Germany is clearly embracing renewables, but reduction of climate change gases seems secondary.
The US Energy Department reported last week that Germany, notwithstanding its renewables rep, is still a coal country.
What was coal's share in Germany in 2015? It was 44 percent.
What was coal's share in the US in 2015? It was 33 percent.
How about the trend for coal in Germany? In 2013, coal's share was 45 percent. In 2014, coal's share was 43 percent.
So coal actually increased its share in Germany from 2014 to 2015 by a small amount.
Germany has generally raised its use of lignite while cutting its use of hard coal. This is a critical point when considering the emission of climate change gases.
Lignite from Lusatia and Rhineland emits 0.41 kilograms of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour. Lignite from Central Germany is slightly cleaner, with an emission rate of 0.37.
(The source is Erneurbare-Energien-und-Klimaschutz.de.)
The emission rate of hard coal is 0.34 and natural gas is 0.2. So the average emission rate of Germany's coal share is increasing. And it is roughly double that of natural gas.
Now it is true that Germany's share of non-coal fossil fuels was less than the US. The share was 11 percent in Germany and 34 percent in the US.
Though almost all of this is natural gas, in both countries.
Renewables are growing their share in Germany. But a statistical change apparently exaggerates the growth.
(The source is AG Energiebilanzen, courtesy of Clean Energy Wire.)
Renewables were 24 percent in 2013, 26 percent in 2014, and 31 percent in 2015. That does appear to be a very large jump from 2014 to 2015.
However, the 2015 number includes the 4 percent share of "other" in 2013 and 4 percent again in 2014. In 2015, the renewables number swallowed up the 4 percent "other."
Without this statistical change, renewables went from 24 percent in 2013, to 26 percent in 2014, to around 27 percent in 2015.
Germany is clearly embracing renewables. But the reduction of climate change gases seems secondary.
As renewables have grown their share, this has come at the expense of zero-emission nuclear power. Germany's nuclear fleet generated a record 170 million megawatt-hours in 1999. In 2014, this had fallen to 97 million megawatt-hours.
Though, nuclear's share in Germany was 15 percent in 2013, 16 percent in 2014, and 15 percent in 2015. Doesn't look like nuclear has left the German scene as of yet.
Willkommen, energy folks from around the globe, from the magazine for commentary, opinion and debate on utility regulation and policy since 1929, Public Utilities Fortnightly.
Steve Mitnick, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly
E-mail me: mitnick@fortnightly.com
