Germany’s powerful trade unions have long been major constituents of the country’s SPD social democrat party. But new CO2 reduction plans being drawn up by Germany’s Economics Ministry, headed by SPD chief Sigmar Gabriel, has the country’s mining, chemical and energy workers up in arms.
The IG BCE trade union representing a variety German energy employees is calling on its members to demonstrate in Berlin, on 25 April 2015.
“We oppose!” Photo: Stefan Hoch, IGBCE
The planned protests further puts a German government in an increasingly awkward position as it attempts to appease both the powerful environmental groups, and the country’s influential industrial trade unions.
100,000 jobs at risk, “social blackouts”
Coal power plants supply approximately 45% of the country’s electricity demands. German online daily Die Welt here reports that the Economics Ministry has produced a concept paper calling for capping emissions of older coal plants, and subjecting excessive emissions to hefty fees.
The 125-year old IG BCE union claims the plan threatens 100,000 jobs – in regions where economies are already strained. “Ultimately the social blackout of entire regions threaten,” the IG BCE warn. It also says that scaling back coal power “puts an affordable and reliable power supply at risk“.
The IG BCE announces large demonstrations outside Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office in Berlin on April 25: The motto: “Enough, we oppose!”
“Unrealistic” figures
Die Welt writes that the IG BCE had investment bank Lazard check over the draft plan. Lazard found that it is based on “unrealistically high power prices” for the year 2020.The prices projected for 2020 by the government will in fact be much lower, and thus means the plan would result in 85 to 95 percent of the power plants being unprofitable. The cap would literally mean the end of Germany’s lignite-fired power plants.
IG BCE commenter Thomas Rohde writes he will surely be attending the demo, and comments:
For too long we have believed politicians that an affordable energy supply and good jobs were worth it. The gods of climate protection have blindly run and sacrificed the guarantors of prosperity and value creation at the altar of CO2 reductions, much to the joy of other EU and industrial countries.”
Hat tip: Michael Limburg, EIKE.
Well Hannelore Kraft, SPD boss from 17 million strong land NRW, opposes Gabriel’s suggestion of punishing coal and lignite power plants with special taxes, so that’s SPD vs. SPD. NRW of course is the last remaining stronghold of the SPD and will win ANY such internal power struggle within that party.
Oh and boy is that a bad drawing even for a socialist agitprop poster.
These guys should at least get themselves a decent artist. Like Oleg:
http://www.thepeoplescube.com/
These claims and the article are horrible.
There are only about 20000 people working in brown coal in Germany and nobody is planning to close all plants (unfortunatly).
http://www.klima-luegendetektor.de/2015/04/13/bsirske-sich-daemlich-rechnen/
“The prices projected for 2020 by the government will in fact be much LOWER, and thus means the plan would result in 85 to 95 percent of the power plants being unprofitable.”
This is interesting news. I thought renewables are driving prices up? And it would become a luxury good in the near future?
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/index-2013-36.html
Perhaps somebody should tell the British as well, they are planning an extremely expensive nuclear plant (based on the idea, that electricty prices will DOUBLE!). Does this really work, if electricity is getting cheaper in neighbour countries?!?
Well then go tell the NRW SPD about it sod, you clever genius. The rest of us can sit back and watch the socialist infighting. Let it be brutal.
“Well then go tell the NRW SPD about it sod, you clever genius. ”
The SPD is not the greens. They have a big coal connection from their past.
So i do not understand, why you folks here think, that Germany is currently running a “green” policy.
CDU is pro-coal and SPD ist at least not anti-coal.
There is an obvious problem at the moment: The oldest and most dirty coal plants are currently pproducing the cheapest power. That is obviously bad.
It was the red/green gov led by Schroeder who enacted the feed-in act. Have you forgotten?
“It was the red/green gov led by Schroeder who enacted the feed-in act. Have you forgotten?”
no, i remember very well, because they did a lot of good stuff for the environment.
But the greens were part of that coalition and they are not today.
What we currently see in Germany (and most parts of the world) is common sense investment in renewable energy.
This are not extremist “green” positions, but mainstream realisation that alternative power is cheap and has many advantages (jobs, technology, environment, climate, public and international support).
Hey s.o.b. perhaps you can help.
