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You can't shutdown the coal plants quickly when their energy is no longer needed, like on a bright sunny day. It's still a problem that Germany wants to use coa

You can't shutdown the coal plants quickly when their energy is no longer needed, like on a bright sunny day. It's still a problem that Germany wants to use coal for their base load generators.

KingOfCoders 2y ago
Germany needs to use coal, the government fears being replaced by a far right movement, which has strong roots in the coal areas of East Germany - politicians feels that closing coal production would be the tipping point for a far right and far left coalition to get into government. It's always about the jobs. The challenge on top is the replacement of coal after the exit from nuclear power. The anti-nuclear stance of many people and politicians in (West-)Germany is from the 1970s and the 1980s, especially when PershingII missles were installed in Germany. People of many other countries had no contact with nuclear weapons, stored somewhere in the wilderness. In Germany a nuclear missle facility was near to many people (I grew up next to a PershingII depot). Chernobyl didn't start the anti-nuclear stance but later accelerated it. So decades later Germany got out of nuclear energy. Which now poses the problem of getting out of coal.
- reducesuffering 2y ago
  > The challenge on top is the replacement of coal after the exit from nuclear power. Solar when the sun is shining, windmills when the wind is blowing, batteries, hydro, and maybe 1 backup nat. gas plant when somehow all of that is out and you need to ramp up. Looks like some more wind and a lot of batteries is what's left.
Delmololo 2y ago
Of course you can.
- TheLoafOfBread 2y ago
  Sure, once. Then you can switch it off for good, because it will get damaged - the combustion chamber inside needs to be heated up or cooled down slowly, otherwise it will crack. When you are "not using" coal power plant, you still need to keep the combustion chamber hot.
  - Delmololo 2y ago
    The question is not if you can, you can, it's about speed and how fast. And solar is predictable per day good enough that you can compensate the short intervals with gas and batteries.

You can't shutdown the coal plants quickly when their energy is no longer needed, like on a bright sunny day. It's still a problem that Germany wants to use coal for their base load generators.

KingOfCoders 2y ago

Germany needs to use coal, the government fears being replaced by a far right movement, which has strong roots in the coal areas of East Germany - politicians feels that closing coal production would be the tipping point for a far right and far left coalition to get into government. It's always about the jobs. The challenge on top is the replacement of coal after the exit from nuclear power. The anti-nuclear stance of many people and politicians in (West-)Germany is from the 1970s and the 1980s, especially when PershingII missles were installed in Germany. People of many other countries had no contact with nuclear weapons, stored somewhere in the wilderness. In Germany a nuclear missle facility was near to many people (I grew up next to a PershingII depot). Chernobyl didn't start the anti-nuclear stance but later accelerated it. So decades later Germany got out of nuclear energy. Which now poses the problem of getting out of coal.

reducesuffering 2y ago
> The challenge on top is the replacement of coal after the exit from nuclear power. Solar when the sun is shining, windmills when the wind is blowing, batteries, hydro, and maybe 1 backup nat. gas plant when somehow all of that is out and you need to ramp up. Looks like some more wind and a lot of batteries is what's left.

Delmololo 2y ago

Of course you can.

TheLoafOfBread 2y ago
Sure, once. Then you can switch it off for good, because it will get damaged - the combustion chamber inside needs to be heated up or cooled down slowly, otherwise it will crack. When you are "not using" coal power plant, you still need to keep the combustion chamber hot.
- Delmololo 2y ago
  The question is not if you can, you can, it's about speed and how fast. And solar is predictable per day good enough that you can compensate the short intervals with gas and batteries.