Comment by mpweiher
5 months ago
In 2005, both the US and Germany had specific emissions of around 600g CO₂/kWh.
In 2015, due mostly to fracking gas, the US was down to around 450g CO₂/kWh.
Germany, with its Energiewende, was at around 560g CO₂/kWh.
Because, of course, the Energiewende was not about climate change. It was about shutting down climate-friendly (CO₂ free) nuclear plants.
Both could have done better. France is currently at something like 32g CO₂/kWh and has been at roughly that level for decades.
In 2024, US was at 384 gCO₂/kWh, while Germany was at 344 gCO₂/kWh.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/carbon-intensity-electric...
The US fracking boom lasted until about 2015.
And according to energycharts.de Germany was at 395g CO₂/kWh in 2023.
Again, both pale in compare to France.
Shutting down nuclear was a pretty popular policy. But that aside, what the Energiewende was not about was removing obstacles to building out energy infrastructure rapidly (e.g., the delay on the north-south connections).
Well, populism is no good reason to do something dumb. Maybe laymen should not directly have a say over experts in deeply technical discussions.
Yes, not supporting energy infrastructure construction better was a mistake.
Removing what would be nasty targets in a war perhaps in the current light not so much.
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