

eigenspace wrote: post #105
ajmurmann wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the biggest impact for Germany is gonna be economical from shipping. Much of Germany's industry is along the Rhine and they get their raw materials via barge on the Rhine. The Rhine is already close to all time low which reduces capacity and increases cost. Usually low water happens between August and November. It was already close to record low in July! I wouldn't be surprised if shipping will have to stop e…

Yeah. Bad timing that this also coincides with a period where the rail system is in chaos, and running beyond capacity due to overdue upgrades.

I think you can select any day, week, or month and the rail system in Germany will always be in chaos.

Re: Germany Records Historic 12B KWh Solar Feed-In in July 2026

#147

Post by kvemkon »

ajmurmann wrote: post #42
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

Glass half full, I suppose. Germany is in the grip of an unusual and prolonged drought -- clear skies, intense daytime heat, no rain. > https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78gn8zvrx4o I'm near Graz, in Austria, where we're also in the middle of a drought and in truth I can't remember a summer as hot as this one...

I think the biggest impact for Germany is gonna be economical from shipping. Much of Germany's industry is along the Rhine and they get their raw materials via barge on the Rhine. The Rhine is already close to all time low which reduces capacity and increases cost. Usually low water happens between August and November. It was already close to record low in July! I wouldn't be surprised if shipping will have to stop e…

On news there was a message from Siemens about 500 t turbines, which can be transported best only by Rhine.

Re: Germany Records Historic 12B KWh Solar Feed-In in July 2026

#148

Post by eigenspace »

hunterpayne wrote: post #121
eigenspace wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just pointing out that the claim that it has abnormally high energy prices among developed nations isn't quite true. I do agree though, that even just having 'normal' energy prices for a developed nation makes it very hard to be an industrial powerhouse. IMO the only way forward is for Germany to build more energy infrastructure. Most importantly, we need more solar wind and batteries, but we also need upgrades…

How is closing your nuclear plants working out for you? Germany burns the lowest grade coal known to man to make up for the loss of its nuclear fleet. Germany has one of the dirtiest grids in the world and the dirtiest grid in the developed world. And for reference, a single NPP makes roughly 600 GW hours of power a month. Germany closed down about 15 NPPs which would make several times as much power as the solar PV…

Wow, impressive velocity of bullshit claims, but I guess one has to grade on a curve, this is Hacker News of course.

> Germany burns the lowest grade coal known to man to make up for the loss of its nuclear fleet.

Renewables are replacing coal and nuclear simultaneously. Coal usage was consistently dropping before and has continued to consistently drop after the nuclear phase out.

I agree if coal was banned before nuclear, the new renewable capacity added could have done more to replace a huge source of emissions faster. It was a failure of education, media, and political will that Germany phased out nuclear before coal.

> Germany has one of the dirtiest grids in the world and the dirtiest grid in the developed world.

Germany's grid is on average cleaner than the USA, Japan, South Korea and Australia's grids. It's only dirty by western european standards, not by the standards of developed countries. Certainly not by world standards.

https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/all/yearly

Germany is also on a better decarbonization trajectory than any of those countries other than Australia.

> And for reference, a single NPP makes roughly 600 GW hours of power a month. Germany closed down about 15 NPPs which would make several times as much power as the solar PV in the article. More than enough to power everyone's ACs.

Those 15 NPPs were not putting out anywhere near your claimed number.

July 2017: 5.3 TWh

July 2018: 6.1 TWh

Julu 2019: 5.4 TWh

July 2020: 4.2 TWh

July 2021: 5.5 TWh

July 2022: 2.9 TWh

Calculated using API data from https://www.energy-charts.info which gives the electricity mix on any given time or day as it evolves every 15 minute interval.

Re: Germany Records Historic 12B KWh Solar Feed-In in July 2026

#150

Post by mono442 »

woodpanel wrote: post #133
hunterpayne wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For reference, that's about 4x the worldwide average electricity price.

Exactly. I'm starting to wonder how much higher our neighbors' prices are thanks to our excessive excess-energy emergency-dumping during green-energy peaks. How much of that "EU average" is "Germany as a cost externality for its neighbouring energy grids"?

Electricity is expensive in the EU because of the EU ETS.
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