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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.
The great Chinese Climate Change Hoax claims yet another victim.
Those poor German fools are going to clean up their environment, make more livable cities, have cleaner water and less smog and create tens of thousands of new jobs. All for nothing.
Although getting rid of coal is a nice effort from the standpoint of pollution, if you are truly serious about climate change, why is Germany getting rid of THIER use of coal.
I mean, whatever coal fired power plants they already have probably have really strict emission control equipment, right?
Meanwhile, what if you took 98 *billion* dollars and used that money all to improve the electrical power grid in India. From solar projects to simply putting CO2 and emission scrubbers on coal plants they have, would that not be a vastly more efficient use of money?
The whole point of the Paris accord was to shift money from rich to poor nations anyway. So why not make that shift a lot more direct, and actually focused on improving the worst emissions?
As it is the Germany effort just looks like virtue signaling that will have almost no real impact on worldwide CO2 levels.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The people making the decisions will be long gone by then, anything can happen.
If this was the US I'd agree with you since in the US you have a culture of electing Republicans who then tear down everything the Democrats did, them you elect the Democrats who tear down everything the Republicans did, then you elect the Republicans who tear down everything the Democrats did .... and repeat this ad infinitum in the expectation that eventually something will change for the better. However, this is German and here Liberals and conservatives can actually agree and work together on sensible policies. If the CDU (the conservatives) are willing to do this, the Social Democrats and Greens (aka. the evil liberals) will be even more willing to do it. Coal is a dead and uneconomical way of producing energy and it looks to me like the Germans have accepted that and moved on to technologies that have a future.
If $90B is required to keep renewables cheaper than other options, what will happen at the end of that? $90B in taxpayer subsidized energy buys a lot of nuclear plants which they also shut down.
Energy in Germany (with all the subsidies) now costs over 30c/kWh while my small town supplier (primarily hydro/nuclear energy sourced) costs me 3c/kWh (without subsidies).
On the other hand, all this investment in renewables hasn't made nearly any dent in greenhouse gas emissions within Germany over the last 3 decades.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
The unix timestamp will roll over in 2038, too. The world ends anyway.
Germany is increasing its consumption of imported natural gas, mostly from Russia. The Nord Stream II pipeline is under construction at the moment, to bypass/supplement the trans-Ukranian pipeline currently feeding Western Europe as well as increasing supply capacity generally by about 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year. It's pretty certain that capacity will find eager customers in various European countries that are nominally pro-renewable but don't want to freeze to death in the dark.
No matter the we have to use MORE fuel to produce the power for my car as long as it is not consumed where my car is.
It depends where you live. In many places in the USA, you'd probably be "greener" by skipping the EV, buying the cheapest (ICE powered) economy car instead, and putting the money you saved towards photovoltaics on the roof of your home. The photovoltaics will also yield a better ROI than the EV.
Sad fact is, we've still got a way to go before EVs are anything more than a way for the rich (and rich-ish) to feel smug about their vehicle choice.
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
Coal is a dead and uneconomical way of producing energy and it looks to me like the Germans have accepted that and moved on to technologies that have a future.
Europe is forced to use more coal due to the *rejection* of technology. The hysterical and premature shutdown of nuclear power has forced the increased the use of coal. The US coal industry has been throw a lifeline not by Trump but by European greens. US coal exports to Europe have nearly doubled in recent years.
Another poster is correct. Europe is about talk, about virtue signaling gestures. The reality of their actions quite different.
Germany generally does not heat with electricity hence the one has nothing to do with the other. The increased gas supply is a replacement for heating oil.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
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.
Interesting: that article mentions the coal plant Datteln: in Datteln 3 blocks were already shutoff in 2014. Construction of the fourth block began in 2007 but was haltet by court in 2013. Since then block 4 in Datteln is the only coal-plant "under construction" in whole western Europe! Uniper (the owner of the plant) is fighting to complete it, and maybe will be able to complete that plant - but it will be the only one.
Meanwhile Uniper shut off other plants in Shamrock (2013), Knepper (2014), Veltheim (2015) and Irsching (2016). New plants are not in sight!
Except Germany has already closed a lot of coal plants and they now have an agreement to close the rest.
The USA (we're number 1), OTOH, has promised to make coal great again (although they are running into a few economic barriers... it's just too expensive, and dirty.)
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
The point is that everybody benefits about equally from clean air and less global warming, whereas certain people are impacted disproportionately by shutting down the coal industry (those who produce and consume it), so using public funds to soften the blow for them creates an offramp. Sure, if the sustainable option also happened to be cheapest in the short run, there would be no need for any measures because it would just happen. Not the case unfortunately.
Yeah we all know about Germans and "agreements". They haven't been hitting their Co2 emission reduction targets and have been increasing their coal imports: http://www.mining.com/web/germ...
Much like Germany's "clean diesel" claims, it is all a lie.
Are you dislexic? I'm sorry for you.
Construction of the plant in Datteln started in 2007. In 2010 Germany decided to increase the amount of renewable energy to 80% till 2050, and for that goal the coal plants had to be gradually decomissioned. No new coal plants were build or planned since then. For the one plant "under construction", the owner Uniper had to fight a lot to be allowed to finish it. But it's not yet clear, if it will ever be finished.
So, don't spread fake news!
More fake news on Slashdot
Germany didn't commit to this plan, the article says it's a recommendation.
"BERLIN - Germany SHOULD stop using coal for electricity production by 2038, a government-appointed commission said Saturday, laying out an 80-billion euro roadmap to phase out the polluting fuel."
"Economy and Energy Minister Peter Altmaier said the government would "carefully and constructively examine" the recommendations, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported in its Sunday edition."
But you claim that they are still building new plants. No, they finished last year. There is none under construction or planned, according to your article.
Huge amounts of coal are used in Germany for making steel and cement. Not entirely sure how much - hard to google the numbers - but the steel companies in particular aren't going to like it. They rely on cheap electrical power to run arc furnaces as well as using roughly a quarter of the coal directly.
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=
Insults is all you have when confronted with actual numbers?
Nonsense. Germany closed it's last hard coal mine in 2015 ...
No, we closed the last one at the end of 2018, and the local mines had been on a decline for several decades already as imported hard coal was so much cheaper than digging it up from up to a kilometer deep under a densely populated area.
German brown coal on the other hand can still be retrieved from open pits rather easily (once you got rid of settlements and protected forests that may be in the way).
That's why the share of electricity produced by hard coal has been going down quite a bit over time, while the share of brown coal has declined only minimally so far.
But despite having no more hard coal mines of our own hard coal plants are still providing about 15% of our electricity so far, they are just operated by cheaper imported coal than what we could bring up from the deep locally
You take your pick, I take mine. Yours was on day when most of Germans suffered from heavy headaches etc. and did not work (1.1.2018) and on 1.1 when Germans do not work either. On nother days especially in January but this season for instance on 14.12.2018 and 10.1.2019 the grid had to take emergency measures to prevent frequency going too low (that is how overload manifests itself in a power grid). That happens regularly in January because of prevailing weather conditions. There is no battery from Tesla that can support whole country for 3 weeks as it sometimes happens. But that is not important - get this: Germans pay other countries for taking over excess electricity that wind and solar produce. They pay others to take it. No wonder they pay the highest prices for electricity on the local market. I guess this should be no surprise - the bolsheviki that rule here have miserable success record in anything even remotely touching economy.