German power

[The Neckarwestheim 2 Nuclear Power Station in Neckarwestheim, Germany © Alex Kraus/Bloomberg. One of the three]

A week or so ago, the Germans shut down their last three nuclear power stations, power stations which made up around 6% of their generating capacity, presumably presently operating well below that capacity. A decision which I read about at reference 1 - with my thinking afterwards being that they had made a mistake. Since then a correspondent has drawn my attention to the piece from the BBC at reference 2.

All slightly depressing in that the decision seems to be more a result of political jostling between the various political parties in Germany, rather than of accountants doing sums about the relative costs of nuclear and other fossil fuels - coal & gas - and producing plans to maintain generating capacity during a period of transition. And it looks to me as if, in the short term, they are going to be burning more coal than would otherwise be the case.

The story in both Germany and the UK seems to be that we both had or have modest nuclear capacity, with the balance split more or less equally between other fossils and renewables. With the difference that Germany is now 0% nuclear while we are still around 10%. But I have no idea how long it might take to build enough windmills to replace, say, half the remaining coal & gas. Where are windmills built? What is stopping production being ramped up? Do the Chinese have a hold on windmills?

My short term thinking remains that Germany shutting down capacity in the hand was a mistake. A shutting down which is not now, it seems, reversible.

My long term thinking remains that, for the time being, it would be prudent for the UK to retain some nuclear, maybe even build some more. Fusion is still some years off producing electricity at scale.

That might change if someone produced an eco-balance sheet which showed that using gas, taking everything into account, did less damage to the planet that using nuclear.

References

Reference 1: Germany torn over energy policy as nuclear plants shut down: Berlin to switch off last remaining atomic power plants despite energy crunch and climate obligations - Laura Pitel, Financial Times - 2023. The source of the snap above.

Reference 2: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65260673.

Reference 3: https://www.alexkrauss.com/. I rather like some of the stuff produced here. Not too arty.