A quarter of Germany’s 2013 power consumption was
met by renewable energies. In that and previous years,
electricity production from coal fired power plants rose
significantly whereas the power generation of gas and
nuclear plants decreased. Moreover, net electricity exports
from Germany to its neighbours reached an all-time record.
regardingpo wrote:Hey Simon, I don't know about your specific situation, I am talking about biomass companies who are cutting down existing forests and promising to plant new trees afterwards. The old trees were already there before they came.
Compare these two scenarios:
Scenario 1: No biomass burning
1. Old tree lives and takes in carbon during its lifetime (negative emissions)
Scenario 2: With biomass burning
1. You cut down the old tree and burn it and put carbon into the atmosphere (positive emissions)
2. You plant a new tree
3. New tree lives and takes in carbon during its lifetime (negative emissions)
As you can see, the difference is that in scenario 2 you created positive emissions. Negative emissions are there in both scenarios, so the fact that you have negative emissions in scenario 2 doesn't count as a benefit.
M_B_S wrote:https://www.agora-energiewende.de/fileadmin/downloads/publikationen/Analysen/Trends_im_deutschen_Stromsektor/Analysis_Energiewende_Paradox_web_EN.pdf
The German
Energiewende and
its Climate Paradox
An Analysis of Power Sector Trends for Renewables,
Coal, Gas, Nuclear Power and CO2
Emissions, 2010–2030
Since 2009 our Co2 Emissions are going up not down.Fig.8
These developments describe an Energiewende paradox:
Despite Germany’s increasing share of renewable energy
sources, its greenhouse gas emissions are rising.
q.e.d.
M_B_S
dohboi wrote:My understanding is that wind generation in the north of the country is quite robust, but that it is hard to get all that power down to the southern cities because of lack of grid infrastructure, which should have been developed long ago, but is way behind schedule for various reasons. Is that your understanding, too?
SOI Discussion Paper 2012-02
Adaptive Capacities, Path Creation and Variants of Sectoral Change
The Case of the Transformation of the German Energy Supply System
...
Jarass (2010) criticizes the oversized grid extension proposed in these studies. He expects that a large share of the planned extension is to be used to secure the profit ability of new coal power plants Jarass/Obermair 2009). According to Hohmeyer et al. (2011) , there is no need for any grid extension prior to 2015.
...
Jarass, Lorenz (2010): Windenergiebedingter Netzausbau – nicht zu viel und nicht zu wenig! In: Energiewirtschaftliche Tagesfragen, 60(10), p. 22 – 27.
Jarass, Lorenz/Obermair, Gustav M., 2009: Mehr Übertragungsleistung in Höchstspannungsnetzen. Optimierung geht vor Verstärkung und Neubau – Dena - Netzstudie I ist überholt. In: Energy 2.0, 2009(Februar), p. 53 – 55.
Power to heat gets going in Germany
23.06.2015
The city of Münster plans to use excess electricity on the grid to generate heat, which can be easily stored.
The local municipal utility is investing 1.7 million euros in a hot water storage tank that will be charged with electric heaters reacting to price signals on the power market. Symbolically, the heat storage facility is located in an old coal bunker in the town’s port.
25-09-2015
The role of power to heat – Heat pumps, electrical heat boilers and heat storage
Lessons from Denmark
Project acronym: Night Wind
Night Wind: Storage of wind energy in cold stores
First Period (1st july 2006 – 30th june 2007), Date of preparation: Feb. 12th, 2009
Final Activity Report – Night Wind - summary
German emissions increased in 2016 for a second year in a row as a result of the country closing one of its nuclear plants and replacing it with coal and natural gas, a new Environmental Progress analysis finds.
German emissions would have declined had it not closed a nuclear plant and replaced it with coal and natural gas.
Not only did new solar and wind not make up for the lost nuclear, the percentage of time during 2016 that solar and wind produced electricity declined dramatically.
Germany added a whopping 10 percent more wind turbine capacity and 2.5 percent more solar panel capacity between 2015 and 2016, but generated less than one percent more electricity from wind and generated one percent less electricity from solar.
The reason is because Germany had significantly less sunshine and wind in 2016 than 2015.
As such, 2016 is a dramatic illustration of the limits of energy sources that depend on the weather. Their output varies dramatically not just hour-to-hour but also year-to-year.
Anti-nuclear advocates have long insisted that this radical intermittency can be solved through more transmission and storage. But there's a problem: neither more transmission lines nor more storage would have made Germany any sunnier, or windier, in 2016.
The analysis is based on two sets of data and analysis by three German sources, two of which are think tanks that promote Germany's transition away from nuclear and toward fossil fuels and renewables. The data are preliminary and subject to change, but there is significant alignment between the different estimates. The Franhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, January 6, 2017, derives its numbers from the German Statistical Office Data through Oct 2016, and Agora Energiewende, 2017 from AG Energiebilanzen, Dec. 2016. The two estimates are mostly aligned on all generation estimates with the exception of small differences in wind and solar and large differences in natural gas generation estimates.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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