No Trump, Germany doesn't Get 70% of its Energy From Putin; it gets 41% from Renewables

[egbertowillies]

Trump meant to imply that Germany is under Russia’s thumb, as a way of turning the tables on those Europeans who are complaining that Trump is in Putin’s back pocket.

The discourse of the president of the United States is that of a five-year-old who shouts, “no, you are!”

Not only is Trump wrong about the extent of German dependence on Russia, but he is unaware of the reason for which Germany can avoid importing more Russian gas.

https://egbertowillies.com/2018/07/12/trump-germany-energy-putin-renewables/

[Delarage]

1. Germany doesn't mess around....

They have a plan for for renewable energy and will not fail because they, as a nation, are committed to it. We still debate climate change because a few scientists paid by Exxon said there's a chance it's not man-made. We look like global morons instead of leaders.

Germany got rid of nuclear power because of the Fukushima disaster, again showing leadership and intelligence. Meanwhile, "Trump Digs Coal." WTF is wrong with us?

[Ezior]

4. We're not as commited as we used to be

Most citizens will tell you that the energy transition is very important to them. But they will also tell you that power prices are too high, and "something needs to change". So in recent years, the efforts have been scaled down a lot. We're not spending as much on renewables as we could & should spend.

The rising far right party (AfD) attracts climate change deniers. They're at ~15% in polls.
The center right parties (CDU/CSU) mostly acknowledge climate change, but they want to scale down the energy transition because they believe it's too much of a burden on citizens and businesses
The free-market-lovers and individual-freedom-supporters, i.e. "European-style liberal", FDP party, acknowledges climate change, but has the usual "government shouldn't pick winners and losers, subsidies are bad, renewables must compete on the free market, yada yada" sermon. Maybe they'd support something like carbon emmision allowances / certificates, but that's difficult on a national level. A system like that is in place for the EU, but it's not as effective as it could be.
Center left SPD acknowledges climate change, but they are concerned because coal industry workers are classic SPD voters, so they're too afraid to do anything.
The left party "Die Linke" is a little bit like the SPD in that regard. They also like Putin.

That leaves us with the Green party. They don't like Putin at all, so they want to go all-in on renewables instead of using much more natural gas as a coal replacement. Once it becomes obvious that the other options don't really care too much about climate change, maybe they can surge in the polls.

[braddy]

5. I believe a higher % of Germany's electricity is from coal than the US.

[Delarage]

8. Maybe but

They have a legit Green Party that has a real seat at the table and there is pressure to close the nastiest plants as a start. As a short-term bridge/transition, I guess coal may be better than nuclear. The difference is Germany seems more likely to view it as a bridge versus us, where Spanky would open new coal plants if he thought it would ensure votes from West Virginia, etc.

[Frustratedlady]

2. If anyone should understand when someone is under Russia's thumb...it's Trump. eom

[Ezior]

3. That 70% is way too high. But your 41% is unfortunately too high as well.

We got >40% of our *electricity* from renewables this year to date, and the expectation is that it will probably stay >40% until the end of the year (there are a few different ways to measure it, and they result in slightly different numbers).

That number does not include any energy used when burning natural gas or mineral oil products or coal outside of power plants. So most cars (Diesel+Gasoline), most heating infrastructure (often oil or natural gas) and some other uses (industrial, cooking, etc) are not included in that 41% number. In reality the renewable share for total energy use is pretty low in Germany, but will improve drastically once we buy more Teslas (or other EVs) and heat pumps, as that drastically reduces total energy use (less kWh required per km of travel / °C in homes).

We do get a lot of fossil energy from Putin, no two ways about it. But not 70%. I believe it's less than 40% of our natural gas. Unfortunately, the Dutch are about to stop their natural gas exports, so we need someone else to replace that amount. It might be Putin. I'd actually prefer other sources, as does my favorite German party, the Green party.

[braddy]

6. Eurostat estimates that Russia is responsible for between 50% and 75% of Germany's gas imports.

Germany’s proportion of imports from Russia is highest: it’s about 40 percent for crude oil, and about 30 percent for coal.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44794688

[whistler162]

7. To be fair

the sun does rise from the east and Russia is to the east of Germany. Also when the wind blows from the east is is coming from Russia.

[Codeine]

9. Stop blog-pimping.

Every single time you post it’s a drive-by, content-free ad for your blog.

Very tiresome, and factually incorrect as well in this instance.