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0 pointsshawabawa34y ago0 comments

Germany has been burning more and more coal since shutting down their nuclear plants in favour of renewables

What a great green strategy that was

0 comments

This is not true. The agreement between the federal government and the energy supply companies to phase out nuclear energy dates back to 14 June 2000. The first nuclear power plant was shut down permanently in Nov. 2003. At this time the power generation from coal (both hard coal and lignite) was around 300 TWh/year. It almost halfed to 162.6 TWh in 2021. The all time low was in 2020, though, due to the pandemic.

For details of Germany's energy production and consumption since 1990 see: https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-c...

yreg4y ago

You are right to correct the GP.

Imagine the lives that could be saved if they replaced the coal with renewables first and phased out nuclear second.

shawabawa3OP4y ago

sorry you're correct i was inaccurate.

Coal has only increased in 2021, but fossil fuels have increased since 2002 (from 69.9GW to 78.9GW), i misremembered that statistic as coal instead of fossil fuels

Archelaos4y ago

The consumption of natural gas itself has indeed increased. But the sum of natural gas + coal has still decreased a lot. From aprox. 350 TWh per year in the early 2000s to 251,6 TWh in 2021. The partial replacement of coal by natural gas is at least in part caused by the transition to renewable energies. Until the transition is complete, natural gas is the best fossil fuel option to even out fluctuations in the production of renewable energy, because gas power plants can be switched on and off very quickly at peak times (in strong contrast btw to nuclear power plants) and they can be built relatively decentralized, each with a small volume. Therefore it is not likely that we will see a major drop in natural gas consumption in Germany in the next two decades.

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phicoh4y ago

That's wrong. Germany was significantly reduced the amount of electricity from coal over the last decades.

Renewables have picked up both the reduction in coal and the reduction in nuclear power.

shawabawa3OP4y ago

Sorry I misremembered the statistic. They've been reducing coal usage slightly over the last 20 years, but burn 50% more natural gas. overall energy generation from fossil fuels is up over the last 20 years (since their first nuclear plant was shut down)

phicoh4y ago

According to https://energy-charts.info/charts/energy/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE...

total amount of fossil fuel use for electricity went down.

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Archelaos4y ago

For details of Germany's energy production and consumption since 1990 see: https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-c...

yreg4y ago

You are right to correct the GP.

Imagine the lives that could be saved if they replaced the coal with renewables first and phased out nuclear second.

shawabawa3OP4y ago

sorry you're correct i was inaccurate.

Coal has only increased in 2021, but fossil fuels have increased since 2002 (from 69.9GW to 78.9GW), i misremembered that statistic as coal instead of fossil fuels

Archelaos4y ago

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phicoh4y ago

That's wrong. Germany was significantly reduced the amount of electricity from coal over the last decades.

Renewables have picked up both the reduction in coal and the reduction in nuclear power.

shawabawa3OP4y ago

phicoh4y ago

According to https://energy-charts.info/charts/energy/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE...

total amount of fossil fuel use for electricity went down.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse