Germany approves bringing coal-fired power plants back online this winter
Germany's cabinet on Wednesday approved putting on-reserve lignite-fired power plants back online from October until the end of March 2024, the economy ministry said, as a step to replace scarce natural gas this winter and avoid shortages.
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Impressive. Not in a great way..
Id rather see renewables, nuclear runs a close second but if its a choice between Australian coal or Russian gas...
Under the old CDU government(s) 10 years ago, we decided to pivot away from nuclear. The plan then was to substitute with coal, then gas and long-term transition to wind. Gas was cut short in this equation and federal government is doing what they can to force renewables, but that is fairly hard to do over 4 years. Reintroducing nuclear short term is - pardon my french - horseshit. By the time the reactors would be planned and laws were (re)written accordingly we could already be CO2 neutral (or as close as we will get). Instead Europe should work together imo and reinforce the grid - spanish sun with scandinavian hydro, offshores in the Nord- and Ostsee as well as geothermal heating and we can stem this. Let there be a calm and dark day, it will not cover all of Europe. And seeing how many people now rant about especially the green party either being too slow or too fast on climate issues I have a stark fear that next term we will have Merz - a far-right conservative and in my humble opinion a damned populist.
Does that clarify closing existing reactors?
The decision to close the remaining reactors was made around a decade ago. It's simply not possible to flip a switch and turn them back on. There's no fuel, the reactors have not been maintained and the personnel to run these reactors or perform the maintenance is not here any more. The fuel also has to come from somewhere, and " somewhere" being mostly Russia.
