{"id":362379,"date":"2025-01-16T08:55:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T07:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=362379"},"modified":"2025-01-16T08:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T07:55:08","slug":"twenty-five-years-of-german-energy-transition-a-way-not-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=362379","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-five years of German energy transition: a way not to go"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Clintel<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The German <\/strong>\u201e<\/strong>Energy Transition\u201d has failed and its interventions in the economy and nature will burden the country for generations to come: disposal of obsolete wind and solar plants, restoration of the landscape and development of a reliable electricity supply. <\/strong>How could it be that this costly mistake has remained unchallenged to this day?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guest post by Dr. Hans Hofmann-Reinecke, Cape Town<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Energy Transition and Logic
<\/strong>The German energy transition, initiated in 2000 by the EEG (Renewable Energy Sources Act), is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. This is a good time to look at the intention, logic and results of this gigantic national project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientific justification:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased significantly in recent decades due to human activities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that warms the atmosphere.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. The impact of this warming on the climate and its consequences for life on earth are unforeseeable.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Everything must be done to reduce CO2 emissions caused by humanity to zero.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Germany is making its contribution by switching all consumers to CO2-free (\u201crenewable\u201d) energy sources.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    How credible are these claims?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. Measurements show without a doubt that the CO2 concentration has increased by about a third in the past 6 decades. Is this increase man-made? A mathematical comparison of the amount of fossil fuels consumed with the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere makes this seem plausible. On the other hand, the measured increase did not stall during the \u201cCorona years\u201d, although traffic and industrial production were significantly reduced worldwide during this time. This should have been reflected in the CO2 budget.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. CO2 certainly has an influence on the temperature of the atmosphere, but how much? 97% of \u201cscientists\u201d are convinced that there will be dramatic warming, but on the other hand, 97% of the predictions of their \u201ccomputer models\u201d turn out to be wrong. The influence of the sun is much stronger than CO2, and even without CO2 variations, there have been dramatic changes in the climate in the history of the earth.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Floods, droughts and other natural disasters have always existed, but today they are explained by global warming. However, it has been proven that hurricanes have become less frequent in the USA in recent decades.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    4. Even if global temperatures were to rise by 1 or 2 hundredths of a degree per year, this would not pose any threat to humans or nature.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    5. Germany\u2019s contribution to the global CO2 budget is 1.8%. Given the gigantic, unchecked growth in emissions in China and India, Germany\u2019s efforts to reduce CO2 are irrelevant.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Not even symbolically
      <\/strong>In summary, even if claims 1 to 4 were 100% correct \u2013 which is by no means the case \u2013 Germany\u2019s efforts to avoid CO2 emissions are ineffective; they are symbolic at best. A comparison of costs and benefits, i.e. the comparison of the price of the existential damage to Germany\u2019s economy caused by the energy transition with a result that is symbolic at best, reveals a grotesque disproportion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      No country has burdened its citizens as much as Germany in the name of the energy transition. The \u201cStatista\u201d graph (above) shows the amount of CO2 emitted per kWh of electrical energy generated for various European countries (annual average 2023). The \u201cEuropean villain champion\u201d is Poland with 662 grams, while Germany with 381 grams ranks a respectable 6th out of 26 nations. The bottom of the list are Finland and France, the latter with a full 56 grams. In Germany, seven times the amount of CO2 is emitted per kilowatt hour compared to its French neighbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      One could only conclude that the energy transition never had the true goal of reducing CO2 emissions in Germany. This suspicion is also supported by the shutdown of nuclear power plants, the only major CO2-free energy source in the country. Could it be that, behind the scenes, under the name of energy transition, a completely different game is going on than what we are told? But what could that be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Follow the Money!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      If you compare the snail\u2019s pace at which infrastructure projects are being tackled in Germany with the speed at which wind turbines are springing up, you observe a clear difference. The energy and intelligence with which \u201crenewables\u201d are being driven forward is sorely missed when repairing motorway bridges or railway tracks. In 2017 alone, over 3,000 wind turbines were installed, almost 10 per day. And for each wind turbine, a heavy-duty access road must first be built, sometimes through mountainous and forested terrain. All of this happens quickly without any bureaucratic or technical hurdles. Neither species protection nor the Federal Forest Act stand in the way; they disappear into thin air as if by magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Perhaps this magic hand will wave a few banknotes; can that be completely ruled out? According to estimates by the \u201cWelt\u201d newspaper, 520 billion euros will have been invested in the energy transition by the end of 2025, which is around \u20ac12,000 per German taxpayer. Price Waterhouse Coopers estimates that the costs will be 13,200 billion euros by the time the energy transition is completed in 2045. But the money is not lost, it is just in someone else\u2019s hands now. Who could that be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      In any case, there are very close relations between the \u201cFederal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection\u201d and the actors, contractors and other potential beneficiaries of the energy transition. It was even claimed that these relations were too close, there was talk of nepotism, which led to the \u201cbest man affair\u201d and the resignation of the then State Secretary Dr. Patrick Graichen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Globalization
      <\/strong>But now there is an urgent question like an elephant in the room: What will become of this wonderfully well-established climate industry which works like a perfect clockwork if one day there is no longer any room for wind turbines and photovoltaics in Germany?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      So now a plan has been put in place: energy transition in South Africa! There is plenty of space there, and the electricity today comes from nasty hard coal. The Africans may have a lot of coal, but do they have the money needed for an energy transition? Do they have the tens of billions that such a project would cost? Of course, not; but the German taxpayer is happy to step in. The\u201d\u00a0Just\u00a0<\/a>Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPS)\u201d were quickly conjured up, which provide financial support from Germany to the tune of 22 billion euros for the South African energy transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      This raises the question of whether the government actually controls the energy transition or whether the tail is perhaps wagging the dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      This article also appears on the author\u2019s blog Think <\/a>\u2013 <\/a>Again <\/a>. The bestseller Green and Stupid, and other of his books, are available at Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The German\u00a0\u201eEnergy Transition\u201d has failed and its interventions in the economy and nature will burden the country for generations to come: disposal of obsolete wind and solar plants, restoration of the landscape and development of a reliable electricity supply.\u00a0How could it be that this costly mistake has remained unchallenged to this day?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":362385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829997,691832653,691832652,691832654,691818051,691832655,691822519],"class_list":{"0":"post-362379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-carbon-dioxide-co","9":"tag-eeg-renewable-energy-sources-act","10":"tag-energy-transition-5","11":"tag-follow-the-money","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-just-energy-transition-partnerships-jetps","14":"tag-wind-and-solar-plants","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Screenshot-2025-01-16-085334.png?fit=1029%2C1003&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1wgP","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":253442,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=253442","url_meta":{"origin":362379,"position":0},"title":"Political Power Failure: 88% of Germans Reckon Wind & Solar \u201aTransition\u2018 Doomed to Failure","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/17\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Germans were said to be rock-solid supporters of the grand \u2018plan\u2019 to run on nothing but wind and solar. 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