Germany's Energy Catastrophe.

[Mindful]

Germans call it Energiewende (“energy transition”), and they aim to decarbonize their economy and lead the world by replacing their fossil fuel and nuclear plants with renewable energy. Germany is the first major nation to undertake such an effort, and, as hoped for, their early adoption of renewables has catalyzed a spectacular drop in costs for those technologies. A reporter summed up German attitudes towards the Energiewende, writing, “Germans would then at last feel that they have gone from being world-destroyers in the 20th century to world-saviors in the 21st.”

Germany's Energy Catastrophe

If Russia permanently cuts off natural gas exports to Germany, it will likely send the country, the world’s fourth-largest economy, into a severe recession.

quillette.com

 

[Mindful]

^ The truth is that the Energiewende was doomed to fail from the start. Germany bet big on solar and wind and shut down their nuclear plants when they should have forgone renewables and expanded their nuclear energy program instead. Germany’s anti-nuclear ideology is so rigid that they closed three nuclear plants in December 2021, despite the global energy crisis, and plan to close their last three nuclear plants this December, despite Russia’s energy extortion.

Solar and wind power have inherent flaws that prohibit them from ever forming the backbone of an industrialized nation’s electrical grid. They require nearly 100 percent backup because they depend on the vagaries of the weather. Just look at how energy from solar and wind fluctuates. In 2019, wind power on one day rose to 59 percent of German power generation, but it fell to as low as 2.6 percent on another day of the year. In the same year, solar peaked at 25 percent and bottomed out at 0.3 percent.

To control these swings and provide reliable power, renewables advocates argue that battery storage and hydrogen can store electricity and dispatch it when solar and wind aren’t producing. Germany’s largest battery storage program is its home storage systems, but years of battery storage installations have barely made an impact on the German grid. The country currently has an estimated 435,000 homes equipped with battery storage systems of various capabilities, and 145,000 home storage systems were installed in 2021. But there are 40 million households in Germany, and home battery storage systems usually last only a few hours, while the grid needs storage that can support variations lasting weeks.

Plus, storage of any kind incurs round-trip energy losses while increasing total costs, since the grid was originally designed to function without needing it. Cost and inherent inefficiency are the key problems facing hydrogen. German news magazine Der Spiegel reported on this problem in 2019:

 

[there4eyeM]

Too many vehicles that are too big and too heavy and consume too much energy for too little purpose have everything to do with energy quantities and prices. If we want to continue to have the freedom to travel around independently , the choices of how to do that are going to have to change. Otherwise, that liberty to move will be infringed by the gluttony of present excesses.
Getting around in a personal vehicle that is smaller, lighter and slower is greatly preferable to not getting around.

 

[wamose]

Germany is making a big mistake. Guilt is no reason to make decisions. This will no more make their war guilt go away than reparations will make our history of slavery disappear. It's like an umpire who makes a bad call trying to make up for a previous bad call.

 

[Vastator]

Gonna be a cold winter in Deutschland.

 

[cnm]

Getting around in a personal vehicle that is smaller, lighter and slower is greatly preferable to not getting around.

Doing that would be to admit there is a problem.

And if a problem was admitted then inarguably solutions must be found.

But those solutions are unpalatable, so pretending there isn't a problem, as we see here, is the default deplorable position.

 

[cnm]

Anyway, Environmental Progress is funded by right leaning entities and is a shill for nuclear power, where profits are privatised and risk is socialised...

Environmental Progress (EP) was founded in 2016 with the mission of achieving nature and prosperity for all. Our strategy was to tell the truth about nuclear energy and the right of poor nations to cheap energy, and build a movement to defend both.​

About Us — Environmental Progress

environmentalprogress.org

​

 

[Vastator]

Green energy is a lie. Wind turbines on a large scale are one of the biggest hoaxes, used to fleece the people,ever devised.
A single wind turbine requires around 230 m3, of concrete just to pour a foundation.

Producing a ton of cement requires 4.7 million BTU of energy, equivalent to about 400 pounds of coal, and generates nearly a ton of CO2.

The point of ROI on a wind turbine is roughly 30-35 years depending on productivity of said unit. The average life span of today's turbine is around 22 years. However the more productive said wind turbine is will conversely detract fron said turbines lifespan.

You're getting bilked.