A simple question…
If you had a 100MW wind farm, what amount of energy could you GUARANTEE to provide 95% of the time?
2MW, 5MW.?? or am I being over-generous?
ps.. UK wind is currently providing 5% of nameplate.
In the last 24 hours, has been below 1GW of the approx 12GW installed nameplate for over 50% of the time.
Wind energy is NOT an alternative to real energy supply.
“If you had a 100MW wind farm, what amount of energy could you GUARANTEE to provide 95% of the time?”
That question is irrelevant.
How much electricity would you expect from a nuclear plant, take for example Fukushima, last year?
The real output of a randomly picked power source at a certain moment is irrelevant. The important number is the output of all sources combined.
Wind needs backup, in a similar way that coal, nuclear or gas need backup for accidents, peaks and scheduled downtimes.
——————–
We just got an answer to that question from California: The grid has shown that it can handle 40% renewables and 50% are no problem.
It will also be able to handle 100% renewables.
http://www.utilitydive.com/news/cpuc-head-california-grid-can-soon-handle-100-renewables/387395/
Hawaii is moving towards 67%.
Is all of this a scheme by the German green party or former Chancellor Schröder?
Poor sob, running around like a headless chicken trying to avoid answering.
And bringing up strawman after strawman.. just how weak are you !!!
I’ll ask it again, seeing you don’t seem to have understood this very relevant, but for you, very uncomfortable, question.
“If you had a 100MW wind farm, what amount of energy could you GUARANTEE to provide 95% of the time?”
1-2% of nameplate, 2% maybe in the right place.
Come on.. have some guts and give us a number. !
The NON-reliability of wind.. writ large.
https://twitter.com/clivehbest/status/585903703355482112/photo/1
There is approximately 12GW nameplate capacity in the UK. at 2:05 on 8/4 it was producing ZERO power.
A lot of the time it is struggling to get above 1GW!
That is truly pathetic from a wannabee alternative power supply.
“Come on.. have some guts and give us a number. !”
Thew answer is 0%.
But the answer would be exactly the same, if you had asked for a coal or nuclear plant.
For Germany, the data can be found here:
http://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/downloads-englisch/pdf-files-englisch/data-nivc-/electricity-production-from-solar-and-wind-in-germany-2014.pdf
The maximal weekly wind electricity production was 2.8 TWh in calendar week 51
The minimal weekly production was 0.32 TWh in calendar week 40
(page 28)
———————
Fossil fuels have lost the race against renewables. This is not a green conspiracy, unless it has infected the whole world, including extremely conservative governments..
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-14/fossil-fuels-just-lost-the-race-against-renewables
Hawaii is moving towards 67%. roflmao !!!
http://www.ehow.com/about_6652092_do-hawaiian-islands-electricity_.html
A summary for you….
6.1.Fossil and Solid Waste
Hawaii relies heavily on imported petroleum These fossil fuels provided 86 percent of Hawaii’s electricity-generation needs in 2014.
6.2.Wind
As of 2014, Hawaii’s wind farms produced 4 percent of Hawaii’s total electricity produced, with further projects planned for the islands of Molokai, Lanai and Oahu.
6.3.Biomass (Sugar Cane)
The use of Bagasse became widespread in the 1970s and provided 3 percent of Hawaii’s electricity in 2014.
6.4.Geothermal
The Hawaiian Islands make use of heat produced by the volcano Kilauea to generate electricity. the plant was generating around 2 percent of Hawaii’s electricity needs in 2014
6.5.Hydroelectric
1 percent of Hawaii’s electricity generated using this method, as of 2014.
6.6. Other Sources
4 percent .
67% renewable????? utter BS.. as usual !!
You can’t run a factory on renewables.
But you can run parasitic institutions like the PIK or the Wuppertal Institute on them.
Sod wants a future that runs on parasitism only.
Sod wants another Holodomor for the entire world.
sod 19. April 2015 at 13:01
“Wind needs backup, in a similar way that coal, nuclear or gas need backup for accidents, peaks and scheduled downtimes.”
Well wind needs 100% backup, reliable powerplants maybe 10%.
But all’s well when you can run the entire national economy on the output of sociologist institutes. They can fall back to mechanical typewriters to formulate their demands.
At the current rate, they may soon need stone tablets.
“But the answer would be exactