Balcony Solar: This is really big in Germany and is spreading across Europe. The EU has passed a law saying that anyone can connect up to 800W of solar (inverter output) into their own grid, via a normal plug socket. So no need to get an electrician involved. The idea behind 800W is that means all the production is used at home, and no new metering is required. Because the electricians, roofers, and utility company are left out, costs are low - about €800 for 800W, (including grid tied 800W inverter) and falling. (I actually saw 425W PV panels being sold for €89 in the local DIY store! Two of those plus an inverter and mounting kit should be heading for €500) If the 800W saves on imports of 800KWh per year, that is a saving of about €260 per year, so payback is only about 3 years. And that is in Germany. Imagine what this will do in Spain and Italy. Imagine what it could do in Australia, the USA. And, one other point - this summer in Germany the weather has been lousy. March to June solar is down 20% per unit. If we'd had a normal Q2 for weather, solar production would be much higher.
@@alexterrell1062 Your maths seems very conservative. The system should payback in less than 3 years. I have solar panels on my NE England roof and had to go through an inspection system to authorise feed in into the National Grid. I have 10 kWh LFP batteries linked to the solar panels via an inverter and an EV charger for my MG4. I buy electricity during the night when it is cheap (about €0.10 per kWh) to run my appliances during the day. In winter I also use my EV as an extra battery for those appliances. However I have a gas boiler and gas fire which I use for hot water and radiators and my gas bill is quite high for 5 months. WELL DONE YOU and well done the EU for this 800W maximum addition to electricity generation. As you say Italy and Spain will be enjoying significant savings.
Here in Austria i bought 4 Pcs of 420 W Solarpanels and a 1,6 kw Inverter, all together for 600 Eur Just plug it into 230Volt outlet and let it run. for Regulatory purposes we should limit the poweroutput to 800 Watt. thats posible by Softwar in the inverter. In the near future we will combine it with cheap LFp Batteries for the Night. We should do that all over the world and we will have plenty of Energie.
@@anguscampbell1533 literally what he said, you just plug into a normal house sockets. The power flows into your house from there rather than out from the socket to your devices. They were available for a short period in the UK, but then the regulator said no. Still waiting for this to be sorted out.
Phil, nonsense, nowhere near, wind is about 25 to 30% on an average (The last two full years, 2022 and 2024) were just over 7 gigawatts from an installed capacity of 25 gigawatts plus, it's abysmal. That apart while you can run a grid on gas alone, you can't run a grid on wind alone, it just can't work. Gas is essential, wind is not but our technically illiterate politicians are intent on crashing our grid. Don't listen to Sam his knowledge and understanding is poor.
In Washington State we are getting closer. 18% gas 8% wind 4% coal 60% hydro 8% nuclear Gas and coal has been shrinking each year. Wind and solar has been growing. So I expect wind will surpass natural gas in 5 years at the most.
@@pauld3327 well obviously we will be dependent on gas to cover peaks in demand and troughs in renewables for a few years to come, until storage is built up sufficiently. Even so in 10 years time I’m pretty confident that gas will be where coal is now. Gas has plummeted by 30% as a source of electricity generation in the UK over the last 2 years!
Don't forget data centers. They use a lot of electricity. Everybody is using them whether they know it or not. We are producing a lot more but we are using a lot more too! Thanks for the video!
Yes, this is exactly how it should be with energy. More energy expands our civilization's horizons and opportunities. Renewables is the only way forward towards sci-fi levels of advancement leaving the old problems and old ideas behind.
@@Leonardo555ZZZZ Solar can now be economically stored overnight. Tesla energy sector is now starting to boom making large batteries for storage. One of the reasons their stock price is surging lately.
A very welcome video and I believe on the dot with analysis of where the EU is and why. So much for Australia being a leading supplier of renewable energy. Complete with production facilities to sell renewable energy and energy products to the world. The bus has gone and Australia missed it. Thanks to the glorious "only we can save you" coalition party who single handedly put us 30 years behind the world and are still dragging an anchor. Particular dishonourable mention to Howard, Abbott and Morrison with their coal and gas support and cheerleader teams. Its also worth mentioning the the Albo government is lagging behind what the public expected from the ALP at the election by a very long way, they are proving to be coalition lite as I predicted long before the last election. They need to get their finger out and get on with renewables fast. A green vote starts to look good. All they need to do is get sensible and stop sinking important things because they don't go far enough, they are their own worst enemy and limiter of potential.