 

[Ringo]

Germany is importing coal from South Africa, which is ironic because, just one year ago, Germany gave South Africa $810 million in exchange for an agreement that South Africa not use coal.

 

[alexa]

^ The truth is that the Energiewende was doomed to fail from the start. Germany bet big on solar and wind and shut down their nuclear plants when they should have forgone renewables and expanded their nuclear energy program instead. Germany’s anti-nuclear ideology is so rigid that they closed three nuclear plants in December 2021, despite the global energy crisis, and plan to close their last three nuclear plants this December, despite Russia’s energy extortion.

Solar and wind power have inherent flaws that prohibit them from ever forming the backbone of an industrialized nation’s electrical grid. They require nearly 100 percent backup because they depend on the vagaries of the weather. Just look at how energy from solar and wind fluctuates. In 2019, wind power on one day rose to 59 percent of German power generation, but it fell to as low as 2.6 percent on another day of the year. In the same year, solar peaked at 25 percent and bottomed out at 0.3 percent.

To control these swings and provide reliable power, renewables advocates argue that battery storage and hydrogen can store electricity and dispatch it when solar and wind aren’t producing. Germany’s largest battery storage program is its home storage systems, but years of battery storage installations have barely made an impact on the German grid. The country currently has an estimated 435,000 homes equipped with battery storage systems of various capabilities, and 145,000 home storage systems were installed in 2021. But there are 40 million households in Germany, and home battery storage systems usually last only a few hours, while the grid needs storage that can support variations lasting weeks.

Plus, storage of any kind incurs round-trip energy losses while increasing total costs, since the grid was originally designed to function without needing it. Cost and inherent inefficiency are the key problems facing hydrogen. German news magazine Der Spiegel reported on this problem in 2019:

Germany is no fool. They will have these things sorted out at the earliest and then they can lead the way for the rest of us. It is perfectly possible to get power from wind

Wind farms produce enough energy to power every Scottish home twice over.​

We, Scotland would be a lot further ahead but since a change in Government in 2010 we have not had anything like the investment we had before.

 

[Mindful]

Germany is no fool. They will have these things sorted out at the earliest and then they can lead the way for the rest of us. It is perfectly possible to get power from wind

Tell Karl Lauterbach that.

 

[krichton]

Green energy is a lie. Wind turbines on a large scale are one of the biggest hoaxes, used to fleece the people,ever devised.
A single wind turbine requires around 230 m3, of concrete just to pour a foundation.

Producing a ton of cement requires 4.7 million BTU of energy, equivalent to about 400 pounds of coal, and generates nearly a ton of CO2.

The point of ROI on a wind turbine is roughly 30-35 years depending on productivity of said unit. The average life span of today's turbine is around 22 years. However the more productive said wind turbine is will conversely detract fron said turbines lifespan.

You're getting bilked.

And they cause cancer!

 

[alexa]

Tell Karl Lauterbach that.

sorry I don't know him. Without renewables we are all dead. Possibly already done, Sooner we get on them the better chance for a half decent world for those who come after us. Green energy will provide energy until we have nuclear fusion. Nuclear energy lasts a very short time and leaves harmful debris for a million years. In addition, given the more volatile weather we are expecting, nuclear plants are more likely to be destroyed with everything that brings.

 

[elektra]

sorry I don't know him. Without renewables we are all dead. Possibly already done, Sooner we get on them the better chance for a half decent world for those who come after us. Green energy will provide energy until we have nuclear fusion. Nuclear energy lasts a very short time and leaves harmful debris for a million years. In addition, given the more volatile weather we are expecting, nuclear plants are more likely to be destroyed with everything that brings.

But, you need oil to build and maintain renewables.

You want to use more oil, faster, to build giant renewables, which give us less energy?

Build more and recieve less, that will save us?

Nuclear energy lasts a short time yet is harmful millions of years?

 

[Deplorable Yankee]

The progs especially the times and Washington compost used to trumpet

Oh Spain

Ohhhhh Germany Energiewende

what a disaster....but im sure itll be fine here lol

 

[Manonthestreet]

Netherlands shuts down rich natural gas field amid energy crisis

By this point, most of you are likely aware that Europe is facing an even more dire energy crisis than the one threatening the United States. The loss of natural gas supplies from Russia is one of the...

hotair.com

Decades of energy for entire EU discarded.