Essay by Eric Worrall
German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Green Party): “That’s bitter, but it’s simply necessary in this situation to lower gas usage,”
Germany to fire up coal plants as Russia turns down the gas
As Russia reduces its supply of natural gas, Economy Minister Robert Habeck has said Germany must curb its usage. Otherwise, things “could get tight in winter,” he said.
Germany must limit its use of gas for electricity production and prioritize the filling of storage facilities to compensate for a drop in supply from Russia, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Sunday.
In a move that goes against the principles of his environmentally-friendly Green Party, the country will also have to increase the burning of coal, Habeck said.
…
“To reduce gas consumption, less gas must be used to generate electricity. Coal-fired power plants will have to be used more instead,” the Economy Ministry said in a statement.
Habeck also said more gas had to be pumped into storage facilities. “Otherwise, it will be really tight in winter,” he said. Currently gas storage facilities in Germany are around 57% full.
Habeck lamented the necessity to use more coal to produce electricity, but described the current situation as serious.
“That’s bitter, but it’s simply necessary in this situation to lower gas usage,” he said. The coalition government has made it its goal to make German energy production coal-free by 2030.
…
Read more: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-to-fire-up-coal-plants-as-russia-turns-down-the-gas/a-62182321
Habeck is very much a deep green, in April he pushed through legislation to raise Germany’s energy target to 80% renewables. He is also an opponent of nuclear energy.
Did Habeck backflip on coal to save his own skin, from a public backlash if people lose their heating this winter? Or because he puts Germany first, above his green principles? Whatever the explanation, and despite my misgivings about Habeck’s record, I see Habeck’s decision to support coal as a step forward, a small step towards a return to energy sanity. An example which other Western greens could learn by.
Wadda ya mean “return to coal”?
The reality is –
they never quit coal!
Lignite, filthy fuel. Gas is much cleaner.
Uranium is far better.
Thorium would be….? That’s right….far far better.
If it could ever get into utility scale production and provide reliable generation…which it isn’t and hasn’t
Call me when you have a utility scale plant up and running.
https://www.copenhagenatomics .com
Sorry Anti_griff but that link only indicated…
Component testing only.
Not Grid Scale production
Not even a single W, KW, MW or GW of generation
Not a realistic Per Unit cost
So far, all they offer is…
Purified Salt
A device they call Molten Salt Loop
That’s All Folks
Still no more pie in the sky than Steorn Orbo
Apart from providing Russia with more nuclear targets to hit in EU.
See, that is another EU problem with Russia… as in a military conflict.
Russia does not even need it’s nuclear missile arsenal versus EU and NATO… as a deterrent.
Far too many nuclear plants already in EU territory… as formidable targets to have EU over night get in an adult diapers crisis…
if in case Russia needs to exploit such as a given, if pushed that far.
without Russia even actually getting in an actual nuclear arms deterrent against EU.
funny, isn’t it!
There is a tag price there for any thing, pros and cons… that shall not be ignored.
cheers
Really? And none of the contamination will blow in the Russian’s direction? And how many more similar but less protected (Chernobyl reactors had no containment building) reactors due the Russian’s have??
Goose
Gander
M.A.D.
You completely missed the point.
Raving lunatic.
Do you ever think anything through before writing all that BS?
Ignoring CO2 emissions that are a net benefit, lignite plant does emit more particulates than hard coal plant but no nitrous oxide (?) and there are technologies to remove sulphur dioxide.
Given the vast lignite and hard coal resources if a fraction of the wealth wasted on so-called renewables could be directed towards more research genuine air pollution from lignite and hard coal could be minimized.
All energy technologies have negative effects, the so-called renewables are not environmentally perfect but even if they were it would be a case of the ‘perfect’ being the enemy of the good.
The unreliables are an environmental disaster. Almost ALL of what goes into them will end up in a landfill because they are not “sustainable” the leftist catch phrase that is supposed to mean recyclable.
So Chris, please do not give the unreliables the benefit of thinking that have LESS negative environmental impact that ANY other power source because they don’t.
