21 ms·
> maybe we can agree would have been better Maybe not. The vast investments in renewable energy (incl. technology, driving down costs, acceptance, grid, load
by lispm 8y ago
> maybe we can agree would have been better
Maybe not.
The vast investments in renewable energy (incl. technology, driving down costs, acceptance, grid, load prediction, offshore wind, decentralized energy production, de-centralized ownership, ...) instead of an incompatible nuclear landscape had and has huge impact in the feasibility of renewable energy - not just in Germany.
Coal gets also reduced. Maybe you have seen the massive protests of environmentalists in Germany against new coal power plants and further coal production. There is not much investment in coal-based electricity, because it is priced out of the market and quite a bit now needs to be exported, since there is not enough demand in Germany. Mid year 2018: renewable energy electricity production +10%, coal -10%. Renewable is now at 36% share of electricity production and now the first time more than coal. On two cold winter days the renewables provided 71.6% and 81% of electricity for Germany, an industrialized country with more than 80 million people.
This would have not been possible without the massive change in direction.
- benj111 8y agoI don't disagree. My point was that they should have got rid of coal before nuclear.
- lispm 8y agoI disagree.
- hef19898 8y agoI sond that. Coal should have gone out before nuclear. But that is not entirely Greenpeace's fault. The way CO2 is taxed, and thus priced in, resulted in a situation where caol turned into the second cheapest energy source after the renewables with close to zero recurring cost. Simply making CO2 certificates more expensive would remedy that. it is kind of rediculous that modern gas turbine power plants, with the ability to quick start and being pretty clean nowadays, are more expensive than coal. up to the point where renewables are squezzing these power plants out of the market. Not sure if that was the intentd end result. I'm not at all saying that nuclear should stay, so.
- 08-15 8y agoNow if only the CO2 emissions went down while the price of electricity went up, this could be a success story.
- cc439 8y agoThe problem with "renewable energy" is that so much of it is actually Biomass energy. 30% of Germany's renewable electricity comes from Biomass plants burning pelletized wood to the point that Biomass power generation accounts for 40% of all German forestry production. Biomass also accounts for 70% of all German renewable energy usage thanks to biodiesel and biogas usage, again almost all sourced from wood. (All sources per wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany) I guess the carbon cycle is relatively neutral as it's using existing environmental carbon plus some additional energy in the production and logistics process but it is unsustainable without turning every bit of harvestable forest into a monoculture of pine trees or fast growing deciduous with all the ecodiveristy of a Monsanto laced cornfield.