Germany to fire up coal plants as Russia turns down the gas www.dw.com/en/germany-to-fire-up-coal-plants-as-russia-turns…
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…
“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…
The third party in the government coalition, the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), has also called for Germany to reconsider its 2017 ban on unconventional fracking amid the supply problems.
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Germany to fire up coal plants as Russia turns down the gas
Dang, who saw that coming? Heads will roll … probably not. While the Russians get the blame the truth is that years of optimistic fibbing is coming home to roost. Germany is neither a terribly sunny nor a terribly windy country. At least now they have a good excuse to keep those last three nuclear plants running?
Tim <I wonder how jaagu will explain this one? Well not enough to let him off ignore!>
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that his government remains committed to phasing out nuclear power despite concerns about rising energy prices and possible future shortages due to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Germany shut down half of its six nuclear plants in December and the remaining three are due to cease production at the end of this year as part of the country’s long-running plan to phase out conventional power plants in favor of renewable energy.
I find it curious how people on both sides of the Atlantic say the rising CO2 concentration is an existential threat, but at the same time they would rather burn coal and lignite, than to let even one nuclear power plant operate. The original version of the Green New Deal also called for the phase out of nuclear power in the US. Excuse me if I don’t climb aboard that bandwagon.
The atmospheric CO2 concentration just keeps going up and up, year after year, as it has for several decades now. Although lately, the curve has been rising at a somewhat faster rate than it was back in the 1960s.
The Hague (AFP) – The Dutch joined Germany and Austria in reverting to coal power on Monday following an energy crisis provoked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Netherlands said it would lift all restrictions on power stations fired by the fossil fuel, which were previously limited to just over a third of output.
Berlin and Vienna made similar announcements on Sunday as Moscow, facing biting sanctions over Ukraine, cuts gas supplies to energy-starved Europe.
The Netherlands? From the link above…
The Dutch are less reliant, depending on Russia for around 15 percent of their gas supplies compared to the EU average of 40 percent. But they are still concerned.
That is strange. There was a recent thread here about how the Dutch have so much natural gas, they can supply the EU.
waterfill writes: I find it curious how people on both sides of the Atlantic say the rising CO2 concentration is an existential threat, but at the same time they would rather burn coal and lignite, than to let even one nuclear power plant operate. The original version of the Green New Deal also called for the phase out of nuclear power in the US. Excuse me if I don’t climb aboard that bandwagon.
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waterfell seems to be ignorant of several facts.
There was no Green New Deal proposed by the Biden Admin. In fact the Biden Admin has proposed to fund existing nuclear plants for continued operation.
There are laws in Germany with regard to nuclear power plants. Their law requires the shutdown of the last 3 nuclear plants by end of this year. These nuclear power plants will make a small increase in use of coal/lignite fired power plants. The major in coal/lignite use is due to shutting down natural gas power plants.
Germany is not a major CO2 emitter like the Chinese, Americans, Indians, Russians, and Japanese.
China will help its coal-fired power plants run at full capacity, the government has announced
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/china-promote…
Official plans call for boosting coal production capacity by 300 million tons this year, according to news reports. That is equal to 7% of last year’s output of 4.1 billion tons, which was an increase of 5.7% over 2020…
And India says its coal needs will double.
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-india-environment-coal-citing-…
India needs a billion tonnes of coal annually to meet its current domestic demand. Most of its needs are met by domestic producers, with a record 777 million tonnes mined in the fiscal year to the end of March…
The government says it plans to increase domestic coal production to 1.2 billion tonnes in the next two years to support a post-pandemic economic recovery. Despite a commitment to increase its renewable energy capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022 and 500 gigawatts by 2030, Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi said Friday that India’s coal needs are set to double by 2040.
Germany to fire up coal plants as Russia turns down the gas
Dang, who saw that coming? Heads will roll … probably not. While the Russians get the blame the truth is that years of optimistic fibbing is coming home to roost. Germany is neither a terribly sunny nor a terribly windy country. At least now they have a good excuse to keep those last three nuclear plants running?
Tim <I wonder how jaagu will explain this one? Well not enough to let him off ignore!>
Germany is not a major CO2 emitter. And power generation in North America and Europe are not the major causes of CO2 emissions. Transportation, Buildings and Industry are a much larger cause of CO2 emissions.
So burning some coal/lignite instead of natural gas will not change the Total CO2 emissions for Germany as Tim and waterfell predict while they both ignore the Total CO2 emissions of Canada and USA.
In fact Germany and Canada are in the same ball park for Total CO2 emissions in 2020 on page 17 of BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2021:
Germany: 1.9 % of world total for by over 83 million people
Canada: 1.6 % of world total for by over 38 million people
This shows that Canadians emitted 2X the CO2 that Germans in 2020. But all we hear from Tim and waterfill are gripes about Germany causing excessive CO2 emissions. What a load of fake news! Canada and USA are the countries with the most CO2 emissions per capita. Why are Tim and waterfell silent on the real big time CO2 emitters?