I clearly remember the disrespectful German delegates who laughed in New York - 2017 when warned not to be too reliant on Moscow or any single nation for energy, they made it clear that it makes their friendship stronger! I haven't been following along, is their friendship not stronger now, what happened?!? 😂
@@justinr9753 Well the fraze was "change by trade". And it did work for a long time. I want to say "as long as there was someone responsible on the steering weal" Perestroika was the term. Gorbatschow and Jelzin did a great job in transforming there country to the better. Russia became just a normal country for a while. But as soon as Putin came in it startet to degenerate back into something else. Long story short, the general idea of "change by trade" can work. But it is obviously never a good idea to increase dependency.
Here in Canada our biggest concern is wintertime heating which dives our utility bills sky high. Heat Pumps seem to be the way to go for that but infiltration in the market is slow. As aging furnaces die we will see more and more heat pumps but also more electricity which hopefully can be met with rooftop solar along with battery storage.
Meanwhile in China they carry on using coal to build wind turbines and solar panels, look up the word hypocrite?.... oh and it takes 20 years for a wind turbine to be carbon neutral, then what about the problems of recycling them... when they fail after 17 years?.... you really are a bunch of smug ignorant people.
I don't believe the main reason for electric energy demand dropping is due to unaccounted solar. Energy prices went through the roof in 2021, so there was a lot of focus on energy efficiency, reducing unnecessary demand, switching to heat pumps, better insulations etc. Some high-energy-demand businesses also went bust or moved out of Europe.
i can't agree with cutting trees and forests to build solar mega parks....when +70% of roofs (housing, commercial, industry) are empty. Welcome from sunny Portugal where protected trees (that actually produce oak for cork) are cut down. And that's the direction it's going over here
Balcony-solar is not yet legal in Belgium - notwithstanding, I installed a system anyway. Just one panel gives me about 1kwh per day on average, enough to substantially decrease my electricity bills.
Not the whole story. Did you just edit the first part of the report out in order to mislead the comment section. A sluggish economy saw primary energy consumption in Germany fall to a historic low in 2023, according to preliminary figures from energy data service AG Energiebilanzen (AEGB). Germany consumed 10,791 petajoules (PJ) of energy, a drop of more than one quarter compared to 1990 levels, and down 7.9 percent on last year. Energy-related CO2 emissions fell by 10 percent this year as the country produced more of its power from renewables and overall consumption went down. The fall was largely down to a recession in economic output- and a drop in energy-intensive production in particular - but warm weather and high energy prices also played a role, AEGB found. The last German nuclear power plants went offline in April 2023, resulting in a drop of nuclear power consumption of almost 80 percent. Hard coal consumption was down nearly 17 percent, while electricity generation from renewable energies grew by around 5 percent. The fall in energy-related CO2 emissions this year amounted to 66 million tonnes, according to the AEGB figures.
@@longstops1430even worse, not talking about the source of generation but the source of PUBLIC generation. I have PV on my roof and use a little bit more energy than in the Former years (because I added AC). If you look from the grid I SEEM to consume less. Seems like my neighbors consumer less as well, because I also feed into the grid about the same amount I draw from the grid. Meter reading in Germany are taken once a year, so the values you hear or read about are definitely off, because they do not account for the privately owned generation of power.
The reason for a drop in fossil fuel use is because of a general decline in energy use be ause wind and solar has destroyed the economies of Europe! It will continue deztroying it until you are using the same amount of energy you used before coal. The last time we lived off wind and solar. Living conditionz of that time will return and you will not only not like it. You probably won't survive it@longstops1430
Currently... the pilot Nuclear Small Modular Reactor being commissioned in Canada costs CAD$2.5 billion (although the price is expected to drop once commercial reactos are built). This reactor will produce 10MW of energy. . For comparison, in Canada, a solar farm that produces 10MW costs CAD$16 million. . Need I say more?
