Despite nuclear phaseout, average coal production in Germany didn’t explode. Yesterday it actually reaches it’s lowest point for the second time so far this year.

20 comments

  1. Source: [https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/energy/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE&chartColumnSorting=default&interval=day&legendItems=0010011000000000000&stacking=stacked_absolute&sum=1](https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/energy/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE&chartColumnSorting=default&interval=day&legendItems=0010011000000000000&stacking=stacked_absolute&sum=1)

    Chart combines lignite and hard coal.

    Data from 01.01.2023 – 07.05.2023.

    ​

    Surprising to no one but users of this subreddit, coal production in Germany still trends down despite the phaseout of nuclear power plants, reaching another all time low if we look at the 1-week-moving average in terms of GWh produced.

  3. Power production does not provide you with the full picture, you also have to look at consumption. Net import has gone up from 20.8 terawatt hours in 2021 to 27.5 terawatt hours in 2022. This needs to be factured in.

    For example, you could close down a coal power plant in Germany and import coal power from Poland instead, and it would look great on this chart. That’s exactly what happens during nights with little to no wind, and while French nuclear power is in short supply.

  4. Not trying to summon the reddit nuclear brigade, but I think the point was along the lines of

    > if Germany had kept investing in NPPs the decrease of coal would’ve been a lot faster.

    Which makes sense. But that investment needed to happen 30, 40 years ago, and most of the current fleet of German NPPs had to be retired anyway.

    Like many German redditors have said, that ship has sailed now. Germany is too densely populated, and local scale NIMBYs would have blocked any major NPP construction effort. That sort of programme just can’t be justified with the resources and energy demands we have today.

    Plans to drasrically reduce CO2 emissions from electricity generation are good. Realistic plans are better.

  5. Surely this post is trying to be sarcastic, right? OP, could there perhaps be another factor at play here? Could you maybe try to and imagine another reason why electricity generation is trending downwards? I don’t know, maybe some seasonal effect, like, for example, THE SEASONS? We are LEAVING WINTER, you genius!

  6. Regardless, closing the nuclear plant sets a bad precedent and was a stupid move

    Nuclear is the ideal alternative form of energy, and should be supported, until our renewable energy technology advances to a more feasible state

  7. This is because it’s warm & sunny. Electricity consumption bottoms in may and june, around the same time as when solar starts working again.

    OP is out to lunch.

  8. Now Google “Germany industrial production” news from the last week. Or the average temperature. Or the energy imports characteristics. Or wait a year to actually have representative data.

  11. at the end of the day it dosent actually make any difference in terms of CO2 emissions due to how the certificates work. europe as a whole will release the same amount of CO2 no matter if germany had kept their NPP for a couple more years or not

  12. Here are the monthly production rates.
    Yes in summer the total electricity share goes down, but from 42 TWh to around 36TWh.
    [https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/energy/chart.htm?l=de&c=DE&chartColumnSorting=default&interval=month&year=-1&month=-1&stacking=stacked_absolute&timeslider=1](https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/energy/chart.htm?l=de&c=DE&chartColumnSorting=default&interval=month&year=-1&month=-1&stacking=stacked_absolute&timeslider=1Notice)

    Notice how wind dominates in winter.

  13. But it could have been a lot lower if those nuclear plants had been kept open. That’s the whole issue here. Germany is prioritizing the closing of green power plants over closing the polluting ones.

  14. You know winter exist, right ?

    Germans should pray the next winter isn’t a harsh one because they will either have to burn a lot of dirty coal and rival with Poland in CO2 emisions or burn a lot of gas and have another price spike.

  16. plausible, but germany invests intensely in renewable energy production, even encourages household production of electricity through renewables. let’s see the consequences of the nuclear phaseout in the long-run, i mean, really long run: several decades.

    it is impossible to completely solve global sustainable energy problem without the widespread use of nuclear.

  17. they burn russian gaz instead…or used to at least. now they buy french nuclear electricity and get shale gaz from across the atlantic…great balance in the end I am sure.

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