German nukes shutting down this weekend

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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DB2

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Just following the science?

Mike

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From the article:
“The equation is even more complex given the goal of shutting down the country’s coal-fired power plants by 2038, many of them by 2030.”

Hmmm.
So nuclear (a green energy) is bad and must be shut down, but coal-fired ( a bad energy) is good until 2038…

Is that the science?

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Maybe not but it is not a leap of faith either.

The cost of energy goes up and alternatives will be deployed sooner. The European mindset on costs is different than the US mindset.

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Was politics ever science?

The Captain

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Demand side economics is science. Supply side econ is cronyism and corruption.

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I looked at the electricity produced so far this year in Germany. The following is the energy mix in Germany from January 1 through April 13 evening.

Germany electric power mix, 2023 (so far)
Solar        9.0 TWh
Wind        49.5
Nat.Gas     28.4
Oil          0.4
Coal        45.1
Biomass     11.7
Hydro        3.2
Nuclear      6.6
Other       13.1

Germany data from here.
Below is the fuel mix for France for 2023…

France electric power mix, 2023 (so far)
Solar       4.5 TWh
Wind       15.5
Nat.Gas    12.8
Oil         0.6
Coal        0.6
Biomass     0.9
Hydro      14.3
Nuclear    95.3

France data from here.

A side-by-side comparison of the types of power, given as a percentage of total generation.

            Germany   France
Fossil fuels  44%      10%
Renewables    44%      23%
Nuclear        4%      66%
Other          8%       1%
Clean power   48%      89%

It can also be mentioned that the retail price of electricity is somewhat less expensive in France. Germany always has among the highest retail prices for electricity in the EU.

Residential price, including taxes
Germany 49.5 euro cents per kwh
France 26.7 cents/kwh

With Germany shutting down its final three nuclear plants, it looks like the use of fossil fuels will be going up.

  • Pete
4 Likes
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Eins, zwei, drei…dark.

DB2

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Eins, zwei, drei…GRÜN.

14.8% of the Germans voted for the Green Party that decided the fate of the German nuclear policy. Time will tell.

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Just when the Germans shut down the last of their remaining nuclear plants, the Olkiluoto-3 plant in Finland began full operation. This is one of the big French EPR plants, capable of producing 1600 MW of power.

It took a while to complete construction of Olkiluoto-3 and to get it into service, but that hasn’t discouraged the Finns from contemplating even more new nuclear power for their country. Although, they may decide to go with smaller reactors in the future, instead of the big EPR type plants.

SMR technology is garnering interest as countries seek to expand low-carbon, flexible power production to cope with growing electricity demand, while large-scale nuclear projects with huge up-front costs have struggled to attract investment.

Rolls Royce is developing several potential SMR sites in Britain, where the government has launched a competition for funding.

In the Nordics, Swedish utility Vattenfall is also looking into building two SMRs at existing nuclear sites.

  • Pete
4 Likes