I don’t remember the exact numbers, and the article did not say how long the experiment was run (if it was an experiment. Perhaps it has something to do with explained long existing policy. Anyway, a couple of years ago or so, an article covered a paper published in Ching about two significantly large communities. One was supplied with plentiful free (if I remember correctly) coal for home heating and cooking, the other was forbidden any coal use. Of course there might have been other factors, not explored, or at least not mentioned, that were as important, or more important.
Regardless, the measure was the difference in recorded average lifetime for the inhabitants of those two areas. The average age at death was, I believe 76 years and a few months, not so different than many places in the west. The coal use area had an average life span about two or three months shorter than that of the coal free area. The claim was high statistical significance.
Obviously, you overlooked the YUGE suck factor of having to do without energy for
one’s lifetime. I’d willingly give up three months for a lifetime of ample energy vs
living one where you had a meager existence. Try it & you’ll know why very quickly!
Coal for home use??? No wonder the slightly shorter lifespan – I would have expected a lot more given the nature of the small, inefficient, leaky, dirty coal burning units – the ones Chinese officials bent over backwards to get rid of during the smog crisis a few years ago.
BTW – the other group, what energy type they use? Electricity generated by the coal users of the first group?
Add some scrubbers.
Lignite beats being cold this winter.
Gas is NOT cheaper when you CAN’T GET ENOUGH!
The brown coal fired power stations in the State of Victoria, Australia, were modelled on that technology observed in Germany after WW1 by an Australian engineer and senior military officer.
Monash. Well if that’s what your resource is , then you use it. They once mined coal right under the centre of Sydney too.
There are coal mines from below land on shore far out under the ocean along the East Coast of Australia, Newcastle Region and South of Sydney that have been closed because the travelling time to the coal face reduces working hours for the miners and for transporting the coal back.
And many other deposits of coal not being mined, black and brown coal.
This report is BS, it’s all made up.
Germany is self-sufficient in wind power.
Griff keeps telling us so it must be true
Hahahaha 🙂
110% wind & solar, so the story goes.
Spare generation capacity just in case France needs propping up.
Seemingly the UK has been propping up France quite a lot recently and by burning gas of all things.
Due to some sort of bureaucratic bungle, UK recently had sooo much gas (and no available storage) it didn’t know what to do with all..
As I write, UK is exporting 3GW to France – (see attached)
Where does it go after that, not Germany buy any chance?
(Isn’t the craziest thing, solar is outperforming wind right now – but there again – at solar noon on the day prior to the summer solstice)
Don’t they achieve that 110% at noon on the Second Tuesday of every week?
LOL 🙂
“Germany’s Windexit…Old Wind Turbines Dismantled Without Replacement…”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/08/germanys-windexitold-wind-turbines-dismantled-without-replacementlooming-massive-power-outage/
griff
April 9, 2021
I find this very hard to believe…
and anyway, there’s going to be a considerable increase in offshore wind…
So, one has to ask griff what happened to that considerable increase?
Considerable increase in Offshore Wind is really an increase in Onshore Blowviation
waiting for Griff to answer
Ho ho, you had me fooled for a second!
Yes,
of course… these guys had it already solved that problem, easily, with more and more wind farms and solar farms investments and projects.
Especially when such investment-projects very much supported and protected legally, by specific legislation and laws… like nothing else before.
What happened!
Why more brown coal now!
cheers
Not just coal, the Greens will keep nuclear running as well. And I would not even blame them, because it is simply necessary. Also in the bigger picture, with Europe meant to lead the transition, there is no point in being a bad example by killing off your own economy. There are simply things you can not predict.
However, it is amazing what light it shines onto Merkel. The “conservative” leader that got Germany into all the trouble, that needs to be fixed by conservative measures by the Green(!!!) party. You just can not make this up.
“He is also an opponent of nuclear energy.”
