Nuclear isn’t the only energy phase-out happening in Germany

[kristopher]

Craig Morris, who maintains an energy policy blog focused on the German energy transition spends a few minutes comparing the data to a few of the the wild-eyed claims of nuclear power advocates...

Nuclear isn’t the only energy phase-out happening in Germany

By Craig Morris on 29 May 2015
Energy Transition

<snip>



...there has been no surge in coal power during the nuclear phase-out. In fact, total coal power production (both lignite and hard coal) fell by six percent last year alone. If German coal power is polluting Parisian air, the problem should be getting smaller.

...the journalist also believes that “numerous new [coal] plants are scheduled to come online in the next few years.” Tellingly, he does not provide a specific number or a link to a source – yet, the number is knowable.

German utility lobby group BDEW regularly updates its “power plant list” (PDF in German). The version from April 13 (which Reuters published in English on the same day) has a total of 74 projects, six of which would consume coal:


The two plants to be completed this year already started producing electricity this year and will therefore not “come online in the next few years.” Neither was a reaction to the nuclear phaseout of 2011; the Moorburg plant was first proposed in 2004, Mannheim in 2007.

Two weeks after the BDEW updated the list above, Mibrag announced that it was stepping away (report in German) from the Profen project entirely. A fourth project, Hamm D, should already be online, but various acids entered the boiler, and the plant has been delayed indefinitely. The latest word (report in German) is that the plant “may never generate electricity” because German utilities began building too many plants 10 years ago.

The fifth plant, RWE’s BoAplus Niederaussem, is especially interesting in this respect....

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/nuclear-isnt-the-only-energy-phase-out-happening-in-germany-24135

Craig Morris' website is worth regular visits.
http://www.renewablesinternational.net

[NickB79]

1. Economic stagnation and recession explain a lot of it as well

Germany Cuts Growth Outlook as Recession Peril Mounts:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-14/german-investor-confidence-declines-as-growth-prospects-weaken

German exports plunge in latest sign of slowdown:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a0314a6e-4f86-11e4-a0a4-00144feab7de.html

Which would explain both the drop in consumer demand over the past 12 years (-22.2% per your source's graphic) and the visible dip in virtually all energy sources, even renewables, in the past two years. It also shows virtually all energy sources dipping precipitously when the financial crisis first threw Germany (and the rest of the world) into economic instability back in 2007-2009. Oddly enough, lignite coal appears to have the least variability, showing almost no decline in TWh output in either 2009 or 2014.

[kristopher]

2. That's funny.

Haha funny I mean. You were the leading voice here spreading the publicized nuclear industry lies about how the 2011 decision to shut down some nuclear reactors early had led to huge increases in coal use and massive increases in emissions - claiming repeatedly that it was the death knell of their Transition.
And you did that even after I showed you the list of coal plant planned builds and closures that long predated the 2011 decision.

Now you come up with more of your off target propaganda...

[NickB79]

3. You thought I was a leading voice here?

I never knew you cared so much.....

[kristopher]

4. Didn't say "a" leading voice in the general sense...

I wrote "the" leading voice in spreading that particular set of nuclear industry lies. I remember it so well because you were the one that first found the list of projects that contradicted your narrative. You only posted it once, of course. I presume that was by accident since you refused to acknowledge it thereafter..

[quadrature]

5. at 30 cents per KWH, the middle class is being phased out.

their idea, is to
send the EU into poverty
(except Germany)

[kristopher]

6. Nope.

At $725/hr the middle class is being phased out.

If Germany were a US state the average monthly electric bill would be 16th from the top.
http://www.renewablesinternational.net/what-german-power-bills-would-look-like-if-germany-were-in-the-us/150/537/86823/

See also:
Are the poor paying for the rich in the Energiewende?

A new study in Germany looks into the social impact of the country’s energy transition – not only how much is being paid, but whether specifically low-income families are subsidizing green pet projects for the rich.
http://www.renewablesinternational.net/are-the-poor-paying-for-the-rich-in-the-energiewende/150/537/87495/

[quadrature]

7. more to it than that ...

electricity is a lot more than just residential.
.
.
the US economy depends
(to the extent that the US still functions at all)
on cheap electricity.

the middle class is always the enemy.
why is that?

[kristopher]

8. German industrial users are exempt

They don't pay the surcharge for renewables.

Don't you get tired of A-L-W-A-Y-S being wrong?

[quadrature]

9. so you like the idea of homeowners getting screwed paying for electricity? ...nt

[kristopher]

10. So homeowners in the top 15 states in the US are getting screwed?

And that is just on the straight monthlies. Not to mention that every utility in the US gives preferential heavily discounted pricing to all of their large consumers of electricity so by your standards every homeowner in the US is getting screwed.