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Akiasakias t1_j51ciib wrote

Reply to comment by Janni0007 in Germany says it is no longer reliant on Russian energy by scot816

Carbon emissions are way up overall, and were even before the war. Yes they are using more renewables in the mix, but overall the environmental impact of German energy policy has been getting worse.

Peak demand is winter and during the night. Solar is unable to meet those needs so in moving away from oil they have been burning coal instead.

I agree with you that agenda over facts is a problem. I just caution you to re-examine which is which. Here is an expert on the subject explaining the issue of why solar in Germany has not gone well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LV-D9mKoig

We all want to see the energy grid to go green, but there are right and wrong ways to get it done.

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Janni0007 t1_j51hvua wrote

>Carbon emissions are way up overall, and were even before the war. Yes they are using more renewables in the mix, but overall the environmental impact of German energy policy has been getting worse.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country?country=~DEU

this is just demonstrably untrue. 2020 is simply not representative due to industry shutting down and 2021 is still only slightly above 2020. Germanys Electricity mix is getting greener every year.

>Peak demand is winter and during the night. Solar is unable to meet those needs so in moving away from oil they have been burning coal instead.

Winter is also peak production time for wind. Which is why it is always the time we export most of our electricity.

>I agree with you that agenda over facts is a problem. I just caution you to re-examine which is which. Here is an expert on the subject explaining the issue of why solar in Germany has not gone well.

My dude your source is a dude on youtube. Mine is the Fraunhofer Institute ISE. Who made for example this study

https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/publications/studies/paths-to-a-climate-neutral-energy-system.html

Those are actual scientist working in the field showing exactly the pathway to 0 emmissions

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Akiasakias t1_j51qn7v wrote

The source is a best selling author and THE dude the industry pays to consult for them and give talks at all the big conferences. I picked a short video just for ease of linking right to it, but his infographics are used the world over.

Also, if you looked at the video, you would see it also praised wind as the solution, although Germany doesn't have the best profile there it is much better than solar. Germany has paid more for solar than California where it makes sense, for way way way less output.

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TaXxER t1_j51g62g wrote

That’s simply false. Germany’s emissions have been on a steel downward trend year after year since the start of the energy transition.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country?country=~DEU

The temporary switch to coal has only temporarily slowed down the pace of this decrease.

> Peak demand is winter and during the night. Solar is unable to meet those needs so in moving away from oil they have been burning coal instead.

The two months where renewable electricity generation peaks are January and February, exactly in the winter when most necessary.

It is true that solar output is lower in winter. But at the same time, wind output is highest in winter, and that has a stronger effect on the cumulative renewable output.

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