Germany's Energy Woes

Clueless Germany is the poster child for handing over its sovereignty to the howling minority of eco-whiners reports A. Dru Kristenev. Closing the last of its nuclear plants under the false pretense of replacing that clean energy with 'sustainable' wind power that is anything but and unreliable, Germany is cutting its own throat. Keeping outward appearances of taking measures to combat climate change, the country will be charging a premium for power that it's now forced to purchase from suppliers like France, which generates wattage from, guess what? Nuclear power plants. The hypocrisy is stretching the ability of average citizens to comprehend the strategy. ¹

With another bitter winter and suicidal renewable energy policies, Germans are reaping the whirlwind

Energy consumption in Germany increased in 2021, as the economy recovered from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the country weathered a cold winter. At the same time, a year of depressed wind power production let the share of renewables in the country's power mix shrink, while coal power made a strong comeback. The developments bode ill for the new German government's plans to reduce energy use and boost renewables to record shares by 2030—the same year it plans to end the use of coal. ² With another bitter winter and suicidal renewable energy policies, Germans are reaping the whirlwind. Suffering Europe's highest power prices and routine power rationing, is just the beginning. Mass blackouts and deliberate power cuts are guaranteed. ³ The energy source that Germany moves to shut down, rescued the country from widespread blackouts in 2021. Hard coal consumption was 20 percent higher in the first three quarters of 2021 than in the previous year. Electricity and heat generation from hard coal increased by 28 percent. Wind power and solar plants delivered significantly less electricity compared to the same period last year despite higher installation capacity. ⁴ The 2021 results further highlight the unreliability of green energies such as wind and sun as a source of stable energy and remind that Germany's plan to shut down its remaining coal and nuclear power plants will be far more difficult than the government appears to believe. In relation to total energy consumption, the share of renewables decreased by a total of 16.1 percent compared to the previous year. Electricity generation by wind power plants fell sharply by 18 percent for onshore plants and 14 percent for offshore plants. Solar energy fared even worse, producing only half as much as the year earlier. To compensate for the missing wind and solar energies, both coal and nuclear plants had to take up the slack. Yet, these are the two conventional energy sources that the government aims to take offline completely by 2038 (nuclear by 2024).⁴ Germany saw a record price for households in 2021. It was the sixth year in a row with an increase. Electricity in 2021 costs double what it cost 20 years ago. Much of the price increase over the past two decades is the result of the renewable energies feed-in act. ⁵

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Europe's energy supply and potentially destabilize Europe's economy

Not only has Germany shut down most of its existing nuclear power plants and aims to continue on mothballing its fleet of coal power plants, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced he was suspending gas delivery from the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, which will surely only further exacerbate Europe's energy supply and potentially destabilize Europe's economy. ⁶) President Biden's net zero goal will result in higher electricity prices, instability to the grid and higher taxes to pay for the tax incentives renewable energy is demanding despite tens of billions of lavish subsidies and mandates already in place. Sounds like he is doing his best to follow Germany's lead.

References

1. A. Dru Kristenev, “Cutting their own throats, Germany leads the way to energy poverty,” Canada Free Press, December 19, 2021
2. Eric Worrall, “Germany burning more coal, renewable energy share falling,” wattsupwiththat.com, December 9, 2021
3. Fritz Vahrenholt, “Energy deficient: wind & solar obsessed Germany faces long dark winter,” stopthesethings.com, December 12, 2021
4. P. Gosselin, “Weather lulls: Germany forced to burn 20% more coal, the very energy source that's to be phased out,” wattsupwiththat.com, November 27, 2021
5. P. Gosselin, “German household electricity prices reach new record high in 2021—share of green electricity falls,” wattsupwiththat.com, January 11, 2022
6. P. Gosselin, “Germany's absurd energy policy of shortage and hardship energy inflation soars to 22.5% year on year,” notrickszone.com, March 1, 2022