Amory Lovins: Germany's Renewables Revolution

[kristopher]

5. Your post is the one taking things out of context

There is a shift going on in the mix of types of fossil fuel generators. There are two types of coal plants shutting down:
1) those coal plants that have an operating profile similar to nuclear - meaning they depend on running full out 24/7 in order to pay for themselves - are being replaced with plants that can ramp up and down quickly as renewable penetration increases. This has an obvious result when it comes to CO2 emissions - they respond to increased renewables by decreasing the amount of fuel burned, which of course results in steadily decreasing CO2 emissions.
In the US natural gas is the choice for this rapid response generation, but Germany has made a political decision to retool and favor their domestic coal industry over imported natural gas.
2) The immediate reductions in both wholesale electric costs and fuel consumption are coming as natural gas peaking plants are idled by solar.
Finally, your graph is missing 2012 - where the trend towards increasing renewables continues.