By P Gosselin on 27. November 2021
The energy source that Germany moves to shut down, rescued the country from widespread blackouts in 2021.
Blackout News reports that more of Germany’s power is being produced by coal and nuclear fuels. In 2021, due to unfavorable weather conditions, wind and solar energy production plummeted in 2021 compared to 2020. “Germany’s power mix is getting dirtier.”
The figures were compiled by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Energiebilanzen (Working Group for Energy Budgets) and based on the first 9 months of the year. Compared to 2020, the first nine months of 2021 saw a 3.3% increase in primary energy consumption – mainly due to economic reco0very.
20% more coal power in first 9 months of 2021
But what surprised experts, Blackout News reports, were the sources of the energy: “Here, the largest increase in absolute terms can be seen in the coal-fired power plants that emit the most CO2. Hard coal consumption alone was 20 per cent higher in the first three quarters of the current year than in the previous year. Electricity and heat generation from hard coal increased by 28 percent.”
Lack of wind and sun, despite added capacity
According to Blackout News: “The working group attributes the high additional consumption of coal for energy generation compared to the same period last year to the unfavorable weather conditions for renewable energies. Wind power and solar plants delivered significantly less electricity compared to the same period last year despite higher installation capacity.”
The 2021 results further highlight the unreliability of green energies such as wind and sun as a source of stable energy, and remind that Germany’s plan to shut down its remaining coal and nuclear power plants will be far more difficult than the government appears to believe.
Renewables’s output plummet 16.1%
“In relation to total energy consumption, the share of renewables has decreased by a total of 16.1 percent compared to the previous year,” writes Blackout News. “Electricity generation by wind power plants fell sharply, by 18 percent for onshore plants and 14 percent for offshore plants.”
Solar energy fared even worse, producing only half as much as the year earlier.
To compensate for the missing wind and solar energies, both coal and nuclear plants had to take up the slack. Yet, these are the two conventional energy sources that the government aims to take offline completely by 2038 (nuclear by 2024!). A number a energy experts warn that this is a recipe for power grid disaster – especially as the German government moves to get more electric cars on the road.
Looming blackouts
Blackout News warns: “But if the government sticks to its plan to shut down the coal-fired power plants as planned, it is only a matter of time before the supply collapses. Therefore, prepare yourself in good time for a prolonged power blackout.”
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“To Be Phased Out”
Didn’t COP26 write to down that coal needs to be “phased down”?
Down or out…. it makes a huge difference
So by diverting capital from oil and gas to renewables we get increased coal production, which has about twice the carbon emissions as you would get from a gas power stations. But hey, at least the Greenies had good intentions! Incidentally, these folks don’t learn, right now they’re trying to block a big gas development in the North Sea. Do they really want us to burn more coal!?
Thinking ahead has never been a strong point with leftists.
You really aren’t good informed about Germoney, are you?
All that hasn’t anything to do with the Greenies who were all the time in the political opposition.
The elctricity providers, Chancelor Merkel and her CDU/CSU background together with the Social-democrats and the liberals in the FDP: alltogether were during the last decade not at all willing to give up the shit ‘Braunkohle’ aka lignite, the worst fossile fuel imaginable after oil sands.
And… what now concerns real coal (‘Steinkohle’ in German): the electricity producers themselves have shutdown several gas plants because burning coal – coming from the US and Australia, he he) was a lot cheaper!
Now, through the CO2 tax, much higher for coal than for gas, the plants resumed work in 2020 and 2021.
The Greenies are now in the government, and through their pressure, coal burning shutdown is for 2030 instead of 2038.
For 2030, 750 TWh / year are planned, with 80 % renews, including huge mass electricity storage devices.
For the moment, there are problems with gas, rien de nouveau à l’Ouest!
But Putin needs money, and his hope to replace Europe by China is ‘plummeting’.
Germany without coal and nuclear will be gefücked
Are these greenish brown jobs in the pit or brownish green jobs or transitional green brown jobs?
Meanwhile in Oz the AEMC faced with the aircons going out one hot summer tries to level the playing field and the usual suspects aint happy-
‘Kill the viability’: big batteries to lose out from electricity grid rule change (msn.com)
All these battery installs are doing at present, apart from squandering precious light weight lithium battery resources for the EV revolution and hold that thought, is creaming off the top with FCAS. Ostensibly to try and fix the problem their unreliables created in the first place but the AEMC has the task of keeping an eye on the big picture. Namely 24/7/365 power to meet demand stoopids.
A wise witch once told me: “Be careful what you wish for”. And the German populace is getting what they wished/asked for. It’s sad.