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A comment on Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year. Parent comment

Re:Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of... by animal_spirits on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @04:02PM (#29655138)
In my opinion I think biomass can be considered cleaner since the burning of it releases only recently stored carbon as opposed to taking huge carbon reserves from fossil fuels that might not have ever seen the atmosphere again. In my mind biomass is "carbon neutral" where fossil fuels are "carbon positive"
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Re:Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of... by AstralStorm on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @04:11PM (#29655258)
It is not neutral, it takes tens of years for standard sources of biomass to accumulate to useful amounts. Fast biomass would use something like hemp or other grass but it's still problematic.

And it does increase CO2 and NOx levels when burned, not to mention soot - it's dirtier than quality coal. The growth itself does not capture nearly enough to cover for it.

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Re:Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of... by fsh on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @04:24PM (#29655457)
Biomass is mostly wood. If the forest is in steady-state (as is the case in Germany), this is carbon neutral. The main issue is that plants are much less efficient at light harvesting than solar cells. This means that there is probably not much scaling potential left.
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