‘Renewables’ Failure Rekindles German Love Affair With Nuclear & Coal-Fired Power

The fact that consumers want power as and when they need it, at prices they can afford, has scuttled Germany’s grand wind and solar ‘transition’.

This is one of the stories that the MSM has been running away from for years; since February 22, they’ve been running the meme that it’s all Vlad Putin’s fault. Ignoring the fact that the rot had well and truly set in years before.

Back in October last year, the decision was made to scrap a fleet of wind turbines to allow for the expansion of an open-cut coal mine at Garzweiler in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (see above). Another example of just how shallow are claims that we’re well on our way to an all-wind and sun-powered future.

The future for coal-fired power in Germany has never looked better.

Likewise, Germany’s so-called ‘Greens’ have been forced to backflip on long-held policy plans to knock off Germany’s three remaining nuclear power plants.

In the midst of another bitter Northern winter, with wind and solar output amounting to little more than a rounding error, it seems even that the lunatics in the hard-left understand the necessity of keeping electricity up to the proles (perhaps they are becoming edgy about millions of freezing, hungry and powerless Germans taking to the streets).

Contrary to the line run by renewable energy rent-seekers and their climate cult acolytes, coal-fired power has a long, long way to run.

Bryan Jung provides the details below.

Germany Returns to Coal as Energy Security Trumps Climate Goals
Epoch Times
Bryan Jung
22 December 2022

Germany is returning to coal as it faces its worst energy crisis in decades, even as it officially pursues its climate change goals.

The central European nation is consuming coal at the fastest pace in almost six years, as it becomes one of the few countries to increase imports of the fuel in 2023, reported Bloomberg.

One of the oldest and cheapest sources of energy, coal, has made a comeback after soaring energy costs worldwide, particularly in Europe, which is suffering from an acute economic crisis due to declining relations with Moscow.

A few coal plants were temporarily reactivated in Europe this year because of gas shortages after being closed or mothballed to weather the current energy crisis.

Global coal consumption hit a record high of over 8 billion tonnes this year, said the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Despite the spike in coal use in the European Union, carbon emissions for November were at their lowest in 30 years, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

Germany Faces Severe Energy Crisis
Germany’s Green Party and the coalition government in Berlin, which it is part of, planned on phasing out coal by 2038 but is now pushing for an earlier target of 2030.

However, the Russian war with Ukraine and the ensuing loss of the majority of Europe’s natural gas supplies have led to a revival of the venerable fossil fuel.

Europe’s largest economy is attempting to balance the short-term priority of boosting its energy security while keeping with its long-term “net-zero emissions” goals.

Approximately 36.3 percent of the electricity on the German power grid between July and September of this year came from coal-fired power plants, up from 31.9 percent in the third quarter of 2021, according to German statistics office Destatis.

The German statistics agency reported that coal-to-power generation output rose by 13.3 percent year over year to 42.9 TWh in the same period, while overall German power output, at 118.1 TWh during that time by 0.5 percent.

The IEA said that Germany saw the highest rise in coal consumption, with a rise of 19 percent, or 26 million tonnes, over last year.

Meanwhile, energy from natural gas rose slightly in Germany, despite the higher prices, while wind and hydro output were low.

Berlin Delays Shutting Down Nuclear And Coal
Domestic nuclear output fell during the third quarter after Germany reduced the number of its active reactors to three from six a year earlier due to Berlin’s decision to phase out the technology following the Fukushima disaster.

Back in October, Chancellor Olaf Scholz overruled his coalition by keeping the three remaining nuclear plants online until, at the latest, mid-April 2023.

“Only in Germany, with 10 gigawatts, is the reversal at a significant scale. This has increased coal power generation in the European Union, which is expected to remain at these higher levels for some time,” according to the IEA’s annual coal market report on Dec. 16.

Due to maintenance problems at French nuclear power plants, Germany has become, for the first time this year, a net exporter of electricity to France, said Destatis.

Nuclear reactor capacity in France is now at about 68 percent, from 50 percent last month, according to Bloomberg.

The IEA said that as French nuclear output recovers and electrical production from renewable energy in Germany increases, the country would likely return to being a net energy importer within a few years.

However, the German government had issued a waiver to keep open 1.6 GW of lignite-fired power plants through March 2024, instead of closing them by the end of 2022 as planned, Reuters reported.

The decommissioning of 2.6 GW of hard coal and 1.2 GW of lignite power plants in Germany have now been postponed.

Berlin has also created a “gas replacement reserve” with a total capacity of 11.6 GW, including 1.9 GW of lignite and 4.3 GW of hard coal power plants which will remain online until 2024, according to the IEA report.
Epoch Times