Less than a month after the failed Bonn UN climate confab, Germany has announced a most audacious energy policy: in order to shutter nuclear plants (but not completely scuttle their economy), the German government will direct climate fund cash to building coal and natural gas plants. You can’t make this stuff up.
Germany plans to dump nuclear power by 2022 but clearly needs to meet burgeoning electricity demand especially for a still powerful manufacturing economy dependent upon exports. Solar panels at their latitude and windmills are not going to suffice, so the solution is more coal. The environmental movement must be apoplectic with so many politically correct wires crossing at once.
With yesterday’s story of “wide blackouts” expected to affect Europe (during winter, no less) due to Germany’s anti-nuclear decision by Chancellor Merkel, Germany has decided not to freeze during the winter by relying on renewable energy resources:
The plan has come under stiff criticism, but the Ministry of Economics and Technology defended the idea. A spokeswoman said it was necessary as the government switches from nuclear to other renewable energy sources and added that the money would promote the most efficient plants possible.
Will Merkel cave or shovel climate fund cash into coal burners?
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Ah democracy, you make me laugh sometimes.
It takes a lot of energy to manufacture the components that get assembled to make automobiles (Aluminum, Steel, rubber, plastics, etc). Germany could always get some of their power from France- who would likely be more then happy to built a couple more nuclear plant to meet their needs. Speaking of Nuclear there is going to be a meeting on the subject for California coming up soon-
“Committee Workshop on California Nuclear Power Plant Issues
The California Energy Commission’s 2011 Integrated Energy Policy Report (IEPR) Committee will conduct a workshop to review California utilities’ progress in completing studies and actions recommended by the Energy Commission and directives by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) during ongoing and future plant license renewal evaluations for Diablo Canyon and the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The workshop will also discuss uncertainties about seismic and tsunami hazards at Diablo and SONGS along with the environmental, safety, and economic implications of recent events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.
Chair Robert Weisenmiller is the Presiding Member of the IEPR Committee and Commissioner Karen Douglas is the Associate Member. Vice-Chair Jim Boyd is the State Liaison Officer to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and will participate in this workshop. Commissioners and staff from the CPUC may also attend and participate.
TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2011
Beginning at 10 a.m.
CALIFORNIA ENERGY COMMISSION
1516 Ninth Street
First Floor, Hearing Room A
Sacramento, California
(Wheelchair Accessible)
Remote Attendance and Availability of Documents
Web Conferencing – Presentations and audio from the meeting will be broadcast via our WebEx web conferencing system.
Computer Log on with a Direct Phone Number:
– Please go to [https://energy.webex.com] and enter the unique meeting number 923 884 546.
– When prompted, enter your information and the following meeting password meeting@10 . (Please note that password is case sensitive.)
– After you log in, a prompt will appear on-screen for you to provide your phone number. In the Number box, type your area code and phone number and click OK to receive a call back on your phone for the audio of the meeting. International callers can use the “Country/Region” button to help make their connection.
For more information:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/2011_energypolicy/notices/index.html
(If link above doesn’t work, please copy entire link into your web browser’s URL)”
Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors need serious consideration, assuming Rossi’s LENR fails to be commercially viable.
Otherwise reopen the Welsh anthracite coal mines and give our unemployed youth a chance.
Germany will continue to lead and come to its senses in the very near future.
1DandyTroll says:
July 13, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Ha ha only crazed climate communist hippies would’ve thought otherwise.
—————————————————————————————————–
Yup, you got it!
I regret to have to say that it appears to me that Rossi’s LENR is an attempt to get Govt money, one way or another. Having an Italian invention developed by a Greek company is just a little bit strange. Add in the management of the US company coming from the EPA, and it just doesn’t look like a going enterprise. It looks like a handout waiting to happen.
I’ve followed LENR for 22 years, promoters have repeatedly made claims that disappeared when subjected to scrutiny – the science continues, and understanding improves, but promoters are the bane of scientific progress. see Al Gore et al.
Most Germans are no stupid beer drinkers. They know, no cheap energy no Germany.
No German Bailout money ,no EU.
But now we know, CO2 is not the problem. Germans are not stupid.
I think the Germans do the right thing at the right time:
a) Exiting Nuclear Energy Production –> This will for sure give the development of renewal energy sources a huge blast (renewal energy is not only about wind and solar!). Germany could become a technology leader in this area due to this. The economics might benefit from this in the future.
b) Facing Reality –> Germany most of the time has the fascinating ability to find a pragmatic way. Building effective coal and gas power plants is just pragmatic for ensuring cheap energy based on not too limited ressources at this time. Since many of these units are smaller and easier to handle, Germany will stay re-active to new development trends or new findings regarding alternate energy sources.
To be fair, the minister proposing this – and whom I expect to be overruled by Merkel in the next few days – was very critical of the hasty nuclear exit now avowed by the government. He is a level-headed and reasonable person – something of a dinosaur and definitely a misfit in German politics these days.
