3 ms·

I'd say it's the fault of neoliberalism (which certainly has a foothold in parts of the CDU/CSU and all major parties really, not just the FDP) that most infras

by hnbad 4y ago

I'd say it's the fault of neoliberalism (which certainly has a foothold in parts of the CDU/CSU and all major parties really, not just the FDP) that most infrastructure projects of the past decades have been limited to a few failed prestige projects (powerlines just aren't as sexy as a massive airport nobody can use) but it's the fault of the Greens (not specifically the party but the general political movement it stems from) that we're at a point where we are stuck with coal because nuclear is no longer an option. I'm not saying it's bad they protested nuclear. Nuclear needs to go, too. It's just bad that they hyperfixated on nuclear because it's easier to scare people about it and that they didn't ensure we get rid of coal first. Scaring people about nuclear was child's play after Chernobyl if the threat of the Cold War wasn't enough (as the public already conflated nuclear power and nuclear weapons). The coal industry's political power is much greater in Germany tho and taking it on would have meant finding a way to bridge the cultural gap between blue collar Kumpels and the more college educated Birkenstock crowd. Hopefully FFF and XR are finally doing some of the work now but sadly the opposition has also gotten better at its game and that Kumpel at his Stammtisch beer will most likely make bad jokes about "Greta" despite not batting an eye if you ask him to sign a petition to shut down all nuclear plants.

ClumsyPilot 4y ago
I really believe Neoliberalism has kneecapped the West, our infrastructure is basically stuck in 1980's, which is when the ideology took hold. In UK, since we privatised water companies, they have not built a single new reservoir, they are basically operating 30 year old infrastructure, dumping sewage in rivers and paying themselves dividends in the billiona
mschuster91 4y ago
We don't need nuclear. Even with decades of conservative sabotage, we generate ~41% of our electricity needs [1] on a renewable basis. Imagine we had used the last sixteen years to go all-in on renewables - we wouldn't need to kowtow in front of any dictatorship. No Qatari gas, no Russian or other dictatorship uranium, nothing. [1] https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/klima-energie/erneuerbare-energien/erneuerbare-energien-in-zahlen https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/klima-energie/erneuerb...
- tjansen 4y ago
  The amount of electricity generated over the course of a year is irrelevant without storage. We could generate 1000% of our energy needs and still not have enough, if we generate 2000% in summer and 0% in winter. We need to generate 100% of our energy needs every single hour. Renewables are practically incapable of doing this on their own. They can reduce the use of fossil fuelds (or nuclear power), but not replace them.
  - mschuster91 4y ago
    > We need to generate 100% of our energy needs every single hour. Renewables are practically incapable of doing this on their own. They can reduce the use of fossil fuelds (or nuclear power), but not replace them. Install enough windmills across the entire coastal areas of Europe, add thousands of kilometers long cross-continental UHVDC links like China does [1] and even winter won't be a problem. Besides: using biomass / biogas fuel for conventional burner plants is climate neutral, and the supply is enough to cover half of the deliveries of Russia [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-voltage_electricity_transmission_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-voltage_electricity... [2] https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/technologie/biogas-statt-erdgas-101.html https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/technologie/biogas-stat...
    - tjansen 4y ago
      > Install enough windmills across the entire coastal areas of Europe, That's completely unrealistic. There are times when in all of Europe there is little to no wind. Certainly not enough that one region can provide enough power for all of Europe. Maybe it's possible in China, I don't now their climate, but even they are planning to increase the number of nuclear power plants.
      - mschuster91 4y ago
        We need a complete transformation of our power usage in any case, both to save energy demand and to make the grid more flexible: - insulate buildings so that they better retain heat. This one is massive - over a third of all energy consumption goes towards buildings [1]! - promote heat pumps (either to air or ground) because these are far more energy efficient for air conditioning and hot water generation - help poorer households to save energy - especially those who can't afford to replace their 20 years old fridge which consumes over double the power that a modern appliance needs [2]. - resilient grids with photo-voltaic energy generation on every roof and distributed battery storage - smart grids that can (dis)incentivize large loads like water heaters or electric vehicles automatically based on grid generation capacity - more incentives for high-energy consuming industries to act as a dynamic power sink or to operate only in times where energy is plentiful - shut down street lights at night or make them smart to only be alight when needed - lighting consumes about 0.7% of the total power consumption [0], but as it runs at night where solar power is offline by definition, its impact on base load is worse. - completely ban advertisements using lighting at night Ideally, we would have continuous renewable or at least climate neutral-ish generation power (geothermal, tidal, running water power, biogas and waste incineration and whatever is the sum of the lowest-ever-available-wind power) to cover the base load, and have consumers smartly adapt on current electricity prices. [0] https://www.strassenbeleuchtung.de/index.php/technik/34-grundlagen-der-strassenbeleuchtung/319-zahlen-und-fakten https://www.strassenbeleuchtung.de/index.php/technik/34-grun... [1] https://www.dena.de/themen-projekte/energieeffizienz/gebaeude/ https://www.dena.de/themen-projekte/energieeffizienz/gebaeud... [2] https://www.verbraucherzentrale.nrw/sites/default/files/2022-04/kurzstudie_stromeffizienz_kuelgeraete_2022.pdf https://www.verbraucherzentrale.nrw/sites/default/files/2022...

