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Germany Sets New National Record With 85 Percent of Its Electricity Sourced From Renewables (digitaltrends.com)
Germany was able to set a new national record for the last weekend of April with 85 percent of all electricity consumed in the country being produced from renewables -- wind, solar, biomass, and hydroelectric power. Digital Trends reports: Aided by a seasonal combination of windy but sunny weather, during that weekend the majority of Germany's coal-fired power stations weren't even operating, while nuclear power stations (which the country plans to phase out by the year 2022) were massively reduced in output. To be clear, this is impressive even by Germany's progressive standards. By comparison, in March just over 40 percent of all electricity consumed in the country came from renewable sources. However, while the end-of-April weekend was an aberration, the hope is that it won't be for too much longer. According to Patrick Graichen of the country's sustainability-focused Agora Energiewende Initiative, German renewable energy percentages in the mid-80s should be "completely normal" by the year 2030.
Austria, whose electric energy generation is 70% based on renewables, has energy prices of about 20 ct/kWh. It's not the way Germany generates energy, it's about how Germany taxes energy.
Germany indeed imports power. But it also exports power. A lot. Actually a lot more than it imports. In 2016 it exporte 55,5 TWh more than it imported.
Source: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/153533/umfrage/stromimportsaldo-von-deutschland-seit-1990/
Anyone want to complain how it's not working ?
Sure, I will. Electric power in Germany is more than twice as expensive as it is in America. That is because the costs of all the subsidies are pushed onto the consumer in what is effectively a regressive tax. Maybe what they are doing has some long term benefits, but considering that more than half of every electric bill goes to subsidise the renewables and the politically driven nuke closures, by many criteria it is "not working".
So what are they getting at such an enormous cost? This "85%" figure is a statistical fluke. Most days Germany gets 45% of their electric generation from coal, and 26% from lignite or "brown coal", the world's filthiest fuel. Overall, Germany's electricity generation produces nearly as much CO2 per kw-hr as America. There was no good reason to shut down their nukes, as they were already running and already fueled. Nearly all the cost of a nuke is in the construction, and while building new nukes is economically questionable, it is silly to shut down a stable running plant. If those plants are kept in operation, they could offset nearly all the lignite. Instead they are installing solar panels in the world's second cloudiest location (the Bering Sea is first).
Whence did you get the strange idea that electrical heating is widely used over here? Moreover, Germany is not a very cold country and many houses are insulated quite well because upgrading insulation was sponsored by the government a while ago. The typical heating bill for a rented apartment (that's how the majority of Germans live) is about 700 EUR a year and quite a bit less than that if the house is insulated and it is paid as a part of the rent anyway.
Oh, by the way, just to rub it in your face: in the USA, the land of the free, where electricity is dirt cheap, on average 1500 people freeze to death every bloody year. In Germany 100 hypothermia deaths would be considered serious.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
You might want to add that Austria is pretty rich in hydroelectricity due to its rather mountainous landscape with lots of rivers that allow building hydro plants, along with a long standing tradition of using wood as a primary source for heating due to having extensive forests.
Austria and Iceland, and maybe Sweden, are countries that you should not use to compare energy generation and consumption. It's not that easy for everyone.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Germany is so sustainable that they don't do stupid things like try and inefficiently heat houses with electricity. No one freezes to death, actually the houses are quite warm, well insulated and have very low running costs. While the cost of power is high the average consumption of a German house is half that of the USA.
By the way I am paying 0.24EUR / kWh which converts to 26c/kWh not the 35c/kWh you quote.
Congratulations, you're paying more for electricity than we are. Are you freezing to death?
They need to do a better job, then? Because once you adjust for purchasing power of different currencies, Germany has about the most expensive electricity in the world (save for a few small island nations). Yes, it's renewable - it also is twice that of their nuclear powered neighbor, France. So kudos, Germany - you've proved that you can occasionally spike high in "renewables" generation for only twice the price of a sane, nuclear power approach!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
So in the weekend on the perfect day when solar and wind are at max we are covering 85% of residential consumption.
In the European Union household electric energy consumption is about 30% rest being the industry and services. Considering Germany industrial sector it will be safe to say the domestic energy consumption will be around 20% of total electric energy consumption.
So in a perfect weekend Germany was able to provide less than one fifth of electricity consumption during the week.
To cover the industry renewable capacity will need to increase at least five times to work in perfect conditions. Considering the fact the best spots for solar and wind have been already used (unless they were stupid to chose the worst locations in the first place) we are going to start the law of diminished returns.
Just adding that EU goal of being totally green and use only renewable resources is made partially by relocating production to China with their record of being "clean" I see a long way to go to reduce CO2.
Also in Quebec, it is 97% renewable electricity and Quebec is several times bigger than Germany in area. So they have been deserving a /. article for years I guess...
https://www.mern.gouv.qc.ca/en...
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
But nobody knew.
They tried to tell the world, alas they were using some dead language and couldn't be bothered to learn one that's actually used somewhere on the planet.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Germany used X GWh that month. They produced 0.85X GWh from renewables.
No they didn't. They touched 85% for an instant when the wind kicked up on a Sunday morning before people got up and increased consumption.
It wasn't 85% for the month as you imply, and it wasn't even 85% for the weekend as the headline implies.
Maybe because it is very wrong on some points.
Germany is not "the size of a single average US State". It is larger than all but four states, those four being Alaska, Texas, California, and Montana.
Germany's population of 82,000,000 is not "a tiny fraction" of the US' 330,000,000, it's about one quarter.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.