No, it is not illegal to put solar panels on your balcony or yard in Aust. Ok if is off grid and is extra low voltage. Can parallel up say new or second hand solar panels if wired correctly ie fused and cable sized correctly. Feed to a DC-DC converter, the output say a LiFePO4 12V battery/s (either 12 or 24 Volt system, depending). From this battery, connect a good quality pure sinewave inverter eg a 3kW one to charge your EV or run an AC at night or whatever. I just saved you some $$ (as long as you do it right and don't burn your house/car down) You are welcome 👍⚡️
Thanks for this Sam! Here is my usual comment. Solar power and electric vehicles and heat pumps, induction stoves, etc. are all ready for adoption. We citizens need three to free ourselves of the crooked oil and electricity cartels. 1. Affordable loans for solar, batteries and EVs. 2. Home storage batteries that are actually affordable. For me that means less than $100/kwh. 3. We need affordable EVs! Less than $20,000!
I believe the affordable EV’s will come from the used market. I just purchased a 2020 Model Y for $27,000. Next year I expect a 20% drop in value for used EV’s. After 2 years we will start seeing used EV’s with 30,000 miles on them for under $20,000
@@djt8518 nothing in life is free my friend, even burning fossil fuels are not cost free. We have to have a plan to purchase the products we need to go green, I did.
Fossil fuel usage for electricity in Germany have barely gone down though. Lignite 18.7% (2019)- 17%(2023) and hard coal is at 9.5%(2019) to 8.6%(2023) and natural gas usage have actually increased slightly. What Renewables did was take up the share of nuclear power which is low emissions anyway.
Energy demand is reduced in germany because its freaking expensive and the german industry is dying. Emmisions should be up thanks too coal power replacing gas/nuclear power.
It looks power companies are getting gouged on fuel costs just like consumers. I used to work for a railroad and hauling coal was a license to print money and the price never went down, only up.
EV's improve grid efficiency by using otherwise wasted night time power for charging. So even when the mix was mostly fossil fuel based, it still was cleaned the grid by reducing waste.
5:07 "In Europe you can just put a solar system in your balcony" I wish, but this section is unfortunately NOT FULLY true!!! Also there is a HUGE limitation on the MAX power output. "The operation of solar power stations with a maximum power of up to 600 watts on balconies is allowed in 25 out of 27 EU countries (except Belgium and Hungary)." I live in Hungary so it is ILLEGAL here and power company will remove you from the grid if you install one. Thanks again Viktor... Also with 600W limitation it won't be enough to supply a house and fare from enough to charge an Electric car...
Taking your panels with makes little sense as the cost for more efficient panels comes down. Here in the US they are considered fixtures, attached to the property like kitchen cabinets.
No cheap gas so heavy industry upped sticks and left. So that carbon footprint has just been moved and now when those goods are shipped back to Europe that will add to their carbon footprint total how’s that supposed to help the planet.
Fabulous news! More of this!!! American media DOES NOT report on this stuff btw can you say bought and sold even though American energy is having milestones too
We have reduced our home energy consumption by a third because the price has doubled, not because of home solar, but we have replaced our gas cooker with electric. We have also reduced driving by 50% and use public transport more which is free for us. The UK still needs Rolls Royce mini reactors which still have not been ordered by the Government.
SMRs are not expected to be ready for use until 2032. They also say that preparing the 'ground' for an installation takes 2 years. So, real orders before 2030 don't make much sense! Additionally. in the next 5 years a LOT can happen with renewables! Perovskite PV panels are MUCH more efficient than the existing ones, so that could pusha greater usage of solar - even in the sunny UK! More efficient, and recycle friendly, wind turbines are being developed, which again could increase its 5 of the total! New investment in old nuclear power plants should be abandoned completely! They cost 20B quid+, and take 10+ years to bring online! What amazes me is the lack of government investment in Wave power! We have limited sunshine, and days with no wind, but the tide ALWAYS goes in and out!
and have power bills come down? So the guys with no solar does their electricity provider lower their rates? I hear their heavy industry is moving out of Germany because power prices are thru the roof?. Anyway, I am waiting for the promised power price reductions in Australia the Viking said about last year...
Sam, the news is very good, but it's important to point out that what your talking about is 50% (or more) of ELECTRICAL power. In the US, ELECTRICAL power only constitutes 38% of energy produced. Take for example, the industrial sector, which gets only 15% of it's power from electricity and the industrial sector uses almost the same amount of energy as the transportation sector.
