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Germany To Phase Out Coal Use By 2038, Says Report (abs-cbn.com)
Germany has laid out a $91 billion plan to phase out its use of coal by 2038, a government-appointed commission said Saturday. "Under the plan, half of the up to $91 billion will go to the regions shuttering plants in the west and east of the country, while the other half will be spent on preventing electricity prices from rising," ABS-CBN News reports. From the report: The commission agreed to the deadline after months of bitter wrangling as pressure mounts on Europe's top economy to step up its commitment to battling climate change. The panel, consisting of politicians, climate experts, unions and industry figures from coal regions, announced the deal after a final marathon session ended on Saturday morning. The commission's findings will now be passed on to the government, which is expected -- barring a surprise -- to follow the recommendations of the panel it set up. The plan will be discussed at a meeting between Chancellor Angela Merkel, Finance Minister Scholz and regional leaders on Thursday, national news agency DPA said.
Several plants using lignite or brown coal, which is more polluting than black coal, would be closed by 2022. Other plants will follow until 2030, when only 17 gigawatts of Germany's electricity will be supplied by coal, compared to today's 45 gigawatts. The last plant will close in 2038 at the latest, the commission said, but did not rule out moving this date forward to 2035 if conditions permit. The affected regions, where tens of thousands of jobs directly or indirectly linked to brown- and black-coal energy production, will receive 40 billion euros as compensation over the next two decades. Two billion euros will also be spent each year over the same period to stop customers from facing rising electricity prices.
Several plants using lignite or brown coal, which is more polluting than black coal, would be closed by 2022. Other plants will follow until 2030, when only 17 gigawatts of Germany's electricity will be supplied by coal, compared to today's 45 gigawatts. The last plant will close in 2038 at the latest, the commission said, but did not rule out moving this date forward to 2035 if conditions permit. The affected regions, where tens of thousands of jobs directly or indirectly linked to brown- and black-coal energy production, will receive 40 billion euros as compensation over the next two decades. Two billion euros will also be spent each year over the same period to stop customers from facing rising electricity prices.
Here we actually get stuff done, note US co2 emissions are actually down, not just talk. But you germans keep up your feel good talky stuff while you open more coal mines and your emissions go up.
There is no such thing as "low cost" nuclear power, derp. You're leaving the investment off the balance sheet dishonestly.
The nuke plants were already built and running. So the capital investment was a sunk cost, and irrelevant to the cost of ongoing operations.
Nukes are very expensive to build, but dirt cheap to operate.
Total BS. Three out of the top 10 most polluting power plants in Europe are in Germany. Four of the ten most toxic companies have their main coal plants in Germany: RWE, EPH, Uniper and Steag. You don't know what you are talking out.
Annual German carbon dioxide emission per capita went from 12.93 tonnes in 1995 to 8.88 in 2016. That is a reduction of 32% (Wikipedia)
Population increased from 77.619 million to 82.5 million during that time, so the relative total reduction is a bit less.
Still I wouldn't call that "hasn't made nearly any dent". Still, in the face of global warming, more effort is required; and keeping some nuclear reactors running a bit longer to shut down lignite power plants a bit earlier would have helped. But doing so would probably have been hard given the political climate - there seems to be a strong anti-nuclear sentiment among the population; on the other hand opposition to open-pit mining of lignite is counterbalanced by the jobs it creates, and thus support from unions and local politicians.
Emissions-wise, natural gas (0.20 g CO2 per Wh) is a much better energy source than coal (0.34 to 0.41 g CO2 per Wh). Also, gas power plants can be adjusted very quickly, making them particularly suitable to balance the varying output from wind and solar energy (both of which Germany has a lot of).
Uuuuh, how does that contradict what I am saying? You can look it up yourself. New coal stations: http://airclim.org/acidnews/ge...
Expanding coal mines: https://qz.com/1389135/germany...
Complete idiot.
Nonsense. Germany closed it's last hard coal mine in 2015 and electricity production from hard coal declined from 127 TWh in 2013 to 83 TWth in 2018. Lignite is still surface-mined and power production is more stable but also on decline (161 TWh in 2015 to 146 TWh in 2018).Source: https://www.ag-energiebilanzen... With this just announced plan, it is clear it is on it's way out.
Actual numbers on coal use for electricity production in Germany in TWh from 2008-2018
lignite: 150.6 145.6 145.9 150.1 160.7 160.9 155.8 154.5 149.5 148.4 146.0
coal: 124.6 107.9 117.0 112.4 116.4 127.3 118.6 117.7 112.2 93.6 83.0
I know it is an annoying inconvenience to look at actual data before having an opinion, for those who want to learn, the source is here:https://www.ag-energiebilanzen.de/ (PDF below "STROMMIX")
So for "New Coal Stations" you cite an article that talks about (as the first example) a coal plant that's been in planning and construction for over a decade, and as of now (nearly 8 months after that article was written) still isn't commissioned and won't be for at least another year. Meanwhile, that project is to build a 4th unit to replace the three that were decommissioned years ago. Three out, one new. That's a net decrease innit?
The other examples are even dumber; A plant that was completed in 2013, one that was completed in 2015, and a plant that's been in construction since 2008 with no completion date yet.
I suppose the time travelers didn't succeed in telling the planners not to bother.
The article closes with a few paragraphs about a plant commissioned in 1996 that is nearing end of contract and presents it as an opportunity to replace it with something other than coal power.
So instead of "Germany is building new coal plants" your article just demonstrates that Germany has built coal plants - past tense - and that even some of those may never see operation. Forgive me if I'm not as convinced as you are on this point.
=Smidge=
Yes there was some forced sterilization but nothing on the scale of the Nazi's. Trying to claim otherwise is BS.