Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Greenpeace blames the German Merkel government for not being green enough.
21 Dec 2021, 14:21 Benjamin Wehrmann
Germany’s energy consumption rising, renewables share falling in 2021
Energy consumption in Germany has increased in 2021, as the economy recovered from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the country weathered a cold winter. At the same time, a year of depressed wind power production let the share of renewables in the country’s power mix shrink, while coal power made a strong comeback. The developments bode ill for the new German government’s plans to reduce energy use and boost renewables to record shares by 2030 – the same year it plans to end the use of coal. Energy industry representatives say the government’s plans are still feasible, but will require resolute and swift action to succeed.
The consumption of energy in Germany has increased in 2021 compared to the previous year, while the share of renewable energy sources in power production was in decline, figures released by energy market research group AGEB and by energy industry lobby association BDEW have shown. Energy consumption increased by 2.6 percent (12,193 petajoule) compared to 2020, when economic activity was severely depressed due to the coronavirus pandemic, AGEB said, adding that primary energy consumption in the country still ranked significantly below pre-crisis levels from 2019, as pandemic effects could still be felt in 2021 and supply chain interruptions further obstructed economic recovery.
Very cold weather at the beginning of the year also contributed to higher energy use and, according to AGEB, accounted for most of the increase. On the other hand, price hikes on energy markets and in the European emissions trading system (ETS) “visibly slowed down the growth-driven rise in primary energy consumption”, the researchers said.
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Coal industry preparing phase-out despite increasing share in power system
In contrast to the government’s plans,coal power consumption increased markedly, with both hard coal and lignite use up by about 18 percent, whereas natural gas increased by only 4 percent. However, statistical effects played an important role in the year-on-year rise, meaning lignite use still was 5 percent lower than in 2019 and even 25 percent lower than 2018, according to coal industry association DEBRIV. However, even though lignite plants had made a “remarkable contribution” to Germany’s supply security this year and domestic supply with the fossil fuel would not be affected by price hikes like gas or oil, the increase in use in 2021 does not change the technology’s overall demise in Germany, DEBRIV head Thorsten Diercks said.
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Andree Böhling of environmental action NGO Greenpeace called the jump in carbon emissions a “poisoned present” by the previous government of conservative Angela Merkel (CDU). Even if Scholz’s coalition is not to blame for the current situation, it will still have to come up with a response quickly, he argued. “Measures of an action programme must tackle the root cause of rising emissions, meaning substantially higher coal use and growing power consumption,” Böhling said, calling for a ceiling on coal power use in the electricity system and ending coal use by 2030.
Read more: https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/germanys-energy-consumption-rising-renewables-share-falling-2021
If even über green Germany cannot be bothered to maintain momentum for achieving net zero, the renewable revolution is well and truly broken.
Invention of the steam engine quickly resulted in unreliable wind power being replaced by reliable steam power.
Now steam powered electricity generators are being replaced by unreliable wind power.
And this is moving forward?
Hmmm… renewables provided 43% of German electricity in first half of 2021 and 44% in 2019. 2020 was a year of exceptional weather for renewables. Hardly a disaster?
Did they provide electricity when it was required?
griff and his alarmist chums keep on telling us that extreme weather is going to be more frequent as a result of global warming. That should mean that wind droughts become more common.
“Hmmm… renewables provided 43% of German electricity in first half of 2021 and 44% in 2019.”
How many birds did they kill in the process?
Abbott
You are here ‘plain dishonest’, because you should perfectly know this:
How does my question amount to a lie, Bindidon? I think you are getting ahead of yourself. You are a little too eager to discredit me. I understand.
Don’t know, as usual, where you got your figures from but this site says different.
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-coal-tops-wind-as-primary-electricity-source/a-59168105
They say that in the first half of 2021 wind dropped to its lowest level since 2018 and at 22% was 7% lower than in the first half of 2020.
“What led to wind power’s sudden fall…..officials said weather was partly to blame, lack of wind from January to March”
So they are saying wind was supplying only half of what you claim. Show us where you got your figures from, griff, or we will just have to accept that as usual you don’t know what you are talking about.
OK griff, I see you were talking about unreliables and not just wind. But you still only make assertions without any proof so why should anyone believe you?
Dave Andrews
Yeah, this griff guy isn’t the ‘best source evah’ …
Here you can compare the situation in Germany for
There was clearly a big loss (25 % ) in onshore wind power based supply.
But… in 2010, the planning was to have at least 20 GW offshore installed by 2020. We still can’t have much more than 5 GW yet.
Hmmmh.
And the electricity suppliers still did NOT manage to increase the high voltage connections between North and South, with as consequence that nearly all small producers near the North Sea have to disconnect their wind turbines each time the net around them gets saturated.
Hmmmh.
I’m curious, griff, what would it take to get you to change your mind?
I suspect that if it ever happens, you won’t have power to post your epiphany.
Andree Böhling of environmental action NGO Greenpeace called the jump in
carbon emissions a “poisoned present” by the previous government of
conservative Angela Merkel (CDU). Even if Scholz’s
coalition is not to blame for the current situation,
That’s a somewhat misleading description of the situation. It totally ignores the fact that the SPD was in coalition with the CDU/CSU from 2018 to 2021. So, while it is true that ‘Scholz’s coalition’ is not to blame, there is no way that Scholz’s SPD can escape the blame.
If there was any remaining doubt of the demise of NPR, PBS, CNN, Pravda (a/k/a the New York Times), the WaPo, MSNBC, the Associated Press, the La-La Times, ABC, NBC, et al as objective, unbiased, non-partisan providers of reliable news and information, it has been erased by the total absence of reports on the utter and complete failure of Europe’s wind and solar-electricity generation and the E.U.’s desperate measures to keep its citizens from freezing to death in the dark.
It is mind-boggling that these sanctimonious, holier-than-thou “news” organizations have intentionally and deliberately failed to report Europe’s energy crisis.
Climate hypocrite nations like Germany pretend to be concerned with CO2 emissions, but their anti-nuclear policy makes it clear that this is a lie, they have no concern about CO2 whatsoever. They’re in it for something else. It’s not clear what, but it definitely is not anything to with CO2.
But it’s a good thing that there are antinuclear climate hypocrite nations like Germany and elsewhere in Northern Europe and worldwide. It means that there will not be any significant decrease in CO2 emissions, which will continue to be a never-ending booster to the worlds plants and forests, enhancing photosynthesis and making plants more drought resistant. Not to mention enhancing photosynthesis in the oceans resulting in more oxygen ventilation of the deep ocean.
So let the talking heads go bla bla bla forever about reducing CO2 emissions. The persistence of antinuclear superstition will ensure that no real reduction will ever take place.
So accoring to those idiots from Greenpeace Germany is’nt green enough to meet their stanard well Screw Greenpeace