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>How I wish that was true. >What they actually do is preferring to not burn coal, but when the choice is between blackouts or burning coal for power even the m
by pytester 8y ago
>How I wish that was true.
>What they actually do is preferring to not burn coal, but when the choice is between blackouts or burning coal for power even the most environmentalist governments in Europe prefer burning coal.
It is true.
Germany has already built its last coal fired power plant and has already mandated the closure of all 84 plants by 2020.
Germany is already shifting to generating by renewables, demand shifting to deal with fluctuations in the cost of power, overproduction and pumped water / batteries to make up the rest of the difference.
>It is a bit strange political situation where those in favor of renewable do not want a full ban of burning coal, gas and oil, while those in favor of nuclear do want it.
It'll happen eventually. Nuclear is in no position to make it happen any quicker than renewables are though.
- kortilla 8y agoGermany will just continue to cheat and import from France during lulls. Either that or they will just burn natural gas. Renewables (excluding dams because they aren’t supported by zealots) for base load are a complete fantasy. Pumped storage and batteries are so inefficient that we can’t switch without quintupling electricity costs for everyone. >It'll happen eventually. Nuclear is in no position to make it happen any quicker than renewables are though. Renewables are not competitive with nuclear for base load, at all. That’s why “environmentalists” conveniently allow the burning of coal and gas for the base load while they sit around waiting on a miracle for storage. Nuclear is a solution that works now. Hoping for storage tech 50 years from now is just stoking the fossil fuel burn.
- peterashford 8y agoConvenient to exclude hydro to make your argument where its what powers the existing the 100% renewable countries (either completely or nearly so).
- godelski 8y agoHydro is fantastic and we should use it wherever we can. Problem is the last part. We can't use it everywhere.
- kortilla 8y agoConvenient to exclude the fact that hydro requires a specific geology and willingness to destroy river ecosystems for it to work.
- elproxy 8y agoHydro is finite... When you've harnessed 80%~90% of the potential, that's about it.