Summary
Rafael Grossi, head of the IAEA, called Germany’s decision to fully phase out nuclear power “illogical,” noting it is the only country to have done so.
Despite the completed phase-out in 2023, there is renewed debate in Germany about reviving nuclear energy due to its low greenhouse gas emissions.
Speaking at COP29, Grossi described reconsidering nuclear as a “rational” choice, especially given global interest in nuclear for emissions reduction.
Germany’s phase-out, driven by environmental concerns and past nuclear disasters, has been criticized for increasing reliance on Russian gas and missing carbon reduction opportunities.
Russia also has one of the largest reserves of uranium in Eurasia as well, only behind Kazakhstan.
Also Germany would only trade one teat for another. Energy indepences is only possible by using renewables.
Lastly every energy corporation has said they won’t touch nuclear with a twelve feet pole because it is too expensive and there is no insurance agency willing to back them up.
The nuclear horse IS dead.
Unless you’re ready to fill the country with a thousand battery farms, you need some sort of steady base supply that solar and wind cannot provide. Hydroelectric is not really a big option in Germany, so that leaves you with coal, gas, and nuclear energy.
Oh I am totally ready to do that. A third of these batteries will be actually farms, a third will be sitting stationary in everybodies cellars and sheds and the other half will be rolling on the streets in form of electric vehicles.
Top off your own batteries and EV with surpluses during excess production and drain them during dry situations. Most people seem to forget that EVs can work both ways.
There is literally not enough minable lithium on this planet for that to be a viable option worldwide. Somewhere, somebody is going to have to use an alternate source.
sodium. gravity. carbon capacitors. lead acid. molten salt. air pressure. flywheel.
there’s alllll kinds of battery storage solutions, and for grid storage just about anything other than lithium can be used because lithium is really only useful for power density applications where weight and size of the battery matters like cars and planes.
nuclear fission is dead. fusion is the only nuclear worth talking about and that’s still years, probably decades away from being actually useful.
so then: solar, wind, wave, hydro, geothermal, and all kinds of batteries is what we have now and can do cheaply and do everywhere and do it now.
Here’s some Lemmy Premium for that post. ;)
It’s really hard for me to understand where all that hate against renewable energy and batteries is coming from. I find it so magical to be able to run our entire house from a battery the size of some shoe boxes charged by our own roof. I’ve just learned that there are even affordable sodium batteries available now. How cool is that?!
Not all batteries in the world have to be made of lithium. Depending on the use case other materials cab be even superior.
Maybe you should read up on the topic and not just repeat baseless falsehoods.
That would be so nice…
By all means, correct me then. What power delivery system out there doesn’t have a base load?
Come on, don’t be that guy…