The amount of electricity generated from fossil and conventional energy sources fell by 12.2% in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period of the previous year. The largest decline, at 22%, was measured in power generation from coal. Coal-fired power plants fed in a total of 17.3 billion kWh less than in the previous year. Nuclear power generation has also declined due to the shutdown of the last 3 nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants still fed 6.7 billion kWh of electricity into the grid in the first half of 2023 and thus contributed 3% to the electricity mix. Electricity generation from natural gas fell by 4.1% compared to the same period last year
No, it really does not. That compares power generation mix, not total capacity, over the same periods of different years, which you can’t interpret in a vacuum. Look at the neighbouring countries’ data so you can normalise the data and analyse it properly. It may very well be that total power generation in the period they’re comparing is down overall due to a warmer winter. So it stands to reason that so would fossil fuels.
If you want to interpret it properly, we can go over it, but it won’t tell you much about what we’re talking about. The matter is that while we’re in a fullblown climate crisis, and what we’re doing is insufficient, they reopened coal plants:
And none of it would be necessary had they not closed their very well performing NPPs.
We need to be doing everything we can to decarbonise, and I honestly don’t understand why we keep having this 60 year old discussion, the same as the previous generations that have led us to this point. It really only serves so that fossil fuel magnates can keep lining their pockets as the world burns. Somehow they’ve convinced people that nuclear is competition for renewables instead of complementary, it’s really incredible to me.
Your first link is almost one year old. They did indeed prepare for a worst case, which didn’t occur after all. Coal and gas consumption (total, not just percentage wise) did not go up, but down instead.
Yes, a mild winter helped. Unfortunately, winters are getting warmer and warmer, and the last one was no exception there.
So why is your country’s emissions per capita more than 50% higher than France’s (from here), despite a much higher renewables percentage in the power mix? Might it have something to do with how much more nuclear they have?
Looking through your post history, we seem to be aligned in advocating for decarbonisation. If you really want to reach zero emissions as soon as possible, don’t you think we should be exploring every carbon free avenue, and shutting down every single fossil fuel power plant?
Don’t fall for your government’s justifications, or fearmongering around nuclear. If we want to decarbonise the grid, we need it to complement renewables and fill the roles that renewables can’t by themselves. The longer we take to realise that, the longer we’ll keep burning greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
I’m not paying €79/month to review the whole statistics, but you know perfectly well that France started from a much lower number. They already had nuclear when we started to roll out renewables on a large scale. Are you by any chance familiar with the term “head start”?
But decisions from 40 years ago are irrelevant for decisions today. Spilled milk.
don’t you think we should be exploring every carbon free avenue, and shutting down every single fossil fuel power plant?
Sure. But nuclear is probably not the answer: we don’t have those decades left it takes to build hundreds of new plants. Not to mention the astronomical cost. The ship had sailed 30 years ago.
Edit: the last 3 nuclear plants we shut down this year had a combined capacity of around 4 GW. In 2022 we installed over 7 GW of solar and about 2.5 GW of wind capacity (this year it will probably significantly more)
30 years ago it was the same argument. “It takes too long, we needed to have started earlier”. Well, here we are now. Let’s not have kids 30 years from now saying the same thing.
France regularly imports (renewable) electricity from Germany when they have to shut down some of their reactors due to cooling problems in summer. So 50 are not enough. For a smaller economy.
I don’t want maximise nuclear waste, I want to minimise carbon emissions.
Germany decided to minimise nuclear waste, and while doing that they’re having to fire up fossil fuel powerplants. Does that sound right to you?
https://strom-report.com/strom/
Kind of says the opposite, doesn’t it?
No, it really does not. That compares power generation mix, not total capacity, over the same periods of different years, which you can’t interpret in a vacuum. Look at the neighbouring countries’ data so you can normalise the data and analyse it properly. It may very well be that total power generation in the period they’re comparing is down overall due to a warmer winter. So it stands to reason that so would fossil fuels.
If you want to interpret it properly, we can go over it, but it won’t tell you much about what we’re talking about. The matter is that while we’re in a fullblown climate crisis, and what we’re doing is insufficient, they reopened coal plants:
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-reactivates-coal-fired-power-plant-to-save-gas/a-62893497
And are planning to expand gas generation capacity: https://www.enerdata.net/publications/daily-energy-news/germany-plans-build-25-gw-new-gas-fired-capacity-2030.html
And none of it would be necessary had they not closed their very well performing NPPs.
We need to be doing everything we can to decarbonise, and I honestly don’t understand why we keep having this 60 year old discussion, the same as the previous generations that have led us to this point. It really only serves so that fossil fuel magnates can keep lining their pockets as the world burns. Somehow they’ve convinced people that nuclear is competition for renewables instead of complementary, it’s really incredible to me.
Your first link is almost one year old. They did indeed prepare for a worst case, which didn’t occur after all. Coal and gas consumption (total, not just percentage wise) did not go up, but down instead.
Yes, a mild winter helped. Unfortunately, winters are getting warmer and warmer, and the last one was no exception there.
So why is your country’s emissions per capita more than 50% higher than France’s (from here), despite a much higher renewables percentage in the power mix? Might it have something to do with how much more nuclear they have?
Looking through your post history, we seem to be aligned in advocating for decarbonisation. If you really want to reach zero emissions as soon as possible, don’t you think we should be exploring every carbon free avenue, and shutting down every single fossil fuel power plant?
Don’t fall for your government’s justifications, or fearmongering around nuclear. If we want to decarbonise the grid, we need it to complement renewables and fill the roles that renewables can’t by themselves. The longer we take to realise that, the longer we’ll keep burning greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
I’m not paying €79/month to review the whole statistics, but you know perfectly well that France started from a much lower number. They already had nuclear when we started to roll out renewables on a large scale. Are you by any chance familiar with the term “head start”?
But decisions from 40 years ago are irrelevant for decisions today. Spilled milk.
Sure. But nuclear is probably not the answer: we don’t have those decades left it takes to build hundreds of new plants. Not to mention the astronomical cost. The ship had sailed 30 years ago.
Edit: the last 3 nuclear plants we shut down this year had a combined capacity of around 4 GW. In 2022 we installed over 7 GW of solar and about 2.5 GW of wind capacity (this year it will probably significantly more)
We don’t need hundreds of new plants. France only has around 50 and it’s more than enough. It’s also feasible to retrofit existing coal plants with nuclear reactors, for example.
30 years ago it was the same argument. “It takes too long, we needed to have started earlier”. Well, here we are now. Let’s not have kids 30 years from now saying the same thing.
France regularly imports (renewable) electricity from Germany when they have to shut down some of their reactors due to cooling problems in summer. So 50 are not enough. For a smaller economy.
Every country imports electricity from their neighbours. Germany also imports from France. That’s how an interconnected power grid works.