Having so much available renewable electricity that German coal plants would almost shut down for a few days would be a newsworthy event. For France not burning coal is just a regular day (except for last year's hiccups).
No. It's also because they moronically shut down nuclear right after Russia happened instead of keeping it longer. Since they can't replace gas too easily, the coal peak will be longer into the future not just current.
>Coal is used to replace gas
No. Coal is used to generate electricity. Do you know what else they could have used to generate electricity? Nuclear.
The reasoning you provided is just the same ol' anti-nuclear propaganda spewed all over German politics and media: "Oh, it's Russia's fault. We can only use coal. Never nuclear."
No, in the first place it's used to generate heat, which is also used for generating electricity, but also to heat up homes and other systems. Nuclear Plants are simply not in a location where they can serve this purpose.
I thought they just restarted old coal plants.
All while accumulating massive debts and deferred maintenance (and relying on german coal).
I'd rather my country have debts than burn coal in large amount for decade (likely decades) to come.
Which makes me think it fails to paint the whole picture, given the events in the following decade. In all dimensions. Be it nuclear phase out, be it geopolitical changes and instability because of war and broken supply chains, be it coal and climate, or the blow-up of Northstream and switching to LNG, be it extension of wind and solar...
Sorry, but mostly useless pretty pictures, considering all the changes that happened meanwhile.
All I can see is:
Russia invaded Ukraine, the great German idea of relying on Russian gas to manage the intermitent nature of Energiewende dreams went down the drain.
Even more coal and lignite were dug up, more burnt ashes with plenty of radioactive particles were put in German air for all to inhale.
LNG terminals were built to import x3 price American shale gas, making our collective CO2 blanket even thicker...
No matter how you see it, the picture is incomplete then, not up to date. That's not a good base for discussion.
https://medias.vie-publique.fr/data_storage_s3/rapport/pdf/2...