wind

Da in Deutschland der Ausstieg aus der Kernenergie beschlossen ist und auch von der Möglichkeit der CO2 – Abscheidung aus den Rauchgasen mit anschließender Verwendung als Rohstoff in der Chemie oder Speicherung im Untergrund, beispielsweise in erschöpften Erdgaslagern oder Ölfeldern kein Gebrauch gemacht werden soll, bleiben nur die Nutzung von Sonne und Wind zur Stromerzeugung um die durch zukünftigen Verzicht auf Kohle, Öl, Gas und Atom auftretenden Versorgungslücken beim Strom zu schließen. Denn Wasserkraft, Biogas etc. können keine nennenswerten zusätzlichen Strommengen liefern.

Da es sinnlos ist Strom zu produzieren, der wegen fehlender Leitungen nicht zum Verbraucher gelangt, müssen in einem 2. Schritt die Stromnetze im erforderlichen Maß ausgebaut werden. Erst wenn diese beiden Voraussetzungen erfüllt sind kann mit dem Ausbau der Solardächer und Windenergieanlagen sinnvoll fortgefahren werden. Diese grundlegenden Erkenntnisse sucht man in der gegenwärtigen öffentlichen Diskussion zur Zukunft der Stromversorgung leider vergeblich.

A German citizen talks about what has happened with the government, economy, schools and work force over the course of her life. Most of it is not good.

Fritz Vahrenholt, PhD Chemistry: In 2012, Germany decided to close its nuclear plants, which were concentrated in the south. It reshaped the grid, building huge DC cables from north to south. The wind is more abundant in the north. A total of 6100 km of cable will have to be built by the time the last nuclear power stations shut in 2022. 400 km have been given the go-ahead and 80 km have been built, just 1.3% of the total. Due to opposition to these cables, plans have been torn up. The government now plans to build them underground, increasing the cost eight fold.

Fritz Vahrenholt, PhD Chemistry: Is the program in Germany to stop using nuclear power and switch to wind and solar energy more important than nature itself? BaZ: Sie haben die deutsche Energiewende als «Desaster» bezeichnet. Wieso? Fritz Vahrenholt: Zunächst einmal hat die deutsche Regierung nach dem Tsunami in Japan innerhalb eines Wochenendes entschieden, auf die Kernenergie zu verzichten, die bis dahin die Grundlast für die deutsche Industrie erzeugt hat. Die Regierung will seither diese gesicherte Energie durch schwankenden Strom aus Sonne und Wind ersetzen. Dass das nicht vernünftig ist, weiss eigentlich jeder.

The American Interest: Germany’s much-ballyhooed green energy transition—its energiewende—has run up quite a tab, and policymakers are having trouble figuring out who is actually going to pay for the policies. In an attempt to kick-start fledgling renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, Berlin guaranteed producers locked-in, long-term, above-market rates called feed-in tariffs. To their credit, this plan of pushing technologies of dubious merit at any cost worked, perhaps too well

Fritz Vahrenholt, PhD Chemistry, Chairman, German Wildlife Foundation: But the beautiful new world of Gretl, Annalena and Robert has its price. The authors anticipated a 60% CO2 reduction, which is expected to be achieved by 2030. By then, that will cost 4300 billion in 11 years. So that the parents of Fridays for the Future understand the 4600 billion correctly: that is 153 billion per year; at 40 million households in Germany each household pays 320 € per month monthly - net. And if it goes to Gretl and her followers, namely in 15 years to achieve 100% renewable energy, then that would be 640 € a month - if it does not sooner come to a collapse of the German energy supply, which is very likely.

Fritz Vahrenholt, PhD Chemistry, Chairman, German Wildlife Foundation: You have called the German energy transition a "disaster". How so? Fritz Vahrenholt : First of all, after the tsunami in Japan, the German government decided within a weekend to renounce nuclear energy, which until then had created the base load for German industry. Since then, the government wants to replace this secure energy with fluctuating electricity from sun and wind. Everyone knows that this is not sensible.