Are you saying that this is false? I agree that if someone isn’t a strong proponent of nuclear, they aren’t serious about CO2 reductions. I think support for nuclear could be found across the political spectrum, the only downside I see is that it could eliminate scarcity, which politicians prefer to maintain as a means of control and leverage.
That’s the beauty of MMP politics. All the guilty parties have their fingerprints on this. Even the previous head honcho Merkel had a coaltion with SPD which was behind her more unbelievable energy choices. This time SPD is in charge with Greens and Free Democrats backing their moves. It’s the whole political class whose chickens have come home to roost
No, those chickens are resting firmly on the backs of regular citizens that listened to the lies of the UN IPCC, politicians, bureaucrats, NGOs, media & etc. With the cock-up in the Ukraine they have others to blame now.
reckon Angela “the innocent granny” was Stasi all along.
She sure ticked all the right boxes.
Reality is a bugga !
Habeck wants to avoid that people will die next winter due to gas shotage (most heatings in Appartement buildings in towns where their voters mainly reside use gas). Even more important for this green commy is to not upset his party line, where nuclear is evil.
Habeck is fully anti-nuke to the point of advising others to not turn to nuclear & even criticizing
Belgium for delaying its nuke phase-out plan.
France gets its uranium from Kazakhstan and Niger. Several E European countries only have
authorized supplies from Russia.
https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-nuclear-power-uranium-plants-europe-imports-germany-sanctions-ukraine-war/
Coal power is possible much more quickly than nuclear power and, at least in the short run, for much less money.
This is probably true, though there are 3 nuclear plant that were just put off the grid end of 2021. It was said they could be run at 75% for a few years with the charge still installed. Off course, Germany has many idle coal plants incl. Lignite ones.
Planners who know that their decisions have a high probability of generating homicides should be told to expect that they will be tried for murder. That is what is happening now, pure and simple premeditated criminal conduct.
Similar fates should apply to those like bankers who advise against providing funds for cleaner fuels than animal dungs in places like some African countries. Geoff S
This seems like an admission of failure to me.
Will heads roll? (Do pigs fly?)
Have the politicians been getting grilled mercilessly and relentlessly by journalists? Oh, my mistake – journalism is dead.
Will there be any objection from the citizens when they get shut down again?
Yes. It’s only bringing forward what would have happened eventually
Add hydro to the unreliables list as you can have not enough water or too much-
Snowy Hydro’s water problem shows how weather is driving energy crisis (msn.com)
Hot and cold, without being the least bit “extreme” add to energy requirements and thus to a crisis of some sort when there is any fuel shortage, but it isn’t really weather that is driving the current situation. Weather only make the burden heaver or lighter from day to day, week to week, etc.
Energy Minister in Oz dials back on the climate changing rhetoric handballing the problem to the ESB-
Mr Bowen says the government will work with the Energy Security Board on the proposed capacity mechanism to ensure energy reliability during the transition to renewables.
The board has recommended gas and coal-fired generators as an ongoing part of the energy mix, while renewable energy and storage gradually takes over the national electricity grid.
‘Worst pressures’ of energy supply over (msn.com)
Interesting where what one could call the flash point is.
There must come a time to all emergent green politics a moment when reality intrudes temporarily with fantasy.
Exactly how bad and desperate must the German Government be to take this step in Summer?
Australia is 18 months behind due to a winter mild power failure and a Tasmanian Hydro source with no war or Russians.
Much higher green flash point to hit.
Boris trying to go nuclear but will take 8 years.
Russia no gas to Gernany.
France small amount of Nuclear power to Germany .
Britain punished for leaving EU and not being French gets no Channel electricity.
Learns what windmills and solar panels do to thousands of pensioners dying in the cold.
Better buy some more Santos Australian gas and oil shares!
The ESB spells it out clearly-
Coal, gas plants to receive payments (msn.com)
However note they in turn handball the hard decisions to the States which creates a further mess for the NEM. The most obvious being South Australia dependent on brown coal backup from Vic and also NSW black coal with the new interconnector underway there.
