In Terms of Integrating Renewables, All Eyes Are on Germany
One day last month, Germany generated 90% of its electricity from renewable resources. Though this is a rarity (their average in 2015 was 33%, up from 28% in 2014), the world stands in awe of what these folks have done in terms of innovation in the energy sector. Now, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has forged a deal that would rein in the rate of penetration of variable resources onto the grid, insofar as integrating this enormous amount of resources at such an impressive clip has become, at least for the moment, expensive and destabilizing.
The world regards Germany’s ultra-fast migration away from fossil fuels with a combination of admiration and astonishment. It’s wonderful to see such an advanced and sophisticated country, one whose culture is certainly not known for risk-taking, approaching the clean energy future so aggressively. People of decency around the globe are rooting Germany on to victory, confident that a model for success will come along shortly, one that will be immediately emulated by the rest of the world.
Quite honestly, I am not in awe of Germany. Germany has actually INCREASED CO2 emissions as the result of shutting down nuclear power plants. Germany has compensated for reduced nuclear power by burning more coal and importing more power from other countries. Also, how much renewable power Germany is able to generate on one particular day is irrelevant. What IS relevant is how much CO2 they are generating and France has them beat there; France emits only a fraction of the CO2 that Germany emits for the amount of power, about 25% as much if I correctly recall.
Also, France, in only 15 years, went from zero nuclear power to 80% power from nuclear reactors although since then they have gone down to 75% nuclear. Germany has spent considerably more time implementing renewable power than France spent implementing renewables which shows how much more quickly nuclear power can be expanded than renewables can be expanded.
Frau Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has also taken action to reduce the rate of implementation of renewable power because the existing grid cannot handle it. So far as I know, France did not experience that problem when expanding nuclear power the reason being that the nuclear plants could be built where the grid had already been designed to accept power. Where renewables are concerned, the plants have to be built where they will work best which usually is not where the grid has already been designed to accept the power.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/01/angela-merkel-signs-deal-with-german-states-to-regulate-green-energy-rollout
The above is one of the problems of renewables. When new power sources are located where the grid has been designed to accept power, transitioning to another power technology is much easier. However, when new power sources are located where the grid is not designed to accept power, expenses and delays greatly increase because the grid has to be modified and extended. Moreover the new power lines required cannot be built without permits and the permitting process often takes more than 10 years. The very environmentalists who eschew nuclear power also eschew building the new power lines required to implement renewables and delay building the new power lines as long as possible.
Wind and solar power require far more concrete and steel than nuclear power requires. I don’t have the exact figures immediately available, but if I correctly recall, renewables require more than 10 times as much concrete and steel as nuclear.
Considering the disaster of not totally known magnitude that global warming will cause, we should be moving away from CO2 emitting sources of power as quickly as possible. Since the experience of France and Germany indicates that it is possible to implement nuclear power far faster than renewable power, it makes most sense to transition from fossil fuels to nuclear power as quickly as possible.
Probably it is already too late to keep global warming to acceptable limits. About all we can do now is limit global warming to the extent possible and learn to live with what is probably inevitable. And, living with it will require even more power for air conditioning, sea water desalination, building more housing away from areas which become uninhabitable, etc., not to mention the political problems that mass migrations will cause.
In my previous post, I neglected to call attention to a couple very important points in the article to which I provided the link. Here is the link again:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/01/angela-merkel-signs-deal-with-german-states-to-regulate-green-energy-rollout
Here are important quotations from the article, and my comments:
“The latest reforms are aimed at slowing the growth in renewables, which accounted for around a third of Germany’s electricity last year, up from 28% in 2014.”
Note that even though Germany, during one day, got 90% of its power from renewables, over a period of one year it got only around 33% of its power from renewables.
“With the government sticking to its target for an increase in the share of renewable sources to 40-45% of total electricity production by 2025, it will have to put the brakes on growth to avoid overshooting.”
The above indicates that Germany targets getting 40 to 45% of its electric power from renewables by 2025. However, the whole world will have to get at least NINETY PERCENT of its power from non-CO2 emitting sources to limit global warming to acceptable levels. At that rate, Germany will NEVER make it, nor will the rest of the world if it follows Germany’s example even though Germany has been said to be setting a good example. We must do better!