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Sure but the article says 30% of Russian gas is used for electricity which is fungible with other electric production - nobody denies that Germany needs gas for

Sure but the article says 30% of Russian gas is used for electricity which is fungible with other electric production - nobody denies that Germany needs gas for other things. Although if greens in Germany were actually committed to reducing energy use they would have subsidized converting buildings from gas heat to using heat pumps instead of subsidizing solar production in Germany.

Xylakant 5y ago
Gas in electricity production is mostly not used for base load - it’s peaker plants that need to spin up and adjust load within minutes. Nuclear replaces coal, not gas in most use cases. Heat pumps are subsidized in germany. And if you want to blame the greens - they’ve been the most vocal party asking for energy independence, subsidizing energy efficient technologies and were very vocal against nord-stream 2. It’s just that they weren’t in power at all in the last decade.
- someguydave 5y ago
  Nevertheless, more base load means less peak plant use.
  - Xylakant 5y ago
    That’s not how base load/peak load works. You can’t just increase the base power output - that would lead to too much more electricity in the network, you need to balance the energy provided with the energy used. That’s exactly why you need peak load plants that can follow the load curve quickly. Gas turbines and water turbines can do that, thermal power plants cannot. They’re too sluggish.
    - someguydave 5y ago
      I find it quite likely that running higher base load will result in electricity exportable to other European nations who are also trying to quite gas. The general thrust of your argument seems to be “nuclear power will not help shed Russian gas even a little bit” which seems ludicrous.
      - Xylakant 5y ago
        If your argument would hold true, that load would already be taken by coal power plants which fill the same role. Gas peaker plants are substantially more expensive to operate per kWh of electricity produced than base load plants. They fill an important niche, but do not provide substantial continuous output. Nuclear replaces coal, coal replaces nuclear. Renewables plus gas (or storage) replace both. There are other niches where gas is used to produce electricity, for example we have a gas micro power plant that produces both electricity and heat for the apartment complexes on the local compound. This too, cannot be replaced by a nuclear plant.

Xylakant 5y ago

Gas in electricity production is mostly not used for base load - it’s peaker plants that need to spin up and adjust load within minutes. Nuclear replaces coal, not gas in most use cases. Heat pumps are subsidized in germany. And if you want to blame the greens - they’ve been the most vocal party asking for energy independence, subsidizing energy efficient technologies and were very vocal against nord-stream 2. It’s just that they weren’t in power at all in the last decade.

someguydave 5y ago
Nevertheless, more base load means less peak plant use.
- Xylakant 5y ago
  That’s not how base load/peak load works. You can’t just increase the base power output - that would lead to too much more electricity in the network, you need to balance the energy provided with the energy used. That’s exactly why you need peak load plants that can follow the load curve quickly. Gas turbines and water turbines can do that, thermal power plants cannot. They’re too sluggish.
  - someguydave 5y ago
    I find it quite likely that running higher base load will result in electricity exportable to other European nations who are also trying to quite gas. The general thrust of your argument seems to be “nuclear power will not help shed Russian gas even a little bit” which seems ludicrous.
    - Xylakant 5y ago
      If your argument would hold true, that load would already be taken by coal power plants which fill the same role. Gas peaker plants are substantially more expensive to operate per kWh of electricity produced than base load plants. They fill an important niche, but do not provide substantial continuous output. Nuclear replaces coal, coal replaces nuclear. Renewables plus gas (or storage) replace both. There are other niches where gas is used to produce electricity, for example we have a gas micro power plant that produces both electricity and heat for the apartment complexes on the local compound. This too, cannot be replaced by a nuclear plant.