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Germany Fires Up Coal Power Plants for Winter to “Save Gas”

by Will Jones
6 October 2023 9:00 AM

The German Government on Wednesday approved putting coal power plants back online from October until the end of March 2024 to address scarce natural gas this winter and avoid shortages, Reuters reports.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a drop in Russian gas imports to Germany, Berlin reactivated coal-fired power plants and extended their lifespans, with a total output of 1.9 gigawatt hours generated last winter.

The Government said it will make proposals by next summer on how to ‘offset’ the increased carbon dioxide emissions the plants will generate this winter.

I wonder when they’ll twig they still need fossil fuels every winter, not just this year.

Tags: Climate AlarmismCoalFossil fuelsGasGermanyNet Zero

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23 Comments
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AethelredTheReadier
AethelredTheReadier
1 year ago

They’re lucky to have power plants that haven’t been already decommissioned. Here in clueless Agenda 21/Net Zero Britain, we’ll all be wearing thermals and hugging hot water bottles until our next global boiling summer rolls along. The government are hellbent on ruining our country by consigning us all to cold winters of unaffordable electricity. Imagine the numbers of old people who will be too worried about their bills and may freeze to death as a result. Imagine all the pubs and cafés and restaurants that will close early or not open at all and go bust as a result. Imagine schools and hospitals where the heat has been turned down because there just isn’t enough power in the grid. These are of course extreme imaginings but let’s be honest: our government – any government – are acting against the people through their lies about climate change. Traitors every one of them.

186
0
Nearhorburian
Nearhorburian
1 year ago
Reply to  AethelredTheReadier

It’s not just Net Zero.

Everything they do is about destroying this country, its indigenous people, our culture, our history, our freedoms and our landscapes.

Last edited 1 year ago by Nearhorburian
109
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  Nearhorburian

Read “The War on the West” by Douglas Murray.

35
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

Mark Steyn interviewed him about his book….A strange Death of Europe.
sounds good even if he is also a ‘cos play’ freedom fighter!

9
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Nearhorburian

And yet…People in Scotland voted Labour in the News. I suppose there’s not much difference between Liebour and their leader, but the penny is yet to drop.

8
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago

Yes the Ukraine situation really camouflaged the absurdity of green energy non solutions to non problems. ——–People seem to forget that the western world has pushed up it’s own energy prices because of the ridiculous drive to renewables which are expensive and unreliable, needing 100% subsidy and 100% backup from energy that actually works all day and night like coal and gas. The invasion of Ukraine has given climate activists another good excuse to say we should be rid of gas because it makes us dependent on Putin etc. But they already wanted rid of gas before there was even a hint of an invasion of Ukraine. The countries with the most renewables are the ones with the highest energy prices and that is true whether Ukraine was invaded or not. Ukraine is just a handy smokescreen that obscures the fact that our energy prices were already rising steadily year on year as we have to fork out billions for turbines and smart meters etc all added to our bills. Germany was ofcourse more dependent on Russia for gas than the UK and they are paying for that lunacy now, but they already had the highest electricity prices in the world. Oh dear whatever happened to all the FREE WIND? There are about 40,000 turbines in Germany. If ever there was a failed experiment then this was it.

53
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

Yes they were the testing ground for Europe. The word for what you describe is ‘Divestment’ away from fossil fuels. That terrorist attack had something to do with Germany’s lack of gas. Yet, in the European Parliament, they voted NOT to investigate it further. Enough said!

10
0
JohnK
JohnK
1 year ago

If you look at this place: https://www.agora-energiewende.de/en/service/recent-electricity-data/chart/conventional_power_generation/21.08.2023/28.08.2023/today/ you can see that they have a fair way to go if they want to reduce the reliance on coal. In the graphs shown there, they split between “hard coal” and lignite. The latter being the largest proportion there. It appears that Germany is one of the main users of it, for historic reasons, at least in Europe. I don’t know about the types of coal used in China, e.g.

10
0
DomH75
DomH75
1 year ago

Given the UK has allowed two coal-fired stations to be decommissioned this year, we’re facing a nasty winter if it gets cold…

36
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
1 year ago
Reply to  DomH75

I think I read somewhere (here?) that the UK government requested the coal-fired stations to remain available just in case of need, but the owners said: ‘Nah. Not enough money on the table’ – or words to that effect.