Balcony solar is not possible in the uk either. The reason is safety. The Balcony solar has a built in microinverter and a normal power cord with a plug on it. If the microinverter fails (they normally only work when connected to the mains) they could power up the plug pins which are exposed. In the uk we have ring mains and there is no limit to the number of sockets on the main so there would be nothing to stop an enthusiast from connecting a load of panels and overpowering the circuit. In germany they tend to have a single circuit per socket (or a couple) so the circuit cannot be overloaded . Sadly UK domestic is not suitable but germany and other countries are.
Germany had the nuclear reactors though. They should not have turned them all off yet. They would have not have had to have any coal if they hadn't been so premature. I don't think we should be making new nuke plants but existing ones can continue to run until all power is covered by renewables. Efficiency of course is also a factor. LED lighting is taking over in homes and on the streets.
@@krossbolt4100 LOL, yeah, because they shut them down?? Nuclear energy was still 32% in 2006 and 18% in 2011 in Germany. And Germany's plants were still relatively new and top maintained compared to many other countries, never any major problems. Germany's electricity generation would be fully CO2 neutral today if they had kept them running. But the so-called "Greens" wanted them shut down and preferred to have coal plants running instead.
@@JacquesMartiniand they were still burning coal and still are burning plenty of coal. Civilization ran off wind and solar for 6000 years. So we already know exactly what life would be like if we go back to wind and solar
The battery revolution thats happening has really sealed the deal for renewables domination. I think grid scale projects will be less needed as more solar and batteries are installed on properties, couple that with EVs with bidirectional charging, we will be seeing a very decentralised power generation system.
Huh? Electricity prices are falling. Already down 16% from last year and almost 40% down from 2022. I'm currently paying less for electricity than I did in 2010! Stop spreading BS.
They are often at odds with figures that are being widely reported. His figures are always reported in some places, just not often in mainstream media.
something is just wrong with classic wind turbines, let's please have something new : a vertical axis wind turbine (spinning like a carousel) this wind turbine would look exactly like a tree, I call it : e-tree the trunk of the e-tree is brown, the spinning sails (blades) are green, and finally attached to the trunk of the e-tree are features of : wifi/mobile network, light and power outlet, to charge a car for example.
Probably other European countries like Switzerland and Austria with a lot more hydropower than Germany have even higher renewables in total energy bill.
And more efficient appliances allround, for instance my LED TV only uses about 1/6th the power of my old CRT and my Fridge/freezer stack is about 1/3rd of what we had earlier. Not to mention phone/tablet doing 80% of what my PC used to do at a mere fraction of the power.(~1/20th)
Sam are you confusing electricity production with total power production? Homes need heating and cooking and use gas. Transport uses petrol and diesel. In the UK fossil fuels provide 75% of total energy. I don’t think Germany will be that different. In winter people die of hypothermia in significant numbers. When the sun isn’t there and sometimes this is coupled with no wind too countries rely on fossil fuels. I have solar panels and an EV just in case you imagine I’m biased.
During the first quarter of 2024, renewables supplied 58.4% of the country's electricity, setting a new record. The problem in Germany are Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg which are quite anti-renewables...otherwise the country already would have over 90% renewable energy generation by now...and that's not counting in all the dams in Germany that aren't used for power generation.
That's wrong. Bavaria is actually in the top 5 when it comes to renewables. We have less wind turbines but keep in mind that we have more PV power than any other state.
Just watch the next 12 months with more big builds of wind and solar coming on stream in the UK and across Northern Europe. And on the good windy sunny days we are paid to use it! And yes gas will be filling in the gaps for a few more years but really in small amounts from 2026.
The decrease in demand in Europe over the last two years is because electricity prices increased vastly in Europe after you know what happened, and people had to cut their usage because they couldn't afford their bills. There may have been an uptick in domestic solar installations as well, but it certainly isn't the whole story.
Good for them, i remember 2017 when their disrespectful delegates laughed when warned not to be too reliant on any single nation for energy. They laughed and said it makes their friendship with Moscow stronger. I didn't get what was so funny until 5 years later when they were putting together emergency energy team and tearing down beautiful 100 year old buildings to get lignite. Luckily for the people, they had a mild winter that year.
Ah looking into the future. Or maybe to an existing scandinavian country with some of the coldest region here in Europe? Norway producing almost all their energy renewable and about 80% of all energy used for heating comes from electricity. Maybe you want to call them and ask them if they froze to death yet in the last decade?