You can easily see it will be every State for themselves if rolling greenouts occur in peak summer but the clear message from the ESB is the grid won’t work without expensive storage for the unreliables. The climate changers ignore that at their peril.
SA has Leigh creek coal but they blew up pt agutta powerplant
whoops
Remember the target we proudly announced and you State dudes do the hard yards and whatever it takes OK-
Chris Bowen says states can decide how to provide backup energy generation but must meet 2030 target (msn.com)
LOL.
And not many years ago during the last major drought that ended with heavy rainfall early in 2020 Snowy Hydro had a severe shortage of water in the dams, and earlier the State Government of Victoria closed the Hazlewood Power Station (brown coal) that the government had leased to an operator (forced closure by raising the price of brown coal), Hazlewood generated 20-25 per cent of State electricity.
Snowy Hydro private company was owned by shareholders being the New South Wales and Victoria State Governments and the Federal Government.
With Hazlewood closed an electricity supply crisis developed and the hydro power stations could not provide much help and the State Government of Victoria rushed to buy and install Diesel generators at various locations including on the Mornington Peninsula.
But even today the State Governments and new Federal Government apparently believe that wind, solar, batteries and pumped hydro Snowy 02 will in the not too distant future replace the need for coal and gas fuelled generators. They are even talking about a new transmission line system to improve efficiency of supply.
What would Vanuatu say?
Oh look…. no clothes at all
Germany uses 60GW. It has 4GW of constant bio generation. For storage, it has 40GWh stored
hydro & 44GWh battery. The large scale batteries are 1GWh & the home storage is 3GWh. They’re
counting on 32GWh from their 600k+ EVs & 8GWh from a similar number of hybrids. While the total
stored energy will last 1.5 hrs @ 56GW & is actually a lot relative to what everyone else has, they’re
relying a lot on EVs & hybrids. That could be a real blast if the power goes out on a wintry, late
afternoon when a lot of cars are stuck on the autobahn before they got their overnight charge!
https://probidenergy.com/2022/03/21/residential-segement-continues-to-drive-german-battery-storage-market-but-grid-scale-could-see-comeback/
Nuclear power is since the mid 1980s the largest source of electricity in France, with in 2019 a generation of 379.5 TWh and a total electricity production of 537.7 TWh. In 2018, the nuclear share was 71.67%, the highest percentage in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France
Warren Buffett: “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” The Germans left their shorts on the beach.
” German Vice Chancellor Announces a Return to Coal “, ” … it’s simply necessary in this situation to lower gas usage … ”
…with all the closed nuclear plants that Germany has … ?
Sanctions don’t work particularly with inelastic demand products-
Russia is now China’s biggest oil supplier after Beijing increased imports by 55% (msn.com)
When dumb watermelons came to rely on Russian gas as the insurer of last resort for their unreliables fantasy Putin knew had them by the ghoulies and all they could do was bleat like lost lambs. If seeming has failed they can enjoy the coal seaming now.
This guy is vice chancellor of Germany and he can’t afford a razor from Aldi? Seriously what is going on?
If only they had some nuclear power plants eh?
They should have developed Thorium Power….and could have had LNG from Canada….and a gas pipeline from Israel…..could have…..should have
Return to Coal = Return to Sanity. Coal never went away but the sanity did.
Coal is the Rodney Dangerfield of the energy industry: It doesn’t get no respect. Even when the elevator door opens for it to go up where the other energy systems are, the operator asks: “Basement”? It just gets no respect at all I tell you. None.
Oh, the delicious irony!
The idiots turned off their nuke plants too, as France has started doing. Utter stupidity.
Let’s not forget the Dutch, where a major gas field was turned off.
Better send in John Kerry with some shuttle diplomacy to put a stop to that practical thinking. It could spread like wildfire if left unattended.
Kerry could stop in the UK and pick up Griffter for some immoral support.
Yeah, Kerry says we can’t go back to coal.
The climate changers in Canberra are on notice now and they can’t hide or obfuscate a moment longer-
‘Reliable’ energy should be the ‘priority’ (msn.com)
It’s all about reliable power now stoopids!
