Germany's energy U-turn: Coal instead of gas

Deutsche Welle ^ | August 7, 2022 | By Sabine Kinkartz

[pepsionice]

All these trends (from SPD/Green parties) were laid out two or three decades ago (even before Merkel). Always as the righteous way of ‘saving’ the Earth.

Killing off nuke/coal power. Having to pay each group money to turn off early (tens of billions of Euro)...added to the cost of taxation and the escalating cost of power (2nd highest grid cost of any European country). Never caring about the consumer.

Then the war started up, and their path since 1970...friends of the Soviet Union/Russia...with all this cheap but misleading natural gas. Getting all freaked out about fracking in Germany (forbidding that in 2016), but they readily buy fracked natural gas from Russia, which made no sense.

When Trump warned them, and suggested a LNG port...they slowballed the idea. Now? They need it in a hurry but the cost level (whoever they buy it from) will be probably double from before.

Everyone now suffers in some way. They discovered the making of beer bottles requires natural gas. They found out these massive outdoor public pool complexes used natural gas to heat the water. Politicians huddle around and suggest stupid things like only bathing every other day (with heated water). The grid needs to support a massive amount of E-cars in the next decade, but everyone is skeptical of the cost level involved. And there in the background is Covid...still lingering.

[GOPJ]

Fukushima was wrecked by a tsunami from an earthquake originating in a rather distant offshore fault. By that standard Japan cannot have any nukes. One is just going to have to design around that risk. And Diablo Canyon is so designed. If that armored, triple redundant design can’t pass muster, nothing will.

Great points...

[Nuc 1.1]

a world already ravaged by global warming

Recovery from the long con dies hard. Since the 70s not one of their predictions has come true.

[Vaduz]

And fast