Thanks for your great work Sam, but I do feel it would be great if you're more precise in the wording regarding 'electricity' or 'power'. I don't know how it is in Australia, but here in Europe we spend a whole lot of energy heating, through gas or otherwise. That all obviously all needs to still be transitioned to sustainable as well but is not in the electricity numbers mentioned. And then there's transport, huge amount of energy consumed. So overall electricity 50%, amazing and so positive for the future! But overall power is a whole different challenge (I did some ChatGPT calculations, especially in Germany it's realllllly incredibly challenging) and is also good to mention for perspective I would say. Keep it up Sam, much love
Why is this an achievement? Yes if you spend vast vast amounts of money on renewables you will get this result. The REAL achievement is how much does it produce on the dull windless days? Reliability is the issue not bulk quantity on the easy days.
The average CO2/kWh in UK is 123g for electricity production, enough to power 4 miles for an EV, therefore 31g per mile. Show me any ICE car that can deliver close to 31g /mile CO2, you can't, it doesn't exist. End of argument 👌🏻
I’m going to guess that the balcony solar panels are connected by just plugging them into an existing electrical receptacle. When you do that the wires on that circuit can catch fire because they are overloaded and the circuit breaker won’t trip. Here is what it looks like 15 amp circuit breaker Wires rated for 15 amps 12 amp window AC unit 5 amps of solar power being backed into that circuit. Now someone plugs in a 7 amp device. This plus the AC unit is 19 amps. But the circuit breaker doesn’t trip. The circuit breaker doesn’t trip because only 14 amps is going through it. The other 5 amps is coming from the solar connection. You now have a 19 amp load on a circuit designed to only have 15 amps on it. Those wires will get hot and burn the wire insulation then the wall.
How much of this is "harvesting the low-hanging fruit?" Will further gains be increasingly more difficult to achieve? I'd love to see oil and coal eliminated as sources of energy, but I also don't want the cost to obtain that to be forgotten.
Hello Sam. Greetings from Groningen Nederland. News from source Solar Magazine Nederland. We have now, 6 juli 2024 officially 3 Million Houses and Companies registered with Solar. Accumulated Capacity 17.8 GigaWatt Solar. First semester 2024 187.879 Consumers had Solar installed. Hotel Chain van der Valk Nederland installs 1600 Solar Panels in location Houten Nederland. Installation Time 4 weeks. Solar for Heatpump Heating, Inductioncooking for the Chef, Warm Water, and Charge Facility on the parking for EV. Offshore Windpower installed 5 Gigawatt on the North Sea Nederland. 5 more Gigawatt planned completed in 2028. Makes Offshore Windpower installed 10 Gigawatt. Prices down to 22 cent per kWh for the Consumer. 8 cent productioncost, 11 cent Energy Tax, 3 cent VAT. Makes it 22 cent per kWh. That is 14 cent Tax for the Government on 8 cent productioncost for the Company.
That is great news, but I didnt hear any mention of the duck-bill curve, meaning how power production lines up with power consumption at different times of day.
Your right as that needs to be managed. It is solvable with grid scale batteries or consumers with home batteries or EVs with bidirectional energy agreements with the power company. It’s possible to make money with energy arbitrage if you have a home battery and an agreement with the energy company. Tesla Powerwall is a notable example.
Sam, significant amounts of this green energy is by burning wood pellets. This is even more polluting than the coal it replaces and in uk comes out of the same smoke stacks at Drax and Ironbridge as the coal it replaced with government subsidies to make it profitable. Do an article about this, it is so counter intuitive while subsidies for EVs have been withdrawn.
Yes, he cherry picks statistics and massages them to fit the story he wants to project. EV sales in Germany have dropped 14% over the past 6 months but Sam won't mention anything about that.
This video was about generation. I googled, and it looks like he got the numbers right. For electricity consumption, what matters is the number of EVs on the road. The number of EVs is still up even if sales are down, because sales are still much much higher than 13 years ago or however long Europeans keep cars on the road.
@@fjalics The average time people across Europe keep their cars is 12 years. Australia is about 12 also and the US is 14. Germany is 10 years. There is a healthy market for those used cars. In Australia ICE car sales greatly outweigh everything else, a very strong market. EV sales have flattened out but hybrid sales are well and truly on the way up. The used EV sales situation here is interesting, it’s virtually non existent. Very few people want to risk a 2nd hand EV so they’re piling up in storage areas.