Where is Griff when you need him? We all need a laugh.
Allow me to fill in for Griff and suggest what he would say here….
Quote:
“Germany is only going back to coal temporarily because of the sanctions against Russian gas and oil. Eventually they will be 100% renewable.”
Am I right Griff?
Wow, I posted this just 2 minutes after Griff actually posted a comment to this effect. I hadn’t read his comment below beforehand. Griff is all too predictable.
Griff sends his apologies as he was late on picking up his weekly climate narrative and marching orders, but will be here shortly.
A year of so ago, griff was telling us how it didn’t matter that power from offshore windmills dropped to about zero for several weeks, because they were able to rely on coal fired power plants to make up the difference.
The only problem was that the week before griff had been crowing about how all the coal fired power plants were scheduled for elimination over the next few years.
From the article: ““To reduce gas consumption, less gas must be used to generate electricity. Coal-fired power plants will have to be used more instead,” the Economy Ministry said in a statement.”
And aren’t you lucky you have this coal-fired option.
If this natural gas shortage had happened a few more years down the road, after Germany had dismantled its coal and nuclear power generation, then what would you do in this situation? Where would you turn? The answer is there would be nowhere to turn. You guys should keep your options open. You never know when you might need them. Hang on to those coal and nuclear facilities for a little longer until the situation clarifies itself.
The sane commentariat is not mincing words in Oz any longer-
Australia is on ‘trajectory’ to higher energy prices at ‘peak periods’ (msn.com)
Coal, what a great idea! Most of the time I would have to quote LA senator John Kennedy when it comes to this guy, ” I can’t get my head far enough up my ass to see things from his point of view. “
He was referring to Pelosi and Shumer.
So since the steps towards reducing CO2 produced some inconvenience but appeased the Green crowd they continued. The new reality is different and thankfully they/government responded appropriately. Will it be a lesson learned or will they wash away the significance with propaganda?
a temporary return to coal.
after all, as Germany is planning to do away with gas and coal entirely, all they have to do is keep on with the renewables roll out…
I understand that the sailing ship captain who explained to the crew while the ship was becalmed a long way from anywhere not to worry as renewable energy must arrive sometime recommended steam power to the ship’s owners.
Extra sails was not an option.
When does the German export model fail in the process?
Wind Europe press release 14th June 2022
” In the first quarter of 2022 all five European wind turbine manufacturers were operating at a loss”
That’s about right.
The Public is also operating at a loss because of these stupid energy policies.
Windmills = Lose, lose.
And when the wind isn’t blowing at night, during the winter, just get the morgues ready to handle all the dead Germans. After all, there are too many people on the planet.
Only in Griff’s imagination does the wind blow 24h a day, and the Sun never sets.
The production of electricity by wind in Germany for the year so far.
The huge variability of wind is clear for all to see.
AYUP 100% reliably unreliable
I think pretty much everyone expected this response from you, Griff
ain’t gonna happen, mate, even the EU are waking up to just how foolish a plan this is
“a temporary return to coal.”
This is called “whistling past the graveyard”.
“But, But…global catastrophe ! We are all gonna die! Think of the children…!”
“Oh – meh. It might get a bit cold – crank up those furnaces…”
Remember when the EU said you have no enemies?
If I had only one wish it would be to force these green devils to live by their own words. No gasoline, no fossil fuel energy, no nuclear energy, no products grown with fertilizer, no fossil fuel transport, no consuming products transported by fossil fuels, no products made from fossil fuel by products, no products made using fossil fuel energy. They are fools and they deserve to perish in the cold freezing or miserably hot dark. I don’t like them.
LMAO. Imagine that. Soar and wind cannot handle the energy needs of any season. Greenies are gonna be upset that they still have to use energy which makes sense cuz it works.
Changing with a gun pointed at you isn’t change
Why is nobody talking about Ultra-Supercritical Coal power plants that are much more efficient and less polluting? They use supercritical steam and pulverized coal.