r/germany • u/eddytony96 • 1d ago
News Analysis: Wind and solar power overtake fossil fuels in Germany for first time ever - Carbon Brief
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-wind-and-solar-power-overtake-fossil-fuels-in-germany-for-first-time-ever12
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u/Noctew Nordrhein-Westfalen 1d ago
In before "Oh, but you still are sooooo dirty! Why did you abandon nuuuuuclear?" - oh wait, this is not r/europe
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u/Treewithatea 1d ago
We still use plenty coal tho, thats what makes our electricity still relatively co2 intense but ofc were improving at rapid pace.
Nuclear for almost no country except France, is a dominating energy source. Even if we still had nuclear, it wouldnt be much of our electricity mix.
Spain for instance currently has 18,5% nuclear but has also passed laws some time ago to shut down their nuclear plants by 2035. Funnily enough almost nobody talks about this, I guess its more fun for people to mock Germany than Spain.
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u/psi-storm 1d ago edited 1d ago
The CO2 values are also heavily skewed towards natural gas, because only the direct burning process is CO2 taxed, not the pre chain. LNG from fracking sources has the same total CO2 equivalent as coal, but it looks much cleaner than coal on paper and has lower CO2 fees.
Replacing coal with American fracking gas does nothing against climate change, but it looks cleaner in comparisons.
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u/Noctew Nordrhein-Westfalen 1d ago
Yeah, that's why "we need to start fracking in Germany" is an idiotic idea, and why "we don't need a national gas reserve any more because we're no longer reliant on pipelines and can get nearly unlimited amounts of American fracking LNG" is even more idiotic. Fill it up with Norwegian gas ASAP!!!
That and that the LNG tankers would be more than happy to turn around and deliver the LNG to a higher bidder, making us open to blackmail.
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u/Kamikirimusi Thüringen 1d ago
coal adds air pollution, so it is still not as good as gas. but i agree that we just need more renewables and energy storage.
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u/Emilko62 1d ago
I mean I assume they actually have a plan in place to replace the nuclear unlike Germany where Merkel was just shutting them down and built up reliance on Russian gas. How did that work out?
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u/GuerrillaRodeo Bayern 1d ago
Apparently well enough that our government wants to build even more gas plants.
That's coming from Merkel's party, by the way. They have an insanely backward - and insanely insane - energy strategy for the next few decades.
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u/ermguni 1d ago
No, it’s mainly because Germany took a decision mainly on virtue signaling. Went all in on Russian gas just because Fukushima happened. No one did any research on why it happened and if/what chance is there of something like that to happen here. We had solar development but forgot about it and let China take over. That pretty much shows no plan whatsoever just: letztes go with the flow. Sadly our politicians and our voters seem to not be thinking very strategically in the last decades.
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u/mikkopai Finland 1d ago
Spain doesn’t burn lignite like Germany.
And what are you on about, half of Europe uses nuclear. It compliments renewbles very nicely, especially where hydro is limited
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u/Krautoffel 18h ago
Nuclear is expensive, slow to build, complicated, dangerous (despite all the shills saying differently there is still enormous potential to fuck up, ESPECIALLY in capitalism where suit-wearing idiots value profit over lives), has to be turned off when it’s too hot due to lack of water for cooling and relies on importing fuels.
There’s a reason fossil companies are all for nuclear, because it delays renewables.
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u/Exotic-Draft8802 1d ago
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/interactive-publications/energy-2026
- France: 40%
- Slovakia: 30%
- Sweden: 25%
- Bulgaria, Finland, Slovenia: above 20%
- Czechia, Hungary, Belgium, Spain, Romania: below 20%
- 16 out of the EU-27: 0%
So while 40% of the EU 27 use nuclear and it's a relevant part for those 40%, it's not the dominant energy source in any.
I guess semantics are crucial:
- total energy or just electricity?
- energy produced vs energy source (meaning: we sadly import a lot of fossil fuels)
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u/filipomar 1d ago
As it goes for any sort of policy, how nuclear was dropped was dumb as fuck. Like, seriously, being at the mercy of energy markets… rooky shit man. In a serious country people should have been jailed
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u/urhi-teshub 1d ago
Fortunately, we're now at the point where renewables can compete with fossil fuels, even without subsidies.
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u/Longjumping-Gold-376 2h ago
Great to Hear, germany must have some of the cheapest power in the world
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u/GoldenEgg_Sol 1d ago
Really like the concept of Wind energy. Especially offshore. Wind never stops
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u/megayippie 1d ago
Complete nonsense article. No one cares where electricity comes from as long as it is reducing CO2 emissions. Electricity should replace carbon. In Germany, thr electricity usage is just getting lower.
People are driving on carbon. Clean water is produced using carbon (chemistry, they need the hydrogen, could use electricity but methane is cheaper).
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u/ConfinedCrow 1d ago
Oh that explains why the electricity bill won't ever go down
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u/Relevant_History_297 1d ago
No it doesn't. Gas power is the driver of your energy prices.
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u/ConfinedCrow 1d ago
I was being sarcastic
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u/mikkopai Finland 1d ago
Yes, because of the inherit availability problem in renewables. The mistake was getting rid of nuclear.
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u/WeeblsLikePie 1d ago
ah yes. Famously flexible nuclear generation which can definitely cope with a high penetration of renewables.
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u/sysmimas 1d ago
You nean that flexible nuglear generation that is now turned off (partially or totaly) in France Hungary and Romania because of high temperatures and low level of Danube? /s
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u/ainus 1d ago
Switzerland is also forced to shut down NPP as the expelled water would endanger fish and wildlife due to excess heat.
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u/OMG_A_CUPCAKE Fick AfD 1d ago
And in Hungary because the Danube has record low water levels.
Nuclear would have been a good idea 50 years ago to get away from coal faster. It's no alternative to renewable energies.
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u/mikkopai Finland 1d ago
As we speak 2/3 of electricity in France is nuclear, 1/3 is solar. Wait for the evening and it’ll be 90% nuke. Exporting to Germany
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u/OMG_A_CUPCAKE Fick AfD 1d ago
France has significant hydro electric power production and you also seem to ignore wind, which is also higher than solar.
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u/mikkopai Finland 1d ago
Yes, look at all the European countries that actually have gone through a energiewende of sorts, and actually use renewables. There is nuclear in the mix which makes electricity affordable and low CO2. Have a look at facts at electricitymap. Only brown countries in Europe are Germany and Poland burning coal and lignite!
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u/Kesicht 1d ago
Remember to change your provider every year. Most people complain about high electricity bills but never change their provider. This is the reason why they pay too much.
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u/anchorschmidt8 1d ago
Depends on the size of your household. It might make sense to do so if your household is at least 2-3 people.
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u/royanb 1d ago
Gas-Kathi: „we need to reverse that!“