11
0
Peter W
Peter W
1 year ago
Reply to  soundofreason

Pretty much what’s happened. We relied on those two ageing Drax coal fired generators last winter to keep the lights on. Expect plenty of blackouts and back to a 3 (or was is 4) day week.
Smart meters will be our domestic regret.

6
0
JohnnyDownes
JohnnyDownes
1 year ago
Reply to  DomH75

In the Ukraine they have Putin blowing coal-fired power stations up with bombs and rockets.
We’re luckier. Our coal-fired power stations are being blown up by government ministers in public. The stupidity.

14
0
LaptopMaestro
LaptopMaestro
1 year ago

The common sense approach.

9
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
1 year ago

According to this source (https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/energy_pie/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE&year=2022&interval=year) in 2022 Germany generated 213.4 TWh of electricity from ‘fossil’ fuel including 105.94 TWh from brown coal, 55.44 TWh from hard coal and 45.16 TWh from gas. I find it difficult to understand how the article seems to claim that coal accounted for 1.9 GWh (0.0019 TWh) last winter. Note that their last three nuclear reactors produced 32.77 TWh.

As Reuters is part of the TNI I guess the report is a ‘spin’ on some thin facts.

Still, it’s a good job their electricity demand will decrease when they ramp up use of EVs.

Last edited 1 year ago by soundofreason
18
0
AethelredTheReadier
AethelredTheReadier
1 year ago
Reply to  soundofreason

it’s a good job their electricity demand will decrease when they ramp up use of EVs.

Not sure if you were being ironic, SoR, but surely electricity demand will ramp up significantly and indeed there just won’t be enough of it to power all those EVs especially after our petrol/diesel cars are taken away from us. Working from home may then become the norm as a result. But we are talking years from now when we’re all safely ensconced in our 15 minute prisons…

18
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
1 year ago
Reply to  AethelredTheReadier

Sarcastic. But yes.

It would be ironic if, for example, just as they were about to close down their last three nuclear reactors the supply of gas reduced and the price rocketed.

Yes, if EVs are adopted in the same numbers as ICE vehicles have been then electricity demand will increase enormously. The only way out of that is to reduce the number of vehicle batteries on charge at any one time.

The only way we will come through Net Zero (unless we revolt) is with a reduced lifestyle. Most households without private transport, no facility to travel for trivial reasons such as holidays, reduced selection of foods available. Yes, working from home. Probably also a cap on home heating – insulate or die.

Last edited 1 year ago by soundofreason
15
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  AethelredTheReadier

They discussed 15 min cities on the Today program at Tory conference, and again on P.M. Calling it all a conspiracy of course.

14
0
RTSC
RTSC
1 year ago

Perhaps our Government could do the same?

Oh no …. they can’t can they? Because the morons allowed Alok Sharma to blow them up.

21
0
JXB
JXB
1 year ago

“Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a drop in Russian gas imports to Germany…”

Following the demolition of the Nordstream pipeline by….? and Germany’s self-inflicted wound eschewing Russian gas in favour of supplies elsewhere (where?) – a drop in Russian gas imports to Germany.

Russia did not invade Ukraine, it sent about 70 000 to 80 000 troops into the Crimea which it had annexed in 2014 to protect ethnic Russian population there, and the 2022 operation was in response to a mobilisation of Ukrainian forces intent on reclaiming the Crimea.

Let’s get the facts, and not repeat USA/NATO propaganda – this is not the BBC website.

29
-3
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago

Many of us rushed to install Wood Burners….I got mine last January. You can get serious heat from them!

16
-1
soundofreason
soundofreason
1 year ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

We’ve had one for about a decade. We got it as a ‘nice to have’ luxury which at first we used just a few times per year as a treat. At first we were slightly worried about it because the heat was so fierce. We eventually learned to moderate the burn and let the warmth permeate the whole house. We also learned to grab logs for the wood store at any opportunity if the price was right (pref. free). Last winter we ran it almost every evening instead of the gas central heating… lovely. The ash is good for our garden too (v. heavy clay).

21
0
Peter W
Peter W
1 year ago

Perhaps they should’ve kept their last 3 nuclear reactors open. Idiots!

3
0
scillygirl
scillygirl
1 year ago

I’ve just received a leaflet from the National Grid with suggestions for what to do in the event of a power cut. This follows on from my latest refusal to have a smart meter at which my power supplier (BG) said they would put me on the “refusal list”. Perhaps they are creating a list of dissidents to be targeted with power cuts or am I being paranoid?

0
0

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