Fritz Vahrenholt, PhD Chemistry, Chairman, German Wildlife Foundation: What was demanded in the Green Party program in 1986, the abolition of the nuclear industry, the automotive industry and parts of the chemical industry, has long since become consensus in the middle of society. How could that succeed? With apocalyptic horror scenarios, the cleavage of the atom, as well as the slight increase of the vital molecule CO2 in the atmosphere, become ciphers of disaster. What country, what state will lead the world to the bottom of the reliable, environmentally sound energy policy: Germany, California? What countries will be outstanding sound energy program leaders: Canada, China, France, Jordan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea?

Fritz Vahrenholt, PhD Chemistry, Chairman, German Wildlife Foundation: What was demanded in the Green Party program in 1986, the abolition of the nuclear industry, the automotive industry and parts of the chemical industry, has long since become consensus in the middle of society. How could that succeed? With apocalyptic horror scenarios, the cleavage of the atom, as well as the slight increase of the vital molecule CO2 in the atmosphere, become ciphers of disaster. What country, what state will lead the world to the bottom of the reliable, environmentally sound energy policy: Germany, California? What countries will be outstanding sound energy program leaders: Canada, China, France, Jordan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea?

Bloomberg, Weixin Zha, Brian Parkin: By 2030, the eastern German town of Poedelwitz will likely be razed to get at the rich veins of coal beneath its half-timbered houses. The reason: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s effort to steer Germany toward greener energy, which has unexpectedly meant booming demand for dirty coal. “This is unparalleled destruction of the environment,” says Jens Hausner, a farmer who has seen 17 of his 20 hectares consumed by digging equipment that looks like something out of a Mad Max movie. In a bit more than a decade, the hulking machines are expected to claw through the town’s 13th-century church and 40 or so remaining homes. None of this will lead to a significant reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide. From a scientific point of view, none of this matters. Its all politics, pure politics.

Pierre Gosselin, mechanical and civil engineer, advocate for sound use of the best energy sources: German online weekly FOCUS reports how cuts by wind energy giant Enercon will lead to 3000 layoffs. According to Enercon chief executive Hans-Dieter Kettwig, “politicians have pulled the plug on wind energy.”

Roger Letsch, unbesorgt.de: Das Projekt Desertec wurde 2009 voller Euphorie gestartet. Es sollte die Energieversorgung mit Solarstrom für Europa sichern helfen und dem Erzeugerland hohe Einnahmen sichern. Wie fast immer bei Energiewendeprojekten hat man auch hier versucht politische, öknonomische und Naturgesetze auszuhebeln. Und ist erwartungsgemäß gescheitert. Roger Letsch fasst den Iststand zusammen.

Scott Bean, Business Development Representative, Steenkampskraal Holdings Limited/Steenkampskraal Rare Earths: Germany's energy policies often get good press highlighting fleeting moments of significant output, negative prices, capacity installation, and more. Rarely does news coverage add context to these stories that allows us to comprehend what the consequences of these events are for consumers, the grid, the environment, the economy, and Earth as a whole.

Frank Dreves started the website sundays-for-landschaft.de to provide photo graphic evidence of the terrible things that wind turbines do and the problems they will cause in the long term for modern economies in Europe and North America. The Extreme Greens are as bad for Canada, the United States and Germany as the seizure of the German government in the 1930s.

Friedrich Wagner: Germany decided to go nuclear-free by 2022. A CO2-emission-free electricity supply system based on intermittent sources, such as wind and solar - or photovoltaic (PV) - power could replace nuclear power. Intermittent sources are, by definition, unsteady. Therefore, a back-up system capable of providing power at a level of 89% of peak load would be needed. This requires creating an oversised power system to produce large amounts of surplus energy. A day storage to handle surplus is ineffective because of the day-night correlation of surplus power in the winter.

D.K., a German citizen, speaks out against long standing, unsound energy and immigrant policies that are tearing apart the Wirtschaftswunder or Miracle on the Rhine that German citizens worked so hard for since the 1950s.

Die kalte Sonne, Fritz Vahrenholt, Sebastian Luening - Die Kraniche kommen. Viele Tausend der majestätischen Vögel sind nach ihrem kräftezehrenden Nonstop-Flug aus dem Süden Europas jetzt im Anflug auf Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Die ausgewiesene Fläche für den Bau der Windkraftanlage befindet sich direkt im Hauptflugkorridor zwischen den Schlafplätzen und den Nahrungsgewässern für Kraniche. Die Auswirkungen einer industriellen Windenergieanlage auf dieses wertvolle Biotop sind immens