A Tale of Two Countries

In the energy discourse we hear a lot about renewable energy, zero emissions, Energiewende, installed capacity, etc. However, today we are trying to clear the air a little bit by publishing the results. Yes, here we are removing the hype and the wishful thinking and presenting just the results.

Luckily, we do have two countries that pursued different paths toward a low carbon electric generation system.

The first is Germany that committed to eliminating nuclear and producing most of its electric power with renewables (sun and wind), the other is France that decades ago decided to go mainly nuclear.

Here we can see the latest report from the IEA (International Energy Agency) in which we can see the actual energy generated during 2013 by each type of fuel. First we have Germany:

As we may see, combustible fuels continue to lead in German electricity production. Nuclear is still in second place. Sun + wind, on the other hand, barely increased their actual output in spite of the fact that their installed capacity continued to increase.

Now, let's take a look at France:

Think what we may about nuclear, it is a low carbon electricity producer. So France overwhelmingly produces its electricity via low carbon means and it shows.

If we now take a look at the ultimate climate result, we may see that German electricity is more than six times more carbon intensive than the French one.

This Tale of Two Countries is trying to point out which approach is actually working in the real world.

Thank you.

Dose of Reality

All decisions have advantages, disadvantages and consequences.

The only thing that is important is to face reality and not try to hide behind wishful thinking.

For example, Japan: they decided to shut down all their nuclear plants (at least for the moment) and that is OK.  What is NOT acceptable is to say that they will replace nuclear with “renewable energy”.  That is just not possible.  Period. End of story.  Elvis has left the room.

Here is the real data from the real world of the real consequences of shutting down nuclear plants:

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/EE_Fossil_fuels_rule_Japan_3105121.html

And again, it is OK, each country has to make their own decisions, but everybody needs to know the consequences.  In the case of Japan, they are:

a.      Increases in CO2 emissions.

b.      Electricity will be more expensive.

c.      The balance of payments of the country will be affected.

d.      Japan will be even more dependent on ever more scarce (or at least more expensive) fuels.

e.      Additional capital investments will be required.

f.       The energetic security of the country will be at greater risk of global happenings.

If all the above compensates for the “peace of mind” of politicians and other people, then it is OK.  But things have to be put out in the open.

P.S.  and the ONLY reason Germany will not go EXACTLY down the same road as Japan is that France is its immediate neighbor and it will certainly be willing to sell them more nuclear electricity.  ;-)