Germany 🇩🇪 electricity generation today 🤷 #Energiewende #co2
Of course, coal has massive *external* costs, namely pollution, waste, CO2, that are not captured in the spot price.
Meanwhile France 🇫🇷 has the same 130 EUR/MWh price as Germany 🇩🇪 but 7x (seven times) lower emissions - it burns no coal and barely any gas. It's nuclear fleet is on the other hand running at 70% capacity right now:
@kravietz Unfortunately, the reality that industrial scale energy generation is always going to have some negative effect on the planet isn't understood by most people, so it's relatively easy to manipulate them into hating sustainable energy sources with less impact over decades and centuries. Hydroelectric is my favorite example of this, where it's been producing power for over 100 years in some areas but it's been so demonized nobody wants to touch it.
Unfortunately, a bunch of snake-oil salesmen are trying to sell us the idea of environmentalism instead of providing solutions to the power needs around the world and a bunch of us are buying it because a fantasy of magic boxes that can defy the laws of thermodynamics on a macro scale will always be more attractive than the reality that you're always choosing between a bunch of bad options.
Unfortunately, a bunch of snake-oil salesmen are trying to sell us the idea of environmentalism instead of providing solutions to the power needs around the world and a bunch of us are buying it because a fantasy of magic boxes that can defy the laws of thermodynamics on a macro scale will always be more attractive than the reality that you're always choosing between a bunch of bad options.
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100% agreed about the lack of fact-based approach to energy generation technologies.
As for hydro, it's clearly one of the cleanest in terms of CO2 and other operational emissions, as seen in Norway for example.
Primary disadvantage is geography - small, flat or densely populated countries are a no-go for hydro unfortunately.
