Hillhater said:
..and the fact that Germany has had to maintain, and add to, it Thermal (coal & Gas) generators to support the variability of RE sources.
Currently, Germany has over 200GW of generation capacity, ~100GW of Wind and Solar, and ~ 80 GW of Coal +Gas,....but its maximum peak demand is never more than 70-75 GW
that means there is 100+% overcapacity and also at times 100 GW of variability to be managed..basicly by keeping thermal plants running on standby and often exporting power to other countries when they cannot be regulated down in response to RE variations..that is very costly.
this record shows why that thermal power is kept on standby, and some of those periods when RE fails and power has to be imported..lucky supporting countries are not so heavily committed to RE power at those times.
...and remember that is from 100GW installed for a 75GW peak demand ???
...and NO reduction in CO2 emissions !
....but the highest Electricity cost in Europe.
sendler2112 said:
We have been looking at electricity generation as if it were the end all and most important aspect of the discussion. But total energy consumption is 5 times greater and dependent on liquid fuel to keep society fed and keep the debt bubble from collapsing. This is the important picture. In the case of Germany which happens to have this thread's attention right at the moment, 2016 wind and solar only accounted for 3.3% of total energy. Less than half of what was used from biomass even. Such a long way to go. So much overconfidence in solar and wind distorting our decisions.
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https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-consumption-and-power-mix-charts
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And the cost issue which was not pasted from the above wiki page
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The push toward renewables has come at a price.[citation needed] According to Forbes, the IEA reports that in 2015, German prices were 17.9 cents per kwh for industry, and 39.5 cents per kwh for residential customers, versus 7 and 12.5 cents respectively in the U.S.[8]
Components Electricity Price Germany
Components of the German Electricity Price for Households Source
German households and small businesses pay the second highest electricity price in Europe for many years in a row now. In 2016 the unit price per kilowatt hour decreased slightly an average of 28,69 Cent. More than half of the power price consists of components determined by the state. These include charges for using power grids (24.6%), levies for financing investment in renewable energy (22.1%) and for other kinds of taxes (e.g. GST 16%).[8]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Germany
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These are two great recent summary posts..
Have to say I am impressed to see these accurate conclusions on RE put together by others who dig deep into the more accurate data.
Its always been the long general rule of thumb summary I have used and that is you need to build around 1,000% capacity in wind and solar to replace conventional generation capacity. And that would still need battery backup or something of that nature for it to really work, all that use of biomass is really cheating as just like hydro-electricity its really unique to the specific area.
Did anyone see 60minutes Australia's report on renewable energy? It was pretty amusing and disturbing on how misleading it was, very well presented, someones already uploaded it to youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g8DD01B89g
Its a great window into the mind of how the average Australian sees it as they are stuck in the "main-stream-media The Matrix" vs us in the real world with real-world data and information.
The thing to remember about Australian commercial TV is they get the TV spectrum basically for free and abuse it to manipulate people on a hilarious level, often what is normally the most respected "seemingly normal free to air news" is later played back as a paid sponsored advertising on Facebook as both Channel 7 and Channel 9 have financial interests/investments in retail electricity.
https://www.facebook.com/onebigswitch/videos/10214335656488000/
Or general dubious activities on free to air TV in Australia https://www.facebook.com/ABCMediaWatch/videos/1843115182429619/
https://www.facebook.com/ABCMediaWatch/videos/1833515063389631/
^This is one just like Alex Jones Infowars special nutrients adverts but because its better more professionally presented on local TV it's fully absorbed my most folks as well respected nutrition.
So basically all main-stream-media are sucking clueless Australians dry on powerbills while looking like they are their best friends. Its basically the same as deliberately marketing McDonalds to people with heart problems in the 80s and suggesting it could cure their heart disease, which is now in this modern day and age of course greatly frowned upon, all the renewable energy subsidies etc have twisted the darkest of behaviour out of big business in Australia and I guess it will take a many years (sadly) to drill through the latest wicked activities.
Of course, ABC aren't angles either this is the kind of stuff they love to constantly bombard folks with https://youtu.be/hTkBg7JJBo0 https://youtu.be/httd_avViEE , I think I kind of know what its like to live in North Korea where they have a radio in every household that can't be turned off but just turned down that bombards them with propaganda about how great their government is. Because the ABC constantly do reports on how great wind and solar is and how doomed we are if we don't 100% transition to it.
The funny thing is that 100% tax payer funded ABC is that it has an impartiality charter. But has fully thrown out the impartiality charter out window and is now so "gone rogue" that they even refuse to make public how much money their top TV presenters get paid, its been fought out in the government to make a law to brute force the ABC to merely tell the taxpayer how much the people at the top of the ABC get, but they are holding out till the very end it seems.
http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/abc-sbs-forced-to-reveal-salaries-for-stars-earning-over-200000/news-story/b3f75d2451a3873102b63d62fca432e8
The crazy reality is that Australia would undoubtedly and quite literally be better off having its TV spectrum given to a nutjob like Alex Jones/Infowars.com and pounded them with their brand of "real world" information. I was listing to some infowars yesterday and it was just hilarious.