Get out-of-the-way Dunmb Bubble, it is happening putting your head in the sand and denying the present is not smart. GERMANY ought the best solar company in the USA and took it to Germany, all Govenment buildings on Germany, by law, have to have solar, which is cheaper even in the 🇺🇸,,, than monopoly controlled Oil.
@@MrPropanePeteEV sales in Germany have declined as their government axed subsidies last year without notice, and they are in a recession. It will grow again.
I'm not sure subsidises are required for EVs for much longer.. Chinese EVs are already becoming cheaper than their ICE counterparts, and EU EVs will probably be the same in a few years as battery costs steadily decrease.
And in all actuality, France never stopped their nuclear program either. They put six reactors into operation in the 90s, four new reactors in '00 and currently one in the '20s, with another six planned. The only decade they failed to put new reactors into service was the '10s. As it takes at least 10-15 years to build a new reactor, you cannot put a political agenda on it either, but you can clearly see when it stopped for a while and even Macron being smart enough to re-kindle the nuclear power. But if you are looking towards the broader European continent, you will see a rather shocking thing emerging. Belarus, Romania and Slovakia, all new emerging former soviet countries (or countries behind the iron curtain) trying to claw their way out of socialism, have put new reactors online. The only western european exception being Finland. Sure it takes time and money to build new reactors, especially since all nuclear experts have been put out of a job thanks to politicians meddling. It takes time to build up expertise once again. But that's not excuse to stop innovating. It's probably the worst excuse of them all.
@@johnburns4017 Yes, so? They are shutting down old plants. That's just proper management, is it not? Or do you want to refute those newly built nuclear plants?
@@johnburns4017 Oh boohoo, I made a mistake. But to be fair, current day socialism is just communism under the disguise of democrazy in some countries. But shall we not start this discussion? I triggered you enough already 🤣
Remember that fossil fuels depend on a continuing supply chain providing the fuel to where they are burned or exploded. Supply chains which use more fossil fuels and electricity produced by burning more fossils to dig the coal and pump the oil out of the ground; process it (crush the coal to efficient size or refine it into gasoline, diesel, etc.) into something usable; and transport them by truck, train, boat or ship which explode some form of oil or by pipeline powered by more electricity to where the fossil fuel is burned or exploded. Reducing use of fossil fuels reduces the added demands for powering the fossil fuel supply chain. You do not have those supply chains with solar and wind power backed up by batteries.
@@vojtechvoros1549 facts do not lie. Germany run primarily on coal powerplantS. They restarted coal mining and are destroying few towns that were built on top of the formerly abandoned mines. Or on imported French nukular electricity. This chaos is partly due at first to the boycott of the then primary Russian gaz power generation. Then its forced abandon when the CIA/Ukraine terr0rists blewup the n0rdstreams pipelines.
there is no plummeting of fossil fuel usage in germany, because they replaced nuclear with fossil...but slovakia turned off the last coal plant in march!!! Replaced it with new nuclear!
Wrong. Coal is dropping simply because of the cost for producing power that way is to high. A bunch of coal plants are announced to be closed next year.
@@wora1111 natural gas usage is on the rise. Germany just announced they will continue with coal up to 2038. 14 GW of coal after 2030 is necessary to achieve grid stability. They are replacing coal with natural gas, but they use the H2 ready sticker to make it more appealing.
@Petriiik I tend to disagree. I am a German and watching closely what happens here. My town is connected to the gas grid and I start seeing more and more heat pumps in front of the houses. So the use of gas for private heating will be going down. Gas for generation of power in peak times actually makes sense because it is cheaper than coal and can be used for peak power (not possible with nuclear or coal). But gas still is a lot more expensive than solar or wind so the duration of its usage will be reduced as much as possible. With my own small pv on the roof, I am drawing from the grid 4 months of the year, 8 months I am feeding into the grid. Part of that, because I have a house battery that usually covers the night. Some German DNP (distribution network provider) and have started to equip every distribution plant with a battery which helps to stabilize the energy flow on high power lines (>100 kV) and reduce peaks. That in turn reduces the need for plants that produce power during peak times (aka gas plants). So, it is smart to have gas power plants for possible peak loads, but it even smarter not to need to use them ...
