11/25/2021
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
If you think UK climate policy is hard………….
Olaf Scholz will lead a tripartite coalition with broad plans for Germany’s transition to a green economy, under the deal to end Angela Merkel’s 16-year rule.
Nearly two months after his Social Democrats won the federal election, he will come to power alongside the Greens-friendly Liberal Democrats and businesses.
Climate protection is a key part of the coalition agreement.
The parties aim to phase out coal use by 2030, eight years earlier than planned.
They will also seek to use 2% of the German territory for wind power and focus on hydrogen-based energy. By 2030, the parties want 80% of electricity to come from renewables and 15 million electric cars to be on German roads.
Making Germany climate neutral by 2045 is a big focus of the agreement, entitled “Further Progress”. Coal phase-out will happen “ideally” by 2030, and solar will become mandatory on the roofs of new commercial buildings and the rule for new private homes. 16 states will have to provide 2% of the area for wind power. The goal of phasing out cars with internal combustion engines remains the EU’s target by 2035.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59399702
Germany currently gets 35% of its electricity from coal and nuclear, the latter of which will be phased out next year. Without this reliable source of electricity, Germany would be heavily dependent on imported electricity.
Energy Rating BP
So far this month, solar has only provided 2.8% of Germany’s electricity. This equates to solar running at only 3% of capacity. In a word, all those solar panels they propose to build will be mostly useless in winter.
That leaves wind power. While it has contributed an average of 23% of total electricity this month, or 13 GW, there have been a few days when it ran at less than 4GW. Given that Germany has 62 GW of wind power capacity, this is chicken feed.
http://energodock.com/germany/electricity-shares
German households will inevitably pay the cost of this renewable energy obsession. But without powers from other countries to back them up when the weather doesn’t cooperate, the outcome will be dire.
There is a twist in this story. Apparently even the Greens have accepted that there will be continued demand for gas-fired power plants, at least in the short term.
The problem is that Germany currently has only 30 GW of gas-fired capacity.
https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-consumption-and-power-mix-charts
With the proposed increase in electrification, Germany would have a reliable capacity of at least 100 GW. Gas, biomass and hydro together provide only 43 GW, less than half of what is required.
That means a lot of new gas plants will have to be built. There may be a lot of hot and dreamy air, but little evidence that this will happen.
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