#Energiewende be like:
β Mom, why is school and trains not working?
β It's the weather to blame!
> In the first half of 2021, coal shot up as the biggest contributor to Germany's electric grid, while wind power dropped to its lowest level since 2018. Officials say the weather is partly to blame.
https://m.dw.com/en/germany-coal-tops-wind-as-primary-electricity-source/a-59168105
They won't stop working - this is precisely why Germany has been continuously increasing its fossil gas import capabilities.
German politicians *do* realize the country can't run on renewables alone, *and* because the vocal minority wants nuclear shut down, the country *must* run on fossil fuels. This is literally what Merkel said in 2019 (see below).
So the argument "all would be fine if THEY just allowed us to install more wind and solar" is a fallacy. You simply have days and weeks, when there is very little wind and solar, and regardless of how much PV panels and wind turbines you install, they simply won't produce any energy.
Also "THEY" are German citizens who simply don't want vast areas of land turned into industrial landscape of massive PV and wind farms. These are *residential* protests that slowed down new RE.
> but they are a small minority in germany
There's opposition to new wind and PV farms everywhere - in Germany, France, UK, Norway, Sweden. There's nothing wrong with opposing replacing a forest with an industrial landscape, which only works 10-30% of time and then is damaged by the first strong wind.
You don't see what is wrong with that? Ask IPCC:
Fossil gas - 490 gCO2eq/kWh
Nuclear power - 12 gCO2eq/kWh