This goes back to inability to build any kind of alternative infrastructure be it nuclear or renewables. As you’ve repeatedly pointed out, Merkel’s government sabotaged renewable infrastructure investment as well. It’s possible things may change going forward out of necessity, but so far it seems like things are getting worse as opposed to better.
The difference is that wind and solar managed to reach about 50% of the total electricity production despite being obstructed by the former government and the large traditional power-producers in almost every way possible.
But the bigger problem right now is actually that due to this state-capture / sabotage there are hardly any local producers left (this pre-dates both Covid-19 and the Ukraine war) and the producers that are left in Asia produce the equipment with a significantly more fossil fuel heavy energy mix and require a much longer fossil fuel consuming transport.
Again, it’s misleading to focus strictly on electricity production. Before Germany started rolling nuclear back it was providing 11% of overall energy. Which is comparable to what renewables are currently providing.
It seems to me that similar types of policies prevented mass adoption of nuclear and renewables. And as you point out, importing infrastructure is not really a great solution either.
I don’t see how the problem gets solved until Germany gets a sane and stable government that is willing to do a long term commitment to moving off using fossils.
This goes back to inability to build any kind of alternative infrastructure be it nuclear or renewables. As you’ve repeatedly pointed out, Merkel’s government sabotaged renewable infrastructure investment as well. It’s possible things may change going forward out of necessity, but so far it seems like things are getting worse as opposed to better.
The difference is that wind and solar managed to reach about 50% of the total electricity production despite being obstructed by the former government and the large traditional power-producers in almost every way possible.
But the bigger problem right now is actually that due to this state-capture / sabotage there are hardly any local producers left (this pre-dates both Covid-19 and the Ukraine war) and the producers that are left in Asia produce the equipment with a significantly more fossil fuel heavy energy mix and require a much longer fossil fuel consuming transport.
Again, it’s misleading to focus strictly on electricity production. Before Germany started rolling nuclear back it was providing 11% of overall energy. Which is comparable to what renewables are currently providing.
It seems to me that similar types of policies prevented mass adoption of nuclear and renewables. And as you point out, importing infrastructure is not really a great solution either.
I don’t see how the problem gets solved until Germany gets a sane and stable government that is willing to do a long term commitment to moving off using fossils.