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Related: About this forumGermany Runs Up Against the Limits of Renewables
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601514/germany-runs-up-against-the-limits-of-renewables/[font face=Serif][font size=5]Germany Runs Up Against the Limits of Renewables[/font]
[font size=4]Even as Germany adds lots of wind and solar power to the electric grid, the countrys carbon emissions are rising. Will the rest of the world learn from its lesson?[/font]
by Richard Martin | May 24, 2016
[font size=3]At one point this month renewable energy sources briefly supplied close to 90 percent of the power on Germanys electric grid. But that doesnt mean the worlds fourth-largest economy is close to being run on zero-carbon electricity. In fact, Germany is giving the rest of the world a lesson in just how much can go wrong when you try to reduce carbon emissions solely by installing lots of wind and solar.
After years of declines, Germanys carbon emissions rose slightly in 2015, largely because the country produces more electricity than it needs. Thats happening because even if there are times when renewables can supply nearly all of the electricity on the grid, the variability of those sources forces Germany to keep other power plants running. And in Germany, which is phasing out its nuclear plants, those other plants primarily burn dirty coal.
Now the government is about to reboot its energy strategy, known as the Energiewende. It was launched in 2010 in hopes of dramatically increasing the share of the countrys electricity that comes from renewable energy and slashing the countrys overall carbon emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 (see The Great German Energy Experiment). What happens next will be critical not only for Germany, but also for other countries trying to learn how to best bring more wind and solar onlineespecially if they want to do it without relying on nuclear power.
However, an expert commission appointed by the countrys minister of economy and energy has said the 40 percent target probably wont be reached by 2020. And the energy revolution has caused problems of its own. Because fossil-fuel power plants cannot easily ramp down generation in response to excess supply on the grid, on sunny, windy days there is sometimes so much power in the system that the price goes negativein other words, operators of large plants, most of which run on coal or natural gas, must pay commercial customers to consume electricity. That situation has also arisen recently in Texas and California (see Texas and California Have Too Much Renewable Energy) when the generation of solar power has maxed out.
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[font size=4]Even as Germany adds lots of wind and solar power to the electric grid, the countrys carbon emissions are rising. Will the rest of the world learn from its lesson?[/font]
by Richard Martin | May 24, 2016
[font size=3]At one point this month renewable energy sources briefly supplied close to 90 percent of the power on Germanys electric grid. But that doesnt mean the worlds fourth-largest economy is close to being run on zero-carbon electricity. In fact, Germany is giving the rest of the world a lesson in just how much can go wrong when you try to reduce carbon emissions solely by installing lots of wind and solar.
After years of declines, Germanys carbon emissions rose slightly in 2015, largely because the country produces more electricity than it needs. Thats happening because even if there are times when renewables can supply nearly all of the electricity on the grid, the variability of those sources forces Germany to keep other power plants running. And in Germany, which is phasing out its nuclear plants, those other plants primarily burn dirty coal.
Now the government is about to reboot its energy strategy, known as the Energiewende. It was launched in 2010 in hopes of dramatically increasing the share of the countrys electricity that comes from renewable energy and slashing the countrys overall carbon emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 (see The Great German Energy Experiment). What happens next will be critical not only for Germany, but also for other countries trying to learn how to best bring more wind and solar onlineespecially if they want to do it without relying on nuclear power.
However, an expert commission appointed by the countrys minister of economy and energy has said the 40 percent target probably wont be reached by 2020. And the energy revolution has caused problems of its own. Because fossil-fuel power plants cannot easily ramp down generation in response to excess supply on the grid, on sunny, windy days there is sometimes so much power in the system that the price goes negativein other words, operators of large plants, most of which run on coal or natural gas, must pay commercial customers to consume electricity. That situation has also arisen recently in Texas and California (see Texas and California Have Too Much Renewable Energy) when the generation of solar power has maxed out.
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Germany Runs Up Against the Limits of Renewables (Original Post)
OKIsItJustMe
May 2016
OP
EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)1. If you've ever been to Germany
You'll know that is COVERED in wind farms. On some foggy mornings it looks like giant aliens have landed...
Anyway...
Germany is at least trying... They have a knack for somehow pushing the boundaries with audacious plans and then conservatively buckling down and accomplishing them. I have no doubt they'll eventually figure out clean energy well before most European countries... And certainly before America..
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)2. The devil is always in the details. nt