Germany Aims To Close All Nuclear Plants By 2022

[jpak]

https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Germany-Aims-To-Close-All-Nuclear-Plants-By-2022.html

Germany is going forward with its plan to phase out nuclear reactors by 2022 as another nuclear power plant is going offline on December 31.

Power company EnBW has said that it would take the Philippsburg 2 reactor off the grid at 7 p.m. local time on New Year’s Eve.

This leaves Germany with six nuclear power plants that will have to close by 2022.

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011, Germany ordered the immediate shutdown of eight of its 17 reactors, and plans to phase out nuclear power plants entirely by 2022.

<more>

[hunter]

1. Alas coal and natural gas are not going away...

https://www.energy-charts.de/power.htm

[jpak]

2. But..but..but...

How Germany closed its coal industry without sacking a single miner

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/how-germany-closed-its-coal-industry-without-sacking-a-single-miner-20190711-p526ez.html

<snip>

While Australia continues to open new coal mines, Germany is in the midst of closing down its entire coal sector. The last of the country’s black coal mines was decommissioned last year, the victim of the economic reality that nations like Australia could dig the stuff up cheaper than the Germans could.

Now Germany is beginning the process of ending its brown coal industry and shutting down the energy plants that it feeds so it can meet its agreements under the Paris climate accord. Some see Germany’s audacious decommissioning of the industry as a model from which Australian has much to learn. Others believe that Australia is simply politically and culturally ill-equipped to do so.

<more>

With the black coal industry closed, German policymakers turned to the nation’s brown coal, the softer, wetter, dirtier material still burnt to create 37 per cent of the nation’s energy - 41 gigawatts of power. In January this year, the government announced that it would close the brown coal industry by 2038 in order to meet its emissions targets under the Paris agreement. Observing the lessons learnt from the closure of the black coal industry, the transition would be phased and orderly, supported by government and marked by cooperation between unions and industry. It would be a “just transition” that will in the coming 20 years cost 20,000 jobs.

<more>

[NickB79]

7. Germany is now importing coal vs mining it then?

At the end of the day, coal is still being burned.

[caraher]

10. Fascinating article

This part blew me away (regarding just how dirty coal can be):

The last mine was closed last year and today RAG’s headquarters at what was once Europe’s largest coking plant is part of a complex that is a world heritage site. RAG still employs 5000 staff across the region. Some work in offices dedicated to managing pensions and compensation, many more are engineers, working to rehabilitate the landscape and maintain the pumps that keep the region’s poisoned groundwater below ground, part of RAG’s €220 million ($355 million) annual “eternity fund”. According to one RAG executive, the company expects that more energy will be expended on the pumps than was extracted from the mines in the first place.

[jpak]

3. and this...

Germany generated more than 50 percent of electricity from renewables in March

https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/2019/04/02/germany-generates-more-than-50-percent-of-energy-from-renewables-in-march/

Renewables cover about 100% of German power use for first time ever

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/renewables-cover-about-100-german-power-use-first-time-ever

[hunter]

4. I posted a link with hard numbers.

I can digest my own food, thank you.

[jpak]

5. And the renewable numbers are not "hard"

do tell

[hunter]

6. Very hard and not encouraging.

[pscot]

8. Insane

They should be closing coal plants instead.

[jpak]

9. Umm...they have

Please try to keep up.

[pscot]

11. Of course

[Calculating]

12. What a joke

The world NEEDS nuclear in the strongest sense to counter climate change. It's bad enough dealing with the deniers, but then we also need to deal with the anti-nuclear chicken littles.

[jpak]

13. Fukushima

means Chicken Little in Japanese?

Who knew?

[Calculating]

14. One scenario

Which was completely preventable if they had just elevated the diesel generators so the tsunami wouldn't flood them. Should we give up our best option for fighting climate change over that?