this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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United States | News & Politics
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German here. We import power because it is cheaper then nuclear. Also we export more than we import. The majority of imported energy is from renewables from Norway and Sweden.
Germany will be highly reliant on other countries for their energy needs. Wind and solar are intermittent energy. With no cheap Russian piped gas, Germans would be paying higher for peaker plants and backup natural gas plants. Green energy isn't reliable for heavy industry. This is a permanent deindustrialization. Wind doesn't always work and some weeks there is extensive cloud cover. Sure, a desert would be consistent with solar because it has minimal cloud cover all year long, and you plan for that, but Germany is not ideal for that.
Germany does not aim to be energy-self-sufficient, it aims to be integrated into a European grid, which is self sufficient.
Wind and solar give plenty of energy, storage is the trick. The need for huge storage goes down in a European grid, because there are always parts with enough wind and sun.
I would love to understand this better. I have worked in power generation before (writing maintenance software for a nuclear plant, so I picked up a few things). I don't understand the distribution side at all, though.
Can you suggest a book or article on the subject?
This particular detail I picked up at a recent scientific conference on precisely this topic. It was a reoccurring theme across several talks. I am not aware of any general book on this, though.