[Hanschri]

You left out the specific reason as to why they re-opened coal plants at the end of 2022:

"Germany is deploying about 3 gigawatts of coal-fired generation to ensure there are enough electricity supplies to make it through the winter amid curtailed natural gas supplies from Russia."

This was done out of necessity to ensure Germany did not run out of natural gas during the winter months as the gas imports from Russia have more or less dried up. I am not German nor am I up to date on their measures to transitioning their grid to renewable energy, but if anything this war is accelerating the transition for many countries in Europe. Even if this means they have to temporarily re-open fossile fuel power plants.

This could possibly have been avoided had the German government not shut its nuclear power plants down in the previous years, but that's another discussion.

[lordofgibbons]

You left out the reason why Germany was so dependent on Russian gas for energy: their out of touch with reality, (the conspiratorial amongst us might say fossil fuel company funded) plans to completely rely on fossil fuels until a transition to renewables can be completed in multiple decades.

All of this while they already have a viable green solution: Nuclear, which they planned on completely shutting down by 2022.

[pastacacioepepe]

Oh please. Cheap Energy is what made Germany the industrial powerhouse of Europe. Getting gas from Russia was one of the best things Merkel did for her country and its citizens.

[looping__lui]

What???? 1) It was Schröder (not Merkelh that started this entire gas thing with Russia (getting paid by Gazprom still) 2) Merkel decided in a completely irrational overnight move to just phase out nuclear. There was no strategy, just a personal preference by her ideological conviction Energy in Germany has been significantly more expensive than in the rest of Europe for probably a solid decade now… The big challenge from what I see is somehow managing to “balance the ingestion of renewable energy which is very unpredictable and random” and the “actual need” which is rather constantly high and predictable.

[pastacacioepepe]

> It was Schröder

Northstream 2 was planned under Merkel.

> Merkel decided in a completely irrational overnight move to just phase out nuclear.

No, it was an almost unanimous vote where even the opposition agreed with the government[0]. Nothing irrational about it, they decided to go for renewable instead of nuclear.

- 0: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/30/germany-end-nu...

[looping__lui]

Oh, Merkel certainly made it worse, but Schröder had a leading role… https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/world/europe/schroder-ger...

The opposition agreeing - you mean like the Green party who wanted to end nuclear like forever? Merkel had essentially absolute power in Germany and was leading some major changes that are hard to believe now… 1) shut down nuclear, 2) abolish compulsory military service, 3) open the borders for an uncontrolled influx of male refugees, 4) completely ignore Corona at first and then bulldoze over our Basic Law.

[pastacacioepepe]

> The opposition agreeing - you mean like the Green party who wanted to end nuclear like forever?

No, I mean pretty much everyone: 513 yes to 79 no.

> abolish compulsory military service

hard to believe? I guess we agree to disagree.

[landemva]

> to ensure Germany did not run out of natural gas

Russian gas to Germany is being replaced by gas from USA. And liquefying gas for boat shipping is not a cheap/green process.

https://apnews.com/article/germany-government-olaf-scholz-bu...

[lenkite]

Its already DST in Germany and these coal plants are still open. Let's actually wait and see if they are truly shut down this year. My guess is no - and my german colleagues believe they will still be open for the next several years - providing a third to half of Germany's electricity.

(But keep it hush-hush and lets not talk about this dirty fact on HN - it looks bad you know ?)

[looping__lui]

They will be required to cover the additional load from the nuclear plants we will shut down this year. Germany will produce more carbon emissions than probably almost ever…

[legulere]

Another reason is the maintenance issues in French nuclear reactors.