@@wora1111 gas for peak times is used because gas plants are capable of short start times. Some coal plants need up to 10 days for startup. Some coal plants are kept up in heißer reserve, which means they keep burning coal to keep the plant at operational temperature not producing any power, but being able to do so in a short period. These need to be replaced by gas. If the nuclear would not be turned off, then even the 14 GW of coal for grid stability could be turned off. The actual co2 emmisions of the german grid at 420g co2/kwh are one of the worst in eu. With nuclear this could be much better for the climate. With the HP you are right I was more talking about the power grid. With low co2 per kwh also the HP heating would be greener. You have invested a lot into your power generation, because you are enthusiastic about it. Most people do not have that possibility as they do not own a house. And most DIY YT channels agree that a battery is not economical, it is just a hobby.
@@Petriiik ok, seem we think alike a lot. Nuclear provided like 5% of the power in the German grid before being shut down if i remember correctly. So the improvement in CO2-Emission would have been in a similar range. Plus I dislike large plants. If something goes wrong it usually gives you great problems as well. But that is just my philosophy. Actually I invested in power generation because I felt bad to invest into AC (needed for my home office) and use up more energy. I just wanted to feel better. Saving/earning money was an unexpected bonus one year later. I am not a DIY, I am a physicist though. And I know how to handle numbers. In my case, the ROI of the PV was about 10% in the first year AND I learned a lot about the consumption habits of my family (because of all the data (locally) stored by the PV-system). First thing I noticed was that we consumed most of the energy in the morning and evening hours (after sunset), mostly for dishwasher, washing machine and stove. That drained my small battery and I had to draw from the grid every morning, before the PV was filling it up again.Working at home, it was easy to shift the usage of dishwasher and washing machine into the daylight hours (although now I need to turn them on ;-) ). These (summer) days I start the day (around 6) with the battery filled with about 3kWh All that relies on a vital point, my ability to know my current consumption. People that know their consumption pattern and understand its influence on their cost usually react in a similar way, at least those that I know. And yes, as a home owner I was able to invest in solar, but that (indirectly supports other users as well. We currently have about 8GWh of officially registered, privately owned battery capacity in Germany and companies like enBW have announced they will implement battery storage in every new distribution plant. That will reduce peaks and the amount of gas needed. But I guess most of this is known to you as well, I worte it more for readers with less knowledge of this subject :-) YT-Reports about PV and battery and stuff are made by people who earn money with the number of clicks. I rather rely on my colleagues in the Stadtwerke and the experiences of people I personally know and trust.
We need the progress very badly. A painful study came out recently that 40% to 80% of the warming effect of our CO2 emissions were temporarily offset by the air pollution that came along with our fossil fuel use. In other words, once we clean up our game, we will be hit substantially harder by the previous CO2 emissions because our air will have less sun blocking particles.
Reducing the sulfur in shipping fuel and exhaust has drastically reduced the amount of clouds formed over the ocean increasing ocean temperatures as well. We need to carbon capture and use it as methane and kerosine when liquid fuel is needed. Replace crude oil and coal, but all that atmospheric carbon can be used as well.
Germany is also the country with the highest electricity prices and have the biggest issues with overproduction in Europe. Oh and they are also the country with the biggest amount of lignite (brown coal) power plants and even have re-opened lignite mines. The worst king of coal of them all. Coal ain't disappearing for a long time, Germany is utilizing it for grid stabilization and is depending on it massively. You see, solar producers are also companies that would like to see profits. It's the government that is guaranteeing their profits (otherwise they wouldn't be build). Guess who has to pay for that "free power" from those solar panels. When overproducing, they even have to shut down solar production, but those power companies still receive the electricity price for not produced power. Thanks daddy government.
100% TRUE👍 Confirming it as the eastern neighbour POLAND👍🇵🇱❤️😎 We should slow down with the transformation, and stop any support for electric cars, panels etc, and leave it to the market now, as they're not a babies anymore. And we (normal people) are paying for the new and old fortunes of big fat oligharchs, Wall Street etc... through ETS and other TAXES ! I'm a big fan of off grid living, electric cars etc, but also love my 20 year old Diesel (which runs on vegetable oil) , nobody should be extremist, everybody should have more common sense, and stop beliving in that CO2 BULLSHIT agenda.... (it is to the maniacs, that want to remove 0.4% co2 from the atmosphere...idiots and manipulators). BTW... Great comment
The lignite power plants electricity production has dropped to its lowest level since 1965 in 2023 with a share of only 17% in 2023. In 2024 so far it has further dropped to 14-15%. Total coal electricity production was 25% in 2023 down to 20% in 2024 so far. It's use is declining rapidly so I don't actually see where the dependence is. For grid stabilization gas power plants are used and build as they can more easily be turned on and off and are cleaner. The german coal mines where subsidized for decades with billions of euros to stay open. Subsidies are part of all energy production not only renewable and not only germany. France is holding its prices artificially low by subsidizing nuclear plants and EDF has 60-70 billion in debt because of the price cap. Not much better options.
