Berlin Blackout Shows Germany’s $5 Trillion Green Scheme Is “Left-Green Ideological Pipe Dream”

From the NoTricksZone

By P Gosselin 

A Fundamental Lesson from the Terrorist Attack on Berlin’s Power Grid

By Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt (Newsletter)

The shutdown of the power supply in southern Berlin has brought the fragility of the “Energiewende” (transition to green energies) policy clearly to our attention.

The goal of the transition to renewable energy is not only to switch the power supply to wind and solar energy but also to transition the other two pillars of energy supply—namely, heating and the transport sector— over to electricity. “Everything to electricity” means abandoning gas and oil in the heating sector and oil (gasoline/diesel) in the motor vehicle sector.

This narrowing of the energy supply down to a single energy carrier was called “sector coupling.” This sector coupling was propagated and celebrated by the “Green high priests” as a sustainable model for the future. Originally, it was an attempt to correct the weakness of renewable energies, which lead to unusable surpluses during periods of high wind and solar production. These useless surpluses were intended to be pushed into the heating and vehicle sectors after storage. It has been described here often enough that this sector coupling leads to exorbitant cost increases. Frontier Economics estimates the total cost of the energy transition until 2045 at an unaffordable 4,800 to 5,400 billion euros.

But now, the attack in Berlin demonstrates to us that such an energy system, based solely on electricity, is highly vulnerable. We are learning that when the power fails, the heat supply also fails—at least when it is supposed to be generated by heat pumps. And to make matters worse, we are learning that in freezing temperatures, heat pumps face total loss due to bursting pipes. This particular “warning label” was certainly not included in the “Habeck heating law,” which the CDU-SPD federal government intends to continue seamlessly. The content of the law will remain the same, but to ensure citizens don’t quite realize it, the name of the law is to be changed.

We are also learning that during a large-scale power outage, electric vehicles can only help if they happened to be charged before the “bang.” Otherwise, this utility also fails.

Until now, there was great resilience associated with being able to rely on two storable systems for 75% of the energy supply: namely, gas for heating and liquid fuel for mobility. Since the events in Berlin, the fact that the third pillar—the power supply, which currently provides 25% of energy consumption—is also now being made weather-dependent while being expected to serve all three pillars, is revealing itself even more clearly as a Left-Green ideological pipe dream that will not survive the reality test.

The text of the first letter claiming responsibility utilizes the reasoning context of Green and Leftist ideologies of climate anxiety:

“In the greed for energy, the earth is drained, sucked dry, burned, maltreated, scorched, raped, destroyed. Entire regions are rendered uninhabitable by the heat. They simply burn. Or habitats disappear under floods or due to rising sea levels. Shutting down fossil fuel power plants is manual labor.”

Except for the last sentence, one could read similar formulations in the party conference resolutions of the German Greens, the Left, and the SPD social democrats. The sentence “Entire regions are rendered uninhabitable by the heat” even comes from a UN report from 2022. The ideological justification for the energy transition stems from the same context of climate alarmism that the “Vulkangruppe” (Volcano Group) uses to justify its criminal actions.

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January 9, 2026 10:06 pm

This narrowing of the energy supply down to a single energy carrier was called “sector coupling.” 

______________________________________________________________________________

Intelligent people, to be polite, would call it “Putting all your eggs in one basket
Stronger language would be more appropriate.

Neil Pryke
January 9, 2026 10:08 pm

Only things connected are the dots…

Reply to  Neil Pryke
January 10, 2026 2:31 am

You missed out the “l” in the word dolts.

Ex-KaliforniaKook
January 9, 2026 10:39 pm

I agree with what you said, albeit all the homes I’ve owned were heated with natural gas or propane. What I’ve learned was that without electricity, the furnace couldn’t start, and of course, the blower couldn’t circulate the heated air.

We live in the mountains a good distance from any utility except electric. To make sure we don’t freeze (or are left in the dark) we have a generator. It is run off propane.

The point is you have to have electricity to run a modern home.

Reply to  Ex-KaliforniaKook
January 10, 2026 1:30 am

Yes. You seem to be describing a situation in North America based on hot air heating, but the same thing applies to the UK based on hot water radiators central heating. UK gas (or oil) heating systems work like this.

You have a thermostat, mains powered. When this is triggered it turns on a mains powered valve. Typically in the UK this is a two way valve, directing the heat to either central heating or hot water. A larger house may have three of these. This will give two heating zones, typically upstairs and downstairs, and hot water.

The mains powered valve opens, this triggers a hot water pump. Also mains powered. The pump circulates the working fluid. Depending on which valves are open, this may send hot water from the boiler heat exchanger through the radiator system or through pipes in a hot water storage cylinder.

The water circulating through the heat exchanger then triggers the internal thermostat of the boiler which fires with mains powered ignition and heats the working fluid. There are of course safeguards so that gas supply cannot be turned on in the absence of ignition. The gas supply…. you guessed it!

No mains power, no heat or hot water. Instant off. No boiler, no rads, nothing. This is 85% of UK homes. Some have a slightly different system where hot water is not stored but is heated on demand, but the mains dependencies are the same.

Then you have cooking, which a generation ago might have been gas and is now almost all electric.

The reality of a national blackout is sitting there with no heat light nor cooking, nor any way to refuel your car. And probably, anyway, no place to go even if your car is already fueled up. This going on for a ove1r two weeks.