by hnbad 4y ago

ClumsyPilot 4y ago

I really believe Neoliberalism has kneecapped the West, our infrastructure is basically stuck in 1980's, which is when the ideology took hold. In UK, since we privatised water companies, they have not built a single new reservoir, they are basically operating 30 year old infrastructure, dumping sewage in rivers and paying themselves dividends in the billiona

mschuster91 4y ago

We don't need nuclear. Even with decades of conservative sabotage, we generate ~41% of our electricity needs [1] on a renewable basis. Imagine we had used the last sixteen years to go all-in on renewables - we wouldn't need to kowtow in front of any dictatorship. No Qatari gas, no Russian or other dictatorship uranium, nothing. [1] https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/klima-energie/erneuerbare-energien/erneuerbare-energien-in-zahlen https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/klima-energie/erneuerb...

tjansen 4y ago
The amount of electricity generated over the course of a year is irrelevant without storage. We could generate 1000% of our energy needs and still not have enough, if we generate 2000% in summer and 0% in winter. We need to generate 100% of our energy needs every single hour. Renewables are practically incapable of doing this on their own. They can reduce the use of fossil fuelds (or nuclear power), but not replace them.
- mschuster91 4y ago
  > We need to generate 100% of our energy needs every single hour. Renewables are practically incapable of doing this on their own. They can reduce the use of fossil fuelds (or nuclear power), but not replace them. Install enough windmills across the entire coastal areas of Europe, add thousands of kilometers long cross-continental UHVDC links like China does [1] and even winter won't be a problem. Besides: using biomass / biogas fuel for conventional burner plants is climate neutral, and the supply is enough to cover half of the deliveries of Russia [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-voltage_electricity_transmission_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-voltage_electricity... [2] https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/technologie/biogas-statt-erdgas-101.html https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/technologie/biogas-stat...
  - tjansen 4y ago
    > Install enough windmills across the entire coastal areas of Europe, That's completely unrealistic. There are times when in all of Europe there is little to no wind. Certainly not enough that one region can provide enough power for all of Europe. Maybe it's possible in China, I don't now their climate, but even they are planning to increase the number of nuclear power plants.
    - mschuster91 4y ago
      We need a complete transformation of our power usage in any case, both to save energy demand and to make the grid more flexible: - insulate buildings so that they better retain heat. This one is massive - over a third of all energy consumption goes towards buildings [1]! - promote heat pumps (either to air or ground) because these are far more energy efficient for air conditioning and hot water generation - help poorer households to save energy - especially those who can't afford to replace their 20 years old fridge which consumes over double the power that a modern appliance needs [2]. - resilient grids with photo-voltaic energy generation on every roof and distributed battery storage - smart grids that can (dis)incentivize large loads like water heaters or electric vehicles automatically based on grid generation capacity - more incentives for high-energy consuming industries to act as a dynamic power sink or to operate only in times where energy is plentiful - shut down street lights at night or make them smart to only be alight when needed - lighting consumes about 0.7% of the total power consumption [0], but as it runs at night where solar power is offline by definition, its impact on base load is worse. - completely ban advertisements using lighting at night Ideally, we would have continuous renewable or at least climate neutral-ish generation power (geothermal, tidal, running water power, biogas and waste incineration and whatever is the sum of the lowest-ever-available-wind power) to cover the base load, and have consumers smartly adapt on current electricity prices. [0] https://www.strassenbeleuchtung.de/index.php/technik/34-grundlagen-der-strassenbeleuchtung/319-zahlen-und-fakten https://www.strassenbeleuchtung.de/index.php/technik/34-grun... [1] https://www.dena.de/themen-projekte/energieeffizienz/gebaeude/ https://www.dena.de/themen-projekte/energieeffizienz/gebaeud... [2] https://www.verbraucherzentrale.nrw/sites/default/files/2022-04/kurzstudie_stromeffizienz_kuelgeraete_2022.pdf https://www.verbraucherzentrale.nrw/sites/default/files/2022...