> Germany is dependent on China for PV panels

This is gas brain thinking.

Panels aren't burned to make electricity. If literally everyone stops selling you panels (nearly impossible) you continue generating electricity the old way. Nothing bad happens. The panels you already have continue working.

Other countries make panels too. India has a glut right now.

https://solarmagazine.com/2025/08/india-solar-supply-chain-f...

You can't base energy of an modern industrial country on purely solar panels alone, they don't produce any electricity in the night and have electric output reduced by weather. You have always to combine them with other power sources for backup.

For Germany it's domestic wind + domestic coal + imported gas.

In case you ask for energy storage in Germany, the amounts are quite low. https://openenergytracker.org/en/docs/germany/storage/

So you admit then that using as much solar and wind and storage as possible reduces the need for imported gas. As such it should be a national priority.

It should be a national priority to use as much already installed solar and wind and storage as possible, when the operating costs are low. The big question is: where should the future investments be made, who will pay them? How much further investments in solar, wind and storage will decrease the need for gas? 2x, 10x, 100x of current yearly spending? Because gas is already very expensive in Europe, it's used precisely when renewable don't produce enough electric energy.

The German decision to phase out nuclear power was a very big and very costly mistake. The French almost made the same mistake.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/renewables-up-nuclear-down-in-fren...

> The German decision to phase out nuclear power was a very big and very costly mistake

It's time to stop talking about it. It's done. Unless the stopped plants can be restarted (which I'd support) this is completely useless. It doesn't mean anything.

> How much further investments in solar, wind and storage will decrease the need for gas?

The upper bound today (keep in mind battery tech gets cheaper all the time) it would cost $5tn to power Germany on batteries for 6 months. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45446112

You don't need to run Germany on batteries for 6 months. Even 1 month is more than plenty.

> Germany was dependent on Russian gas (before year 2022), which they later swapped for dependency on US LNG. In addition, Germany is dependent on China for PV panels

There is merit to putting one's energy policy on autopilot by doing the opposite of whatever Berlin is up to.

> doing the opposite of whatever Berlin is up to

So you're suggesting to cut solar incentives and never discuss SMRs?

I think you might be predicting future performance from past returns here.

but much less dependent. Its way easier to stockpile a big buffer supply of LNG if its only 20% of your supply, for example. Its way easier to trim some 20% demand and still keep the country largely running, for example.

"much less dependent" is still a huge win. Sure 100% independent is better. Isnt this obvious? i dont understand the point.