I swear, sometimes HN users can be so pedantic, they'll demand source that the earth is round or that the water is wet.
I used to be afraid that ChatGPT would make our jobs redundant, but seeing how people can't find basic info by themselves and need to ask humans to spoon feed them, I think I can breathe easily that our jobs are safe.
The poster can't know what is ostensible to you and what isn't, and nor does everyone here have the time to post sources for absolutely every single statement they make as if they're writing a university research paper.
As a reader, if you're unsure of something, use common sense and in the age of powerful internet search engines and LLM chat bots at your fingertips, it's up to you to quickly check for yourself, and only ask the poster for sources when you were unable to find the corect information by yourself, otherwise it's a waste of everyone's time.
That was December last year, the last plants were closed this year, the comeback of coal was minimal an mostly caused by the need of France to import electricity, since their nuclear plants failed.
Why does OP need to provide a source? Why you don't look for the info yourself?
It is common knowledge in Europe that Germany shut down its nuclear plant (15/04/23 the last one), and they compensated with a lot of coal this winter.
Just that those things have no relation to each other. Coal is used to replace gas, not nuclear plants. And AFAIK in mid of April there is no winter any more anyway.
The question is valid, as there is a huge amount of misinformation going around those topics.
Nuclear plants in Germany only deliver electricity, and only where the grid is connected. But coal is used also used for heat and chemical processes, and outside the grid. No source of electricity can cover that yet in a short timeframe. And even if we are just talking about electricity in grid-connected locations, with the high cost of nuclear plants, it makes more sense to just buy it from others, and wait until new renewables sources were added to the grid, and long term build other replacements for heat and the chemical processes.
isn’t coal more expensive if you take all the negative externalities into account? Specifically increased rates of cancer and other diseases caused by pollution on top of CO2 emission?
Maybe, but that's irrelevant today, the original plans were crushed by reality, and now we must accept the mess and move on. Germany could have been in a better situation, if politicians did a better job a decade or two ago. But complaining today about the mess from yesterday, because of the fails from 12 years ago is pointless.
https://www.google.com/search?q=germnay+nuclear+lignite
I swear, sometimes HN users can be so pedantic, they'll demand source that the earth is round or that the water is wet.
I used to be afraid that ChatGPT would make our jobs redundant, but seeing how people can't find basic info by themselves and need to ask humans to spoon feed them, I think I can breathe easily that our jobs are safe.