Common misconceptions about Germany's energy transition

Re:Common misconceptions about Germany's energy transition by crubier on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @03:05AM (#33417945)

This is a strawman. Most people knowledgeable of the topic do not blame Germany for increased carbon emission, but for 1 - high absolute carbon emissions when compared to France and other countries who did not discard nuclear 2 - a low relative decrease in carbon emissions when compared to the improvements they could have achieved with the same amount of money.

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Re:Common misconceptions about Germany's energy transition by simonh on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @01:18PM (#33424203)

I don't see how it can be a straw man, when Ive seen the claims it's debunking being repeated here and elsewhere. Sure, people knowledgeable on the topic might not make such claims, but it's a fact that they are often made.

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Re:Common misconceptions about Germany's energy transition by dane-pgp on Wednesday November 02, 2022 @12:49AM (#33431542)

> 1 - high absolute carbon emissions when compared to France and other countries who did not discard nuclear

High absolute carbon emissions per capita? Which other countries? Here are the figures[0] for various EU countries using nuclear power, for comparison:

   Country      CO2 Emissions per capita (tons) 
   Czechia      10.53
   Netherlands   9.62
   Germany       9.44
   Finland       9.31

So it's true that France managed low carbon emissions by committing fully to nuclear power long ago, but I don't think Germany is exceptional among EU nations for their failure to copy France's policies.

> 2 - a low relative decrease in carbon emissions when compared to the improvements they could have achieved with the same amount of money.

How much money did they spend, and how much nuclear power could they have generated with that money? If the counterfactual you are comparing to is Germany somehow deciding to start build new nuclear power stations in 2011 (after the Fukushima disaster) then the amount of nuclear power they could have generated is zero, based on France's experience[1] with building Flamanville unit 3.

[0] https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/co2-emissions-pe...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamanville_Nuclear_Power_Plan...

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