The climate-damaging coal has gained importance as the most important energy source in Germany.
The renowned Wall Street Journal took this as an opportunity to shoot at the German Greens.
New York – A third of the electricity generated and fed into Germany last year came from coal-fired power plants.
Compared to the previous year, 8.4 percent more coal electricity was fed in, as the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden announced last Thursday.
In 2021, the proportion was a good 30 percent.
As a result, climate-damaging coal has even gained in importance as the most important energy source in Germany.
That should hurt the Greens - especially Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) - quite a bit.
Last year, the traffic light coalition had to increasingly rely on coal for the energy supply because the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin turned off the gas tap in Germany.
And renewable energies are far from being able to match the performance of fossil fuels.
"The charcoal keeps the lights on in hilarious green irony"
The
Wall Street Journal
, one of the most prestigious business magazines in the United States, quips: “Wind and solar power don't work when there's no wind or the sky is cloudy.
The utility sector relies on cheap and easy energy source alternatives to meet the demands of an advanced industrial society when the weather doesn't cooperate.
Cheap and easy means charcoal.”
Another explanation for the coal resurgence is the political hostility of Germany's green left towards nuclear power.
Germany could tap its shale gas reserves for a cleaner-burning alternative to coal, but that option, too, is politically poisoned.
"So it's the charcoal that, in hilariously green irony, keeps the lights on," etches the magazine.
In the interests of climate protection, the coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP wants to “ideally” bring the end of coal mining and coal-fired power generation from 2038 to 2030.
For the Rhenish mining area, this has meanwhile been established.
Habeck also wants acceleration for the East German coalfields.
But, writes the
Wall Street Journal
: "By the time that day comes, politicians in Berlin may find out what the market already knows: fossil fuels remain indispensable for powering modern economies."
Power Generation: Wind power is the second most important source of energy
However, there are still seven years to go.
After all, the share of renewables in generation increased from 42.3 percent to 46.3 percent last year.
Wind power was the second most important source of energy after coal.
After a comparatively low level of wind in the previous year, the wind power fed into the grid increased by 9.4 percent to almost a quarter of the total amount.
The feed-in from photovoltaic systems increased particularly significantly in 2022 due to the many hours of sunshine - by around 19.5 percent to a share of 10.6 percent.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, another reason for the increase was the increased construction of photovoltaic systems.
Electricity generation from nuclear energy halved in 2022 compared to the previous year due to the shutdown of three of the six nuclear power plants still in operation.
Nuclear energy accounted for only 6.4 percent of the amount of electricity fed into the grid.
What the
Wall Street Journal
does not mention in its praise for nuclear energy: The amount of electricity imported into Germany fell by 4.8 percent compared to the previous year - the amount from France in particular fell by around 62 percent due to the technical problems in the nuclear power plants there.
So these are not reliable either.
With material from AFP and dpa
