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Germany's primary energy source is now coal, now way they can shut it down. https://www.dw.com/en/germany-coal-tops-wind-as-primary-electricity-source/a-591681

Germany's primary energy source is now coal, now way they can shut it down. https://www.dw.com/en/germany-coal-tops-wind-as-primary-electricity-source/a-59168105 https://www.dw.com/en/germany-coal-tops-wind-as-primary-elec... This is so stupid, what are they thinking?

PartiallyTyped 5y ago
Looks like pandering to Greens/anti-nuclear people, but honestly, I don't know. To me, it appears borderline insane, but there's probably something that I am missing.
- folkrav 5y ago
  Non German here, but pandering to greens by switching to coal sounds like pure insanity. Not that I'm surprised by much these days...
Ekaros 5y ago
How to win votes? In the end it's all politics, where feelings are more important than true solutions.
YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo 5y ago
Coal was the primary source for energy in Germany since the beginning of the industrial age. In the last decade we had some years were alternatives took over but since the emergence of nuclear power it was never the primary source for energy.
ZeroGravitas 5y ago
By "primary" you mean they used 27% over a 6 month period, compared with 21% the 6 months a year earlier. Switching back into first after a good spell for wind had it briefly in the lead. Why does that mean they can't switch it off? The UK had 30% Coal in 2014 when they announced they would phase it out and did so slightly ahead of schedule.
- tjansen 5y ago
  27% is a misleading number because it is the average for the whole period. On some days, wind and solar can provide 100% of all electricity. But on windstill nights, it is closer to 0%. Without having a way to store a whole nation's energy needs for several days or even weeks, you still need fossil fuels (or nuclear).
  - jhgb 5y ago
    > Without having a way to store a whole nation's energy needs for several days or even weeks That requirement makes no sense, though. Do you foresee a massive volcanic eruption that there will be darkness for several weeks? Because it's sort of fact of life that the sun always rises tomorrow. Therefore asking for 100% of storage for weeks never made any sense.
jhgb 5y ago
Don't freak out about a statistical variation. The trend is for wind power to increase and for coal power to decrease in Germany, so really the only interesting points in time are the first time when wind generated more than coal and the last time when coal generated more than wind. The first just happened in 2020, so freaking out about coal momentarily being on top in 2021 is pointless.

PartiallyTyped 5y ago

Looks like pandering to Greens/anti-nuclear people, but honestly, I don't know. To me, it appears borderline insane, but there's probably something that I am missing.

folkrav 5y ago
Non German here, but pandering to greens by switching to coal sounds like pure insanity. Not that I'm surprised by much these days...

Ekaros 5y ago

How to win votes? In the end it's all politics, where feelings are more important than true solutions.

YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo 5y ago

Coal was the primary source for energy in Germany since the beginning of the industrial age. In the last decade we had some years were alternatives took over but since the emergence of nuclear power it was never the primary source for energy.

ZeroGravitas 5y ago

By "primary" you mean they used 27% over a 6 month period, compared with 21% the 6 months a year earlier. Switching back into first after a good spell for wind had it briefly in the lead. Why does that mean they can't switch it off? The UK had 30% Coal in 2014 when they announced they would phase it out and did so slightly ahead of schedule.

tjansen 5y ago
27% is a misleading number because it is the average for the whole period. On some days, wind and solar can provide 100% of all electricity. But on windstill nights, it is closer to 0%. Without having a way to store a whole nation's energy needs for several days or even weeks, you still need fossil fuels (or nuclear).
- jhgb 5y ago
  > Without having a way to store a whole nation's energy needs for several days or even weeks That requirement makes no sense, though. Do you foresee a massive volcanic eruption that there will be darkness for several weeks? Because it's sort of fact of life that the sun always rises tomorrow. Therefore asking for 100% of storage for weeks never made any sense.

jhgb 5y ago

Don't freak out about a statistical variation. The trend is for wind power to increase and for coal power to decrease in Germany, so really the only interesting points in time are the first time when wind generated more than coal and the last time when coal generated more than wind. The first just happened in 2020, so freaking out about coal momentarily being on top in 2021 is pointless.