This is just on the private dwelllng side for gas heated homes. You also then have to think of what happens to gas station pumps, to refrigerators and freezers everywhere, to streelights, hospitals…. all kinds of public facilities. Phone masts? A lot more of them will go down than you expect, and ordinary landlines in the UK are being converted to digital, which run on…. yes, mains!

It is completely mad to think that the risks of moving electricity generation to weather dependent systems while at the same time moving everything you can find to run on electricity are acceptable. No rational government could seriously consider this, the current plan, to be in the best interests of its people.

1saveenergy
Reply to  michel
January 10, 2026 2:47 am

“. No rational government could seriously consider this,”

We haven’t had one of those in the UK for 50 years (:-((

***
To keep the gas heating running in a power cut, you need –
a 12v 1500W Pure Sine Wave Inverter ~£80 (must be Pure Sine Wave to protect electronics).
a 12v 130Ah leisure battery ~£70 (if you get 2, you can recharge one in your car)

Get an electrician to re-wire your boiler to run from a single 13A plug, so in a blackout, you can swap to the inverter.

Resilient heating for approx £250 (:-))

Reply to  michel
January 10, 2026 2:50 am

I don’t have a mains operated thermostat in my gas central heating system. The temperature of the circulating water is set on the boiler operating system. Each room radiator has its own thermostat which operates according to the temperature in that room. When the room is at the chosen temperature the thermostat/s shut/s off the water to that/those radiator/s. When all the rooms are at their chosen temperatures all the thermostats in the system are shut and the pressure switch on the water side shuts off the gas and the water circulating pump. When a room falls below temperature those radiator thermostats open, the water pressure falls and the system fires up and runs until all the thermostats shut again.
Still needs electricity for the water circulating pump, though, and I have a multifuel fireplace in the living room for when the electricity or gas supply fails which can keep the house reasonably warm and boil the soup pan and kettle if necessary.

Reply to  Oldseadog
January 10, 2026 10:57 am

I’m sorry, but exactly how do the thermostats cause work to be done on the valves? Are they all connected mechanically? Most control everything via electricity derived from the main. Like old style doorbells with a small transformer.

Rick C
Reply to  michel
January 10, 2026 10:03 am

In our house we have a wood stove (very low emissions, 80%+ efficiency) and a radiant propane heater. Neither requires electricity. We also have a passive solar design with lots of glass facing south and high levels of insulation. We don’t worry about freezing when the power goes out even for an extended period. But we do need electric power to pump water and operate refrigerators and freezers so a back-up gas powered generator is a must.

People who live in cities and apartments obviously don’t have alternatives that we do so a reliable grid and low-cost energy should be the top priority. Too bad it isn’t for the ideologues in power these days.

erlrodd
Reply to  Ex-KaliforniaKook
January 10, 2026 7:06 am

A difference is that a small generator happily runs essentials like the fridge, the hot water heater controls/fan, and the furnace fan. To run a heat pump and an electric hot water heater, a much larger generator is needed.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  erlrodd
January 10, 2026 7:29 am

electric hot water heater”

Why would you heat hot water? 🙂

Reply to  Ex-KaliforniaKook
January 10, 2026 8:59 am

My house uses a heat pump for heating, and it is NOT connected to the generator. When we had an extended power outage mid-winter, it was our fireplace that saved us from having to leave.

Denis
January 10, 2026 1:45 am

“…the heat supply also fails—at least when it is supposed to be generated by heat pumps.”

It also fails when electric fans, pumps or thermostats are required to distribute heat in a fossil fuel heating system.

John XB
Reply to  Denis
January 10, 2026 6:01 am

Not in the past. Gas boilers had pilot lights, central heating was gravity-fed from a header tank using convection to get hot water from the boiler up to the tank. Hot water – maybe from an open fire with a back-boiler – was stored in copper cylinders with a cold water header tank, and the taps gravity fed. No electricity required.

Modern systems were more efficient, requiring less pipework, narrower pipes, smaller rads, and reduced gas use from pilot lights which could go out and be an explosion risk.

However that change to and electric powered systems took place when the electricity supply was designed, powered and operated by people who were not in a lunatic asylum.

January 10, 2026 3:23 am

Electricity cannot be compared to oil or gas in any sensible way. Firstly oil and gas are enrgysources where electricity is an energycarrier.

Secondly but maybe more important, oil and gas are goods where electricity is a service.
You cannot store electricity in any meaningful way. Generation and consumption are synchronous. Sun and wind are intermittent and so is “renewable electricity”.
Oil and gas can be stored easily and as such you create buffers for when demand and supply are disconnected solving the intermittency problem.
That is impossible to do with electricity. Another disadvantage is the central control of electricity. Since it is a service any large enough party (like the government) can switch it off.
Impossible with goods like oil and gas.

So basically electricity is a communist plot and should be avoided like the plague

John XB
Reply to  huls
January 10, 2026 6:03 am

The problem is our overlords think electricity is like water. We just need reservoirs for it.

Jeff Alberts
January 10, 2026 7:20 am

Is there any place on Earth that is rendered uninhabitable due to heat (active volcanoes not included)? There are many places rendered uninhabitable due to a lack of heat, at least not without very expensive gear/habitat modules, and an extensive support network.

spetzer86
January 10, 2026 7:37 am

Just FYI, but when the power goes out, even my forced air gas furnace doesn’t work so well. You really need that electricity in the modern world.

Reply to  spetzer86
January 10, 2026 11:01 am

You just need a manually operated bellows like in old style blacksmith forges.

Bob
January 10, 2026 2:11 pm

It is hard to sympathize with people who have worked so hard to do the wrong thing.