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Tag: Germany
Germany: Talking Green, But Addicted To Coal
Germany is making major investments in green and sustainable energy, but remains addicted to coal-fired power plants for electrical generation. While publicized goals project major carbon reductions, 26 new German coal-fired power plants are in planning or development. The Japanese crisis pressures the viability of Deutsche nuclear energy. The near-term alternative is German coal power.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks about carbon and global warming, "The situation is threatening. There are fewer and fewer glaciers in the mountains. Storms are getting stronger. We have to change course, now." Germany joined EU colleagues in a goal to reduce European greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020 in comparison to 1990 levels. The German share is a 40% reduction
Germany is investing billions of Euros in sustainable energy. Wind and solar power are rapidly growing, but according to an AGEB Energieverbrauch report, the two only reached 8% of electrical power generation in 2010.
Nuclear is the third and largest sustainable energy source, with a 25% share of German electricity. To provide time for other technologies to grow, Germany extended the life of nuclear reactors to 2022. Japan's nuclear crisis is pressuring that decision. Major protests forced the government to close seven of its reactors for safety inspections. As Japan battles multiple problems in its reactors, the German Chancellor will reconsider the nuclear extension.
Coal powers just over 40% of German electricity. Half is the brown lignite coal and the rest is hard coal. According to Bloomberg , the government plans to build a new coal-fired power plant in Lichtenberg, a suburb of Berlin. This new coal-fired power plant consumes two million tons annual tons of Polish coal to generate 800 megawatts of electricity and 600 megawatts of heat. Bloomberg estimates, "The plant will churn-out five million tons of CO 2 per year." In planning and development are 25 similar coal-fired power plants.
The German government argues the new plants replace older and dirtier plants. In a government report, Interesting Energy Facts , current coal-fired power plants emit 115 million tons of CO2 per year, while the future coal-fired power plants emit only 21 million tons per year.
Germany faces few choices. Wind and solar power are expensive investments, and the government does not expect major sustainable energy results before 2030. Regardless of what occurs in Japan, Deutsche nuclear power will shrink. Oil and natural gas remain the other option, but the combination of cost, emissions, and reliance on Russia, cools the enthusiasm on turning up the valve. Coal-fired power remains the best option for more energy.
Germany is growing. The world's 5th largest economy is recovering from the recession. Energy, regardless of its origin, delivers the fuel for continued growth. Chancellor Merkel believes the sustainable energy investments will yield results. Cars, trucks, and trains are becoming more efficient. New coal-fired power plants replace the older and dirtier versions.
The plans are logical and full of hope. The Chancellor's own words remain haunting. "The situation is threatening. There are fewer and fewer glaciers in the mountains. Storms are getting stronger. We have to change course, now."
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The Sparpaket, Germany Tightening Up the Belt
Two years when I heard of the bankruptcy of an American bank. Everybody talked about it, and months later the old story happened again and again all around Europe. Capitalism and its domino effect. The world economy started to suffer. I started to see every morning on Euro News incredible things that I had never seen before. The long queues of unemployed lawyers and doctors applying for ridiculous jobs. I even heard that some relatives of mine who had struggled for so long a time to go to Spain went back to Morocco.
There was nothing more to be done. The one and only exit that had dreams for us was tumbling down, and we just looked and thought, that can not be again the same story repeating itself. Things will change, people said. It is just a summer rain. Some people found back a new job, but the professionals of the business were afraid, and they seemed to be putting more and more money into the furnace of bankrupted countries. The lovely Greece was hit hard. I could hear Herodotus writing a new book of history if he could, this time about a financial crisis. A capitalist country seemed to become a paper tiger, a palace built with cards. An anti-Greece feeling started to invade Europe, and sure there was a feeling of xenophobia too. Thank god! No new Hilters showed up as yet. One seemed to raise up his ugly head, but it ripened like a full blooming grape, plucked in time. I heard a new Haider was coming again somewhere in those crevices of the Alps, but he had better hold back. The times were not ripe. There is the British National Party in the United Kingdom, but nobody seems to believe them. They are warmongers, and history could only repeat itself.
I live in Germany, and I thought I was immune to the financial cuts of a new plan. I was wrong. Only a few days ago, Angela Merkel proposed a plan, only a few days before the World Cup. Nice move, Angie! The "Sparpaket" would absolutely affect mostly the people who are socially looked after. The state assistance for the families would be cut, and many more … Here five percent, there ten till 2014.
"Do you think they would keep their promise after 2014," said my friend who came to pay me a visit. Like me, he had not worked yet, and his capital to this country were the three children his wife had borne him. What he got for his children amounted to a salary.
As we walked down the Wermingser Strait, I replied, "I do not think so. The bad years of this country were to be counted since the fall of the first brick of that Wall …" I meant the Berlin Wall when my friend looked around for the wall I was talking about. I cut him short; I had no patience to explain. "That Wall kept a tyranny away, and threatened the benevolence of Capitalism. Do you think that all the good times had come like that?" I snapped one finger against the other. "Every big banker feared for his money, so he gave as much as he could to appease the anger of the workers, and make them look over the Wall. `There, 'he would say,` live the murderers of democracy, and you hear! You live the great time of your lives … ''
Strange how the Soviet Union who fought for the rights of the workers could only shrink behind the Iron Curtain to decompose, and not to speak truly of a revolution. We lived at the expense of those held hostages. They were the currency of our dreams that came true, I thought. "Those times were over, my friend. Nobody knew that the Wall of Berlin was one of the pillars on which a communist ego leaned. We were jubilant to unite East and West to eat our bile in anger for the bleak times were coming."
My disclosure was blunt, short and simple. It was worse for my friend, worse than an operation that awaited him a few days later, the removal of piles.
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Nuclear Energy Option in Germany
Germany is by many considered as one of the leading countries when it comes to supporting the development of renewable energy. Having this in mind, the latest report according to which Germany would extend the life of its nuclear reactors by 12 years on average, came as a rather big surprise.
Nuclear energy is always a controversial issue, and Germany is no exception so it's really no surprise that this decision raised plenty of critics towards Chancellor Angela Merkel. Environmentalists and many energy experts believe that this decision was step backwards, and a hard blow for the future development of renewable energy.
Merkel defended her decision by saying that the decision to prolong life of nuclear reactors in Germany would really serve as a "bridge" until renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power can produce more of Germany's power as it seeks to reduce dependence on coal. Merkel also highlighted that without the nuclear power Germany could may as well forget about its target of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels. On the other hand many environmentalists argue that this decision is all about yielding to powerful nuclear energy lobby.
Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen said that the nuclear reactors in older plants will be extended by eight years and those of newer ones by 14 years, and he also added that nuclear utilities would have to pay part of their extra profits boosted from the extension to develop renewable energy.
The recent polls and surveys in Germany have shown that majority of Germans opposed the idea of postponing the date that the country goes nuclear-free which makes this decision even more surprising.
Austria's environment minister Niki Berlakovich was also very disappointed with such decision saying that "nuclear energy will not answer the problems related to climate or be a solution to reducing CO2 emissions because the future of energy supplies lies indisputably in renewable energy".
The time period of 10-15 years may not seem so long, but this also means that in the next 15 years renewables will not only have to compete with fossil fuels but also with nuclear power, which will make things very difficult for renewable energy industry , and may seriously slow down the development of wind and solar energy in Germany.
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