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Environment & Energy
In reply to the discussion: NREL: Residential and Utility Solar Costs (2010 - 2023) [View all]NNadir
(35,057 posts)5. Well a label as such would be nice. Of course, the (peak) Watt is still not a unit of energy but of (peak) power...
...which are different things entirely.
Of course, we could chat about direct costs, as well as "external costs," the latter being costs about which antinukes generally couldn't care less, costs to health and the environment.
I note that antinuke "renewable energy will save us" nirvana, Germany, is deindustrializing because of high energy prices, because they couldn't get dangerous natural gas, even though so called "renewable energy" is advertised as "cheap."
Once dominant, Germany is now desperate
...Now Germany, which last year replaced Japan as the worlds third-largest economy, is reaping the harvest. It is difficult to discern any net growth in real gdp since before the pandemic. Forecasts are little better, and do not account for the risks of a Trumpian trade war. Volkswagen, Europes biggest carmaker, is mooting the first factory closures in its 87-year history; up to 30,000 jobs could be lost. Unemployment is ticking up, albeit from a low base.
High energy prices, especially after Germany had to divest from Russian gas following Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine in 2022, are a common grumble among firms in a country where manufacturing still accounts for 20% of gross value added. That remains almost twice the figure for France, even though industrial production peaked in 2018 and has since sagged more quickly than elsewhere in the eu (see chart 1), especially in energy-intensive sectors such as steelmaking. Order books are down, and planned investments have been postponed or shifted abroad. The ceo of Thyssenkrupp, a lossmaking steelmaker, has said Germany is in the midst of deindustrialisation...
High energy prices, especially after Germany had to divest from Russian gas following Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine in 2022, are a common grumble among firms in a country where manufacturing still accounts for 20% of gross value added. That remains almost twice the figure for France, even though industrial production peaked in 2018 and has since sagged more quickly than elsewhere in the eu (see chart 1), especially in energy-intensive sectors such as steelmaking. Order books are down, and planned investments have been postponed or shifted abroad. The ceo of Thyssenkrupp, a lossmaking steelmaker, has said Germany is in the midst of deindustrialisation...
The article is from The Economist, where they say the bright side is that Germany is hanging on in what the reporter calls "green technology," wind turbines and electrolyzers. (You can always count on journalists to be unaware of the laws of thermodynamics.)
It's surprising that they lead in electrolyzers and still BASF had to shut its ammonia plants in Ludwigshafen because it couldn't get dangerous natural gas to make hydrogen, hydrogen being the main industrial reagent for ammonia production. They apparently no longer have the technology to do it the old way, from coal, which the Chinese use quite happily to make hydrogen.
German Deindustrialization Is A Wake-Up Call For U.S. Manufacturers
Germanys BASF is a bellwether for the state of the countrys industry. The company has long been representative of Germanys manufacturing prowess, having grown since its founding in 1865 to encompass nearly 400 production sites in about 80 countries, while maintaining its headquarters and a sprawling multi-unit production facility in Ludwigshafen, Germany, which houses 200 separate plants and about 39,000 employees. But that site is where serious problems have arisen in the past two years. The company has permanently closed one of two ammonia units there and has idled other several other units as well because theyre no longer competitive, moves that cost 2,500 positions in Ludwigshafen. BASFs sales were down 21.1% in 2023, and adjusted earnings fell 60.1%. In the last week, BASF announced a further $1.1 billion in cost savings efforts at Ludiwigshafen, which will lead to another round of job losses.
Many factors contribute to the skyrocketing costs in Germany for electricity and natural gas: Russias invasion of Ukraine and the resultant sanctions, as well as the destruction of Nord Stream pipelines, for example. But one of the biggest drivers has been Germanys net-zero energy policy, Energiewende, and the countrys rapid move to variable renewables, wind and solar, for electric generation. They necessarily require backup generating capacity, since the wind doesnt blow and the sun doesnt shine all the time. Thats usually provided by fossil fuel or nuclear power plants, but Germany passed legislation in 2019 to shut down all its coal plants by 2038, and last year the country shuttered the last three plants in its once-formidable nuclear fleet (in 1990 nuclear provided a quarter of Germanys electricity). As a result, the country has been forced to import electricity and natural gas at substantially higher prices.
Many factors contribute to the skyrocketing costs in Germany for electricity and natural gas: Russias invasion of Ukraine and the resultant sanctions, as well as the destruction of Nord Stream pipelines, for example. But one of the biggest drivers has been Germanys net-zero energy policy, Energiewende, and the countrys rapid move to variable renewables, wind and solar, for electric generation. They necessarily require backup generating capacity, since the wind doesnt blow and the sun doesnt shine all the time. Thats usually provided by fossil fuel or nuclear power plants, but Germany passed legislation in 2019 to shut down all its coal plants by 2038, and last year the country shuttered the last three plants in its once-formidable nuclear fleet (in 1990 nuclear provided a quarter of Germanys electricity). As a result, the country has been forced to import electricity and natural gas at substantially higher prices.
The bold and italics are mine.
"The wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine all the time?" They're kidding, right? Who knew?
At least they've agreed to stop funding Putin's war machine, as they did for most of the 21st century up to now.
I note that as is typical of antinukes, Germany rushed like madmen and madwomen to shut its nuclear plants, but not its coal plants; the responsibility for closing them has been left for a future generation with a bullshit "deadline" that will mean nothing in 2038. As for me, I'll take "by 2038" the same way I take all the predicted outbreaks of a so called "renewable energy" nirvana that spanned my overly long life, "by 1990," "by 2000," "by 2010," "by 2020."
It's not like antinukes give a flying fuck about the extreme global heating we now experience; burning "transitional coal" is "OK," extreme global heating is OK, (and of course, not "too expensive" ) but running nuclear plants with a long established record of high performance and safety is not OK.
Is it just me, or shouldn't there people who are not OK with that?
Count me in. I'm not OK with that. I give a fuck about extreme global heating even if the Germans clearly don't.
Have a pleasant evening.
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