Beggaring Belief: No Sensible German Believes in Wind & Solar ‘Transition’, Anymore

Germany’s Energiewende: another fairy tale loses its gloss.

Mainstream media have gone quiet on Germany’s ‘inevitable’ transition to an all wind and sun powered future. The debacle that’s playing out in Deutschland apparently doesn’t suit their narrative, anymore. It’s like kids hanging onto the belief that Santa Claus is real, long after they’ve tumbled to the fact that it’s their fat Uncle Harry behind the stick-on beard.

Here’s an example of how the loony left react with horror when the facts about Germany’s Energiewende get laid bare in their presence.

Lefty spin-doctor, Parnell McGuinness put out a tweet on the issue which read as follows:

“The share of renewable energy in German electricity generation has gone from 3.6% in 1990 to 30% last year – that’s 30 years to get just over 25% renewable. For an annual cost to consumers of [Euro] €20 billion.  ALP goal is 35% in 10 years.”

Parnell McGuinness was later interviewed on The Drum (a Green-left echo chamber, broadcast by the taxpayer funded ABC). Keep an eye out for Dee Madigan’s efforts to come to grips with the facts about Germany’s self-inflicted renewable energy disaster.

Dee Madigan: I think though we are getting more consensus [on climate change] because for so many years it was such a toxic debate. Because the conservative side, or the vested interests, had said that action on climate change is going to drive up your power prices – that was their thing. And I think Shane [Wright] hit the nail on the head – so many Australians now with their solar panels on their roof are seeing the reality that’s quite different, that when you put renewable sources on your roof your power prices aren’t going up, they are actually starting to come down. They get the logic of that and I think it’s taken the heat out of the climate change debate.

Parnell McGuinness: That is on a tiny, tiny individual scale. I mean the truth of the matter –

Dee Madigan: [talking over] No there’s millions of them though.

Parnell McGuinness: No no no.  In Germany they have been working for the last 30 years on getting renewables to replace major sources of energy and they have made such slow progress. They and we are looking at creating the same impact in Australia over the next 10 years – so 35 per cent reduction over the next 10 years.  Now in Germany it’s taken 30 years, it hasn’t worked but they still are –

Dee Madigan: [talking over] But technology was different then, the technology is completely different.

Parnell McGuinness:  – The technology has improved but –

Dee Madigan: [talking over] Massively.

Parnell McGuinness: – We’re talking about Germany, we are talking about, you know if this technology was suddenly working perfectly then they would have simply replaced the nuclear power plants they took offline with this new technology –

Dee Madigan: [talking over] The other day South Australia went 6 hours off the grid!

Parnell McGuinness: – Instead, instead they are building nuclear power plants overseas so that they can import the power back into Germany so that they can stop burning so much brown coal.

Nice work Dee! What’s that saying about never letting the facts get in the way of a great story?

The reason that STT focuses heavily on Germany is because it sends people like Dee Madigan into apoplexy. In that vein, let’s cross to No Tricks Zone and the latest on Germany’s renewable energy calamity.

German Employer’s Association Op Ed: “No Expert Politician In Berlin Believes In Switch To Green Energies Any More”
No Tricks Zone
Pierre Gosselin
14 May 2019

Recently, Der Spiegel wrote about how Germany’s once highly ballyhooed Energiewende (transition to green energies) has turned out to be a botched project. Then Michael Schellenberger at Forbes commented that the laws of physics tell us it was never meant to work in the first place.

Behind closed doors, no one in Berlin believes in it
Now, just days ago, energy expert Dr. Björn Peters wrote at the German Association of Employers site that the Energiewende has deteriorated to the point that: “No specialist politician in Berlin believes in the success of the Energiewende any more. Whoever you ask, everyone says this only behind closed doors and thinks that if you go to the press with it you can only lose against the ‘green’ media mainstream.”

Peters warns that what is needed in Germany is a good dose of reality and “a fresh start on energy policy.”

Advantages of fossil fuels “too great”
The German expert writes that despite the hundreds of billions of euros committed to green energies, “chemical energy from coal, oil and gas supplies about four fifths of primary energy worldwide and also in Germany and thus represents the present energy supply”.

And although at some point, the reserves will be exhausted, and alternatives will need to be found, but “for the time being, chemical energy sources are irreplaceable and will remain so for several decades to come. Their advantages are too great.”

Peters reminds that “petroleum-based fuels have the invaluable advantage of high energy density. At over 10 kWh/kg – a hundred times higher than batteries – they are the only energy sources that can reliably supply cars on overland journeys, trucks and ships with energy.”

Yet, Peters agrees that alternatives need to be sought out ultimately because traditional fossil fuels are limited in their supply and burning them entails questions concerning their impact on health.

Nuclear technology as the solution
In his opinion piece, Peters advocates nuclear power as the alternative, writing: “If now the chemical energy sources cause too much damage to humans and nature and will run out in the foreseeable future, and the surrounding renewable energies cannot provide a comprehensive energy supply, only nuclear energy sources remain. Physics does not permit other energy sources. From these we can show that they have the potential to deliver clean and highly concentrated energy forever. Of particular importance is the fact that nuclear energy can provide energy for all applications that human civilization needs, i.e. not only electrical energy but also for heating, transport and industrial process energy.”

Peters also notes that there are “candidates for a modern energy supply by means of nuclear energy”, with the most promising being the dual fluid reactor as it is inherently safe because the physical processes prevent it from getting out of control and it is emissions-free.

Sun and wind inadequate
In Peters view, it’s been shown on multiple occasions that energies from the sun, wind and biomass are not yet suitable for powering entire modern societies.

The German energy expert criticizes Germany and the EU’s narrow focus “on promoting only a few power generation technologies” while ignoring more comprehensive energy supply concepts.

He warns: “In the end, even the German public will not be able to avoid the banal physical reality: Without nuclear energy sources, it will not be possible to abandon chemical energy sources due to the pitfalls of renewable energies. A new start in energy policy is therefore urgently needed.”
No Tricks Zone

Björn Peters: adults don’t believe in fairy tales.