Germany Quits Nuclear Power, Ending a Decades-Long Struggle

Re:Germany Quits Nuclear Power, Ending a Decades-Long Struggle by kken on Saturday April 15, 2023 @08:16AM (#35579927)

The entire concept of the "Energiewende" was implemented without putting the right constraints in place. The conservatives later fumbled it instead of adding the right changes.

What happened is that the subsidies for renewable energy in Germany mostly led to a buildup of a huge photovoltaic industry in China after an initial goldrush in Europe. When they changed the incentive scheme, the German photovoltaic industry crumbled and the chinese one was kept afloat with local subsidies.

For a while, the equipment suppliers in Europe still profited from the boom in China, but where eventually replaced by Chinese ones. In effect, now both the photovoltaic industry and the equipment industry in Europe largely disappeared.

And to add insult to injury, China is considering to limit photovoltaic exports (potentially as a means to counter the semiconductor sacntions):

https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3208206/chinas-propose...

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Re:Germany Quits Nuclear Power, Ending a Decades-Long Struggle by HyperSane on Saturday April 15, 2023 @08:23AM (#35579970)

Nuclear is the ONLY gigawatt scale dispatchable very low carbon source of electricity humans have at the moment, other than hydroelectric damns but we have used up pretty much all available capacity. If you refuse to use it then you are going to have to burn coal or gas instead. That is why Germany emits 6 times more CO2 per KWh than France.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1291750/carbon-intensity...

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