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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday May 18 2017, @04:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-happens-when-it-rains dept.

Germany recently broke its record for renewable energy generation by having 85 percent of its electricity come from renewable sources over the last weekend of April. On April 30, the bulk of electricity consume came from a mix of solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric power. The record breaking clean energy was thanks to breezy and sunny weather in the north and warm weather in the south, providing plenty of sunlight and wind.

"Most of Germany's coal-fired power stations were not even operating on Sunday, April 30th, with renewable sources accounting for 85 per cent of electricity across the country," said Patrick Graichen of Agora Energiewende Initiative. "Nuclear power sources, which are planned to be completely phased out by 2022, were also severely reduced."

The country's Energiewende program aims to see a clean energy revolution by 2050. Graichen says that the tide will really start to turn by 2030 when many of the investments made by Germany since 2010 will come to fruition and majority or even totally renewable-powered days will become the norm.

Will producing its energy locally confer a strategic economic advantage on Germany, or is it just for bragging rights?


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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday May 18 2017, @08:24PM (2 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 18 2017, @08:24PM (#511813) Journal

    Coal plants are probably necessary when the renewables don't shine on calm days. So what are the economics of keeping idle coal plants around to supplement when the renewable supply drops? Are there other better non-renewable plants to supplement for the variability of renewables?

    Nuclear gets mentioned. I believe the technology could be safe. But humans are not. Humans will do incredibly stupid things. Cut corners. Put backup generators in the basement. Etc.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18 2017, @10:05PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18 2017, @10:05PM (#511859)

    So what are the economics of keeping idle coal plants around to supplement when the renewable supply drops?

    Coal power plants have about 50% of their cost as capital cost (building) and 50% for fuel. Gas power plants are a lot cheaper -- their costs are much more fuel than the building. The reason is coal is dirty and messy to transport. So idle coal plant is quite expensive. The only positive is that it emits a lot less CO2 - it still emits a pile because it has to be kept at temperature.

    The bottom line is, electricity costs will just increase and they are already almost €0.30/kWh

    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday May 19 2017, @05:35AM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Friday May 19 2017, @05:35AM (#512035) Journal

      It's not the energy cost that increases, it's the part of it that is paid for by normal consumers. In other words, the problem is not the renewable energies, it's a misguided subsidy system.

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      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.