Last week, many media outlets reported that Germany would extend the life of three of its nuclear power plants. The resolution to keep reactors online, which was opposed by the country’s Green Party, showed that German politicians recognize the desire to keep reliable generating plants online. The country has enough electricity this winter.
But another equally vital announcement was also made last week and attracted far less media attention: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Germany would reopen five forced plants that burn lignite, a lower-tier coal. Germany’s return to lignite demonstrates, once again, the iron law of electric power, which states that individuals, businesses, and governments will do whatever they want to get the electric power they want.
Indeed, Germany’s return to lignite is full of contradictions, adding one that belongs to the column “you cannot invent this”.
The iron law of electric power is so harsh that the RWE app is dismantling Keyenberg’s wind allocation in the west of the country to, wait. . . make more room for the expansion of the Garzweiler mine. Garzweiler’s lignite feeds the Neurath C power plant, which is one of the power plants put into service again. A spokesman for RWE told the Guardian newspaper that “we realise this is paradoxical. “
Yes, there is no shortage of paradoxes. Germany’s desire to keep the lamps burning is why the government is keen to forget the fact that burning lignite to generate electricity emits more carbon dioxide than any other form of electric power generation.
In addition, the burning of lignite contradicts Germany’s climate goals. As a component of the much-vaunted Energiewende (German: “energy switch”), Germany has committed to reducing its total greenhouse fuel emissions by 95% by 2050. Overall, more than $500 billion through 2025, and this figure represents only the investments needed to decarbonize the electric power sector. The result of all this spending is that German citizens now pay some of the electricity charges in Europe.
Of course, Germany is not the only country that complies with the iron law of electricity. Global demand for coal has soared for months. European power companies are striving to buy as much coal as possible to upgrade Russian natural gas. Newcastle’s benchmark for thermal coal entering the Asian market has been $400 per tonne or so for several consecutive months. That’s an eight-fold increase from levels seen in early 2020. gas. And in July, the International Energy Agency said global coal intake would hit a record this year.
In August, the Energy and Clean Air Research Center and Global Energy Monitor announced that China plans to build 43 new coal-fired power plants as well as 18 new blast furnaces. As Time. com reported, the projects “were announced in the early part of this year when the world’s biggest polluter pledged to bring its emissions to a peak before 2030 and make the country carbon neutral by 2060. “
The report also revealed that China had begun the structure of 15 gigawatts of new coal-fired electric power capacity “began the structure in the first part of the year and 24 gigawatts of new projects were announced or reactivated. . . The volume of new projects represents a return to pre-COVID grades after the increase in new projects in 2020, but this still represents about one coal-fired power plant unit per week.
This last sentence is remarkable and worth repeating: this year, China initiated the structure of almost a new “coal plant consistent with the week. “
In pronouncing the reopening of lignite plants, Scholz said the measure is “a mandatory but time-limited emergency measure. “He added that Germany “will continue to firmly adhere to our climate goals. “
Scholz also said: “Russian aggression and its consequences will not have to lead to a global coal renaissance. . . We will make transparent donations so that emerging countries can also make a strong commitment to a climate-neutral energy sector. “
But today, the concept of a “climate-neutral” energy sector in Germany, and in almost every other country on the planet, is much further behind the sooner you want to keep the lights on. I’ll end up repeating the same message I’ve been promoting for more than a dozen years: If the countries of the world are serious about reducing their greenhouse fuel emissions, the way forward is N2N: from herbal fuel to nuclear. And if the purpose is to decarbonize the electric and commercial power sectors and do it quickly, the purpose will have to be to expand and deploy smaller, safer and less expensive nuclear reactors, and do it by the thousands.