Spain confirms nuclear power phase-out, extends renewable projects deadlines

Re:Spain confirms nuclear power phase-out, extends renewable... by pydry on Saturday December 30, 2023 @04:02PM (#38819093)

Your talking point was one of the outputs of that American shamefest I was referring to. They were furious at Germany and so said... what you just did.

The graph of Germany's energy mix over time doesnt quite tell the this story, however:

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/sites/default/files/styles/p...

In fact it shows that nuclear power was never that relevant to Germany and that that loud hissy fit was about a change in < 5% of Germany's electricity mix. Why so controversial?

Well, the reason for this political shamefest are a bit murky - possibly military related - but one thing is certain: it had less than nothing to do with environmentalism. That was a cover.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Spain confirms nuclear power phase-out, extends renewable... by philwelch on Saturday December 30, 2023 @06:18PM (#38820269)

I’m looking at your graph. If you go back to 2010 when Germany had 20 GW of nuclear production, keeping that capacity online could have replaced more than half of the coal power Germany generates today. Meanwhile natural gas has grown from 23.8 to 34.8 GW, significantly more than the meager reductions in coal generation over that period.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Spain confirms nuclear power phase-out, extends renewable... by pydry on Monday January 01, 2024 @06:49AM (#38831213)

Nonetheless solar and wind have taken up the vast majority of the slack from decommissioned coal and nuclear power.

The narrative that coal substituted for nuclear power is a very blatant lie, and motivated more by political/military concerns rather than any concern for the environment.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Spain confirms nuclear power phase-out, extends renewable... by philwelch on Tuesday January 02, 2024 @01:57AM (#38838942)

> The narrative that coal substituted for nuclear power is a very blatant lie

It’s not a lie. Germany has decommissioned 20 GW of nuclear power since 2010, according to the statistics you provided. Over 37 GW of coal power remains online. If Germany kept the nuclear plants online, they could have instead decommissioned an additional 20 GW of coal power. But they didn’t. Which means 20 out of the 37 GW of German coal power is directly substituting for nuclear power.

[ Parent | on HN ]