[Skybird]

Manfred Haferburg writes for AdG:

The German media likes to make it look like nuclear power is a dying technology. The opposite is the case. But now the wind is turning in Europe. Rapidly rising prices in the energy sector, caused by a politically intentional shortage of energy, are making voices in favor of nuclear energy louder.

Climate Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Emmanuel Macron, who gave her the highest French award, the Grand Cross of the French Legion of Honor ("Légion d’honneur"). It was pussied and hugged without a mask, as if there was no Corona in France and as if one were agreed on everything - peace, joy, crepes.

In the Burgundian town of Beaune, the first lady and first gentleman were privately met for a luxury dinner, according to the Burgundian motto: “Bon appétit et large soif (bon appétit and blessed thirst)”, which “Anschela” is supposed to have. There was eggs and beef in red wine sauce from the star chef and local wines from the best locations and the best vintages. Some French are even said to have shouted “vive mutti”. All of this has been extensively recognized by the German media. On the accompanying photos you could see that only the poor interpreters and domestics had to wear masks.

Nobody knows exactly what Macron might have cuddled with Merkel over red wine in Beaune, for example that nuclear energy is classified as a “green energy source” by the European Union. Ursula von der Leyen actually said: "that the EU needs nuclear energy as a stable energy source in addition to renewables, as well as natural gas during the transition to climate neutrality". Who thinks that she would say something like that officially without consulting your boss?

Yesterday the French President made another address to the nation. In addition to the corona policy, there was also a much more tangible topic, nuclear energy. And see, suddenly most German journalists no longer understand French and can therefore unfortunately not report that Macron unmistakably showed the wrong-way drivers behind the German nuclear phase-out the outstretched middle finger.

President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday November 9th that France would build new nuclear reactors. He emphasized the advantages of this energy, especially from the point of view of the climate. "We will resume nuclear reactor construction in our country for the first time in decades and continue the development of renewable energies," he said in a televised address.

Macron emphasized that this should be done "in order to guarantee France's energy independence, secure our country's electricity supply and achieve our goals, in particular carbon neutrality by 2050". France, which derives most of its electricity from nuclear power, is currently building the new generation prototype nuclear reactor, the EPR in Flamanville (EDF), construction of which began in 2007 and is still ongoing. At the same time, France is modernizing its 56 nuclear reactors with a billion-euro program in order to make them fit for a 20-year extension of their service life.

In Germany, wind power generation collapsed by almost 20 percent in 2021 despite the addition of hundreds of wind turbines. Now it is not as if 2021 was a "low wind" year. But after the windy years of 2019 and 2020, the wind was blowing normally again in 2021, i.e. rather weak. The remaining six nuclear power plants, coal and gas power plants often had to step in as a wind substitute, otherwise the lights would have gone out.

Just as a reminder, in case the energy transition calculator Kemfert speaks up again: In France, with over 70 percent nuclear energy, electricity costs only half as much as in Germany, but the average French only emits half as much carbon dioxide as their German neighbor. And don't forget: the CO2 footprint of the Germans, like the price of electricity, will increase even further when the last nuclear power plants are shut down in 2022. The 12 large 500 MW gas-fired power plants that will then be missing to replace nuclear energy will not exist, as their project planning has not even begun.

In addition, various coal-fired power plants are to be shut down by 2030. That means the need for another 15 gas-fired power plants. The time for the planning and construction of a gas power plant is approximately eight years. These almost 30 gas-fired power plants would have to be built by the state, since their construction in the energy transition subsidy scrub is not profitable and no investor who is with Consolation - we are talking about more than 35 billion euros in total - invests there. Everyone can decide for themselves how long it will then take and whether there is any delivery capacity for it. And when they do run at some point, where does the gas come from and what does it cost?

At the same time, there is the expansion of the grid for 35 billion (excluding underground cables, according to the federal government) and the erection of 10 wind turbines and 500 solar systems per day for the next 10 years, just to cover the currently published official "Renewable expansion plans" announced by Minister Altmaier , to realize. The looting of taxpayers and electricity customers certainly has a limit somewhere, as does the destruction of all base load power plants. How did Henryk Broder say? “The madness, when it becomes epidemic, is called reason”.

Germany is at a dead end with its energy turnaround, and there is no turning point in sight. As of December 31, 2022, Germany's electricity industry will be in the valley of tears. Then a few thousand megawatts are missing in the German grid, namely six large base load power plants to cover demand in calm and darkness. Woe if the neighbors then need their own electricity.

Germany has hopelessly maneuvered itself into a veritable energy crisis. Well then: Bon courage Allemagne for the coming dark doldrums.

Manfred Haferburg was born in Querfurt in East Germany in 1948. He studied nuclear energy at the TU Dresden and made a lightning career in what was then the largest nuclear power plant in Greifswald. Because of the cheeky singing of Biermann songs as well as some thoughtless remarks at the carnival, he was named a hostile-negative element of the GDR and consequently spent some time under the care of the Stasi in Hohenschönhausen. After the fall of the Wall, he took care of the safety culture of nuclear power plants for an international organization and saw more nuclear power plants from the inside than almost anyone else. But it still cannot glow in the dark.