The situation in germany is kind of special. There’s a huge anti nuclear movement since the 80’s. 2001 the government decided to dump all nuclear plants by 2021. This decision was reverted last Oktober. After Fukushima, politics went crazy and the decision was reverted again. Eight plants have been shut down shortly after the incident. The remaining seven plants will be shut down in 2022.
Before the shut down the portion of nuclear power was 23% and 60% in southern Germany. This winter will show if the grid can compensate this loss…
This is just further descent by the Germans into irrational reaction, rather than fact based, rational planning. I have no objection to them building and improving coal fired plants. It is irrational, however, to use ‘Climate Fund’ cash to do this. It is irrational to HAVE a ‘Climate Fund’, to begin with!
Somehow with France not only the largest exporter of electricity in the world, 30% of the total generated is sold to other European countries, of which 80% of the total output by Nuclear power AND the French authorities are expanding the Nuclear generation programme, I doubt if Germany’s dereliction of Nuclear power will affect France, until they start having to pay exorbitant prices for it of course, we can’t have Herr Merkel admitting she was wrong now, can we?
KING COAL!
Burn, baby, burn!
I’m certain many Germans are only too well aware of the potential irony of this situation.
It’s democracy of a sort, but the greens are overplaying their hand and leveraging their position in the establishment – and people will see through the simplistic fairy tales the watermelons have been preaching.
The Germans know only too well that the “rush to renewables” is an expensive farce and a woeful eyewateringly expensive abject failure. perpetrated by a shouty, innumerate and ideologically hollow green movement that has erected taboos and dogma to deflect from sane debate and continues to bray away unconfronted by a largely dim witted and politically timid media as is certainly the case in the Anglophone bubble.
Reality… inconvenient – I’m waiting for some prominent gweenies to talk their way out of this one.
I’ve read somewhere that Rossi’s “E-Cat” (Energy Catalyzer) can’t heat water beyond 200 degrees F; the reaction stops. So it’s only good for space heating, not electricity generation. Still, that’s something. And it could be used to pre-heat the water going into the boiler at a power-generation station.
I don’t think the Germans are suicidal. They won’t wreck their economy when they know renewables won’t perform. Merkel made a big mistake knocking nuclear, pandering to Hamburg and elsewhere to trying to help her party avoid losing local elections (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/19/us-germany-hamburg-idUSTRE71I3WE20110219). It didn’t work. So the next best alternative to an admission of blatant political trickery is to invest heavily into coal and natural gas. It also serves as a hit against the Left, who didn’t support Merkel when she tossed them a big bone.
Politicians. Sometimes you wonder what they were thinking. Unfortuately, given the poor understanding most voters have of deeper issues, the politicians do have to play these games. Only when the economic conditions become too painful will the dumbass voters finally consider they might have been wrong (or lied to). Ah, but don’t they usually forget their lessons as soon as conditions improve? That old formula might be changing. I’m not convinced we are ever going back to our old ways. They just won’t work anymore. If we want nuclear power, we only have to wait. There aren’t many other good choices.
Rad hysteria, like cliimate hysteria, will go away. When Japan returns to normal (it won’t take very long), their support for nuclear power will probably go back up. They face even more difficult choices than Germany or we do. Japan is not known for its coal and oil reserves. The japanese people can be fooled for a time by anti-nuke political forces, but economic reality will hit them hard. They’ve had very tough economic prospects since the early 1990s. You can bet they will want to maintain their standard of living. Dependence on green power is the fast track to third-world living conditions. Germans won’t go there either. Californians? Those are the quintessential deniers of reality, believing they are so much smarter than the rest of the world.
Can we add Germany to the list now……..
Canada
Japan
U.S.
Russia
India
LOL
Here’s the link to an article about Rossi’s contract with his US partners:
http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/energi_miljo/energi/article3179019.ece
Rossi’s claim has stood up to ten times more scrutiny than his predecessors’.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again – this past winter Scotland was forced to import nuclear generated electricity from France after its windmills failed to deliver. Only a disaster will end this charade.
Well, Germany can now buy all the shale gas found in Poland the Greens critisised so much not so long ago.
Oh and btw, LOL. I’m sure this will be the environment friendly, carbon neutral coal. Good grief.
You’re a merry old soul. (Unlike James (“death train”) Hansen today.)
Of course the humongous Russian Nord Stream gas pipeline from the “North Pole” across the Baltic to Germany will take some of the pressure off in some areas – but.. well… it’s bound to pile it on in others….
They are GERMANS!
sheesh!
For centuries politicians have been reversing what they told us for our vote. Maybe now the reversal will be in our favour: green promises in, green promises out (when the bill is added up).
It gets better. Sweden is one of the most pro-AGW countries on the planet. The Swedish Government owned power company Vattenfall is building a new 675 MW power plant at Boxberg in Germany, powered by lignite. This was planned well before Fuikushima.