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Yo_Mama

(8,303 posts)
8. Yes, but the other piece of this puzzle is the wind stall
Mon Apr 29, 2013, 12:54 PM
Apr 2013

Let's be honest and admit that Germany never expected their solar plants to be generating power when everybody came home and turned the lights on. They expected to be using wind to do that.

The real reason that they are on a coal expansion path is that they haven't gotten anywhere with wind, and there the problems are multiplying - until they solve that, they are stuck with a lot of fossil fuel generation and an increasing share of coal.

They have to build the transmission lines and the offshore connections, but they are stumbling around trying to figure out how to pay for it, and until they do, the current trajectory continues.

I presume that because this is an election year they won't start making decisions until the fall, so for now they'll tread water. This is not their plan, but funding to execute their plan is currently lagging, and that's a political issue that is up in the air.

What matters here is the long term, not the year-by-year.

Of course, if they can't get the wind in gear by 2015, then they probably will not be shutting down nuclear plants in 2020. It takes a while to build the generation and transmission capacities.

Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Environment & Energy»Germany's clean energy dr...»Reply #8