Germany’s push to rely on wind power and dump nuclear is hurting the economy. A few of the posts I’ve read on point:
4/22/14 – Stop These Things – Wind Power Costs send Germans back to the Stone Age – Skyrocketing electricity costs are seriously hurting poor people in Germany. Article points out 800,000 homes in Germany are off the grid because they can’t afford electricity. Article also says around 7 million households are in a place called “fuel poverty”, having to choose either heating or eating.
Article then reprints a Spiegel Online article calling attention to more Germans using wood-burning stoves to cook and heat their homes. Collateral issue is many folks doing that are stealing wood from foresters. A year ago heating costs went up 22% during the winter.
Wonder what swapping wood-burners for nuclear power does to the air quality?
6/11/15 – Stop These Things – Germany’s Wind Power “Dream” Becomes a Living Nightmare – Article repeats many of the points in the previous post: 800,000 homes involuntarily off grid, costs rising, CO2 output rising, and extensive visual pollution.
Article also says electricity costs are three times higher in Germany than the United States. As a result, guess what? Manufacturers are leaving and taking lots of jobs with them.
3/20 – American Interest (Jaime) – Germany’s Nuclear Phaseout Cost Runneth Over – Expected costs to deactivate all of Germany’s nuclear reactors is around $42 billion. Owners of the reactors want government help to cover that huge cost. By the way, the owners were expecting to generate lots of income for the next few decades instead of having to incur all those billions of dollars right now, this instant.
Who’s gonna’ cover the cost?
If the plant owners pick up the tab, they will pass it on to consumers if the regulatory system allows it. Otherwise they will go under. If neither consumers directly nor the plant owners, then the government will have to pick up the tab and draw more taxes to cover the bills.
4/24 – American Interest (Jaime) – Germany’s Nuclear Drawdown Costs Skyrocket – Turns out that substituting extremely dirty coal for zero emission nuclear is really expensive. The $42 billion cost mentioned a month ago was just the current provision. Estimates from the person in charge of the task force trying to figure how to shut down the plants says the cost could rise to $74 billion over the next two decades.
Energiewende is going to be a whole are more costly than everyone thought.