sorry Viking, this figure included significant % burning biomass. It’s not really CO2 free is it? There have also been some dodgy tactics used in sourcing some wood pellets….Best to stick with real green tech not greenwashing of burning stuff.
Lower demand for electricity in Europe is largely due to industry moving overseas due to high energy prices. One of the biggest issues with solar and wind is that they are intermittent, while demand is continual. That means that backup generation (typically fossil) needs to be kept on inefficient standby. This results in overall increased costs. Batteries are too expensive to solve the cost problem. Poor people suffer as a result. “. . . a naïve observer might conclude that the rising share of new renewables (solar and wind) will usher in an era of falling electricity prices. But in reality, the opposite has been true.” Vaclav Smil, Numbers Don’t Lie, p.172
Citing a wrong statement does not change the facts. I put a pv on my roof, and my electricity bill dropped by more than 60% (despite installing and using AC now). And my roof/pv is small (6kWp).
And here is the kicker from that article "In Germany, meanwhile, renewables covered 58 per cent of gross electricity consumption in the first six months of the year".....only half a year...i.e. summer. So you still need the grid for winter months and for weather lulls. Even if you need the supplemental grid infrastructure (coal, gas, nuclear) to cover shortfalls for 1 day per year, you still need to invest in that grid infrastructure. I'd also question if the 50% figure quoted was a reliable supply for a 24hr period or just a peak generation times (when the sun shines and the wind blows).
There are conservated power plants that can be turned on as needed. They are meant for national security. They are not efficient at all but powerful. Always was. Still, with a large grid, they are not turned on for what you speak. This is not a problem at all.
Exactly right ....this transition has failed to produce cheaper power for any country because it is a pointless duplication ... Meanwhile China and India are building record numbers of coal plants. Australians will pay higher power prices as we shut down our coal plants , while we sell our coal to China and India , and buy solar panels and wind turbines made in China using the cheap reliable electricity generated using our coal.
@@Leonardo555ZZZ The transition is expensive but we have yet to see the other side when we have a Renewable Grid and 10m EV's charging on cheap solar. The upside is ahead and YES you are right about duplication but its cheap. $20bn gets 15GW of Gas Turbines and in Australia you will never have to worry about a Supply Gap again. YES we have to have almost 100% grid backup with Hydro, Pumped Hydro, Batteries and Gas Turbines. However don't be surprised as we do the same with fossil fuels and have 54GW of Fossil Fuel Power Plants but would rarely ever exceed 35GW - most grids are more duplicated than people realise.
The first 6 months in Germany are not Summer you fool! Jan+Feb = Winter March+Apr+May = Spring Only June is Summer. So one Winter month cancels out one Summer month which leaves 3 Spring + 1 Winter. Hardly the hottest time of year!
I think you're cherry picking mate. What about Private generation. And summer stats always look good for solar. No one can store Elec for winter - there isn't enough lithium in all of earth for even one country. Gas costs are much higher, so people wear more cloths. Elec costs more so people wear even more cloths.
Grmans had to pay 0.65 Euros oer kWh lasr year. That is why oower use dropped. Now it is cheap again, like before the war and interest in Solar PV instantly dropped back down again.
True, but as he get's closer to Elon Musk there will be a lot of change in his opinions, he already changed his mind on EVs, the rest will follow.... ohne phonecall at a time with Elon and another bit on his not very intelligence ideas on energy will go away :-)
Jo makes him look like Greta when it comes to production, but we are just working current wells harder, there is so much natural gas coming out of the ground in Texas, the price went negative not too long ago. With all the world peace Jo brought up, we need to be drilling more than ever. Texas is number one in wind, second in solar but the last winter when we were using a ton of electric heat, we had fog and no wind but gas kept us nice and warm, in 21 it wasn't a problem with the wind not being prepared, it was the gas that wasn't prepared for a once in a lifetime storm.
