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Germany's energy looks cleaner, because someone else is burning extra coal.

Why "extra" coal? There's actually 20% less of it being burned.

What about the fact that the in the area the wind predominant comes from the West?

The project will be located 8 miles offshore, vertically. See the official website: http://www.leedco.org/index.ph... for the map / plan. There's little public or political will for the nuclear energy industry - at least beyond Tennessee's TVA. Per Wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_the_United_States), about 1/2 of the plants are operating at a loss. Shutdown expenses are substantial (https://www.energydigital.com/utilities/what-does-it-cost-decommission-nuclear-power-plant). 2nd, despite the Executive branch backing of the coal industry, it's decline is inevitable. Again, there's little public support beyond the coal producing regions for coal fired plants. Here's an interesting article on that subject: https://energytransition.org/2.... Murray coal is the biggest producer of coal today in the U.S., but like the Saudis, they need to look beyond their current business model. I find it difficult to understand the hostility toward renewables in the U.S., though it seems that hostility is on a decline. Anyone who has a romantic notion of coal and their supported communities must have little familiarity with actually working in the mines, even with contemporary technology. Families have paid a high cost over many generations for coal. And I say this from my own family's history. I've walked those hills, I've visited cousins in coal country towns. I've watched the young move as quickly as their feet can take them. As my dad would say, "it's a done deal'.

We started introducing wind and solar around 1980, not 2008. The law about "renewable energy(EEG)" was introduced 2000.

Reduction over that time is about 40%. But it is hard to find charts, I'm to lazy to look them up for you :D

2017 we produced 38% of our electricity CO2 free ... but the amount of water power in this equation is more or less the same like 1950.

https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/ is usually a good site, but I don't find an english reference.

This link includes exported power:
https://energytransition.org/2...

Hence it says total production was 33% by renewables. Many other sites only count the power we consume ourselves, so they say 38%.

Solar PV output drops with heat.
https://energytransition.org/2...

One reason the situation wasnâ(TM)t worse in Germany, of course, was the large number of solar arrays. But even their output is negatively impacted during heat waves; efficiency drops by up to 0.5 percent per degree Celsius â" and the panel temperature counts, not the air. Fortunately, temperatures in Germany still do not rise as much as they do in Spain, where the effect was greater.

Bull Shit.
Look, My objection is to building new fossil plants esp. new coal plants which are by far the worst.
But, you want to look at numbers? Fine.
One that you far lefties throw around is per capita. So, how do nations compare in per capita basis?
Solar per capita in 2012; Germany obviously #1 with 473 watts/person, while America is #20 with 58 watts. China is #28 with 21 watts / person.
Here is installed Solar capacity per person in 2017
Several things here. The first is that per capita, Germany is #1 with 500 watts, America has moved up to 12 place with 124 watts / capitia. while, CHina barely moved up to #24, with 56 watts / capitia. Oddly, America is the #1 for adding solar per capita in 2016 with 46 watts / person. Austrlia was #2 with 31 watts / person. China did not even add 20 watts / person.

Lets do wind now. Here is wind in 2012 We see that Denmark is at the top with some 760 W / person. Spain is #2 with ~500 w/person. USA is #9 with ~190 W / person. China is #19 with ~ 60 watts / person.
You see that per person, America was #3 at adding wind at ~40 watts / person. China was #17 with adding about 10 watts / person.
Here is wind in 2014 America has dropped to #10, with 207 watts / person. China did move up #14, with 71 watts / person.

All in all, America is up amongst the top WRT AE, and nuke power.
And If AMerica was more like CHina and India, the world would be further fucked than where we are.

China is also the world’s largest investor in renewable energy, according to a 2018 report from the U.S.-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). That’s in keeping with trends from past years.

China passed the United States in renewable energy investment in 2009 by a mere $14 billion; in the time since, that gap has increased dramatically. In 2017, more than half of global renewable energy investment (nearly $280 billion) came from China. To put that into context, for every $1 the United States put into renewable energy last year, China spent $3.

Germany has one of the highest electricity rates _and_ they are forced to increased coal use: https://www.cleanenergywire.or...

The 2020 emission reduction target is now completely out of reach. But don't worry, they are going to build more coal power plants instead: https://energytransition.org/2...

You are STILL building, and that is the problem. 14% of Germany's power comes from nukes which you are shutting down. AE is not able to replace it, since a true baseline is needed. As such, Germany will have to decide wether to stay with nukes and phase out their 40% coal dependancy, OR increase coal to 54%

America has brought our coal from around 1TW down to below .3Tw, and by end of 2018, will be below .2TW in coal. There is very little that trump can do to restart it as NOBODY in American utility is going to pick coal over nat gas.

However, neither Germany nor western europe, is the real problem. The real problem are nations like CHina, India, pakistan, poland, etc that are building new GW of coal EACH YEAR. China will add 40 GW of new coal plants THIS YEAR. Yes, by end of 2017, they will have added another 40 GW. America will have dropped 10 GW of coal with more coming in 2018, but China, India, Pakistan, South Africa, and I believe even poland will add more than 10 GW EACH.
This is how we lose at AGW. We need to get EVERY NATION TO STOP BUILDING NEW COAL PLANTS. Then and only then can we start to back off.

Germany has built a few new. Oak plants sinc 1990, as it makes its switch from uranium to lignite. They hope that this one will be the last:
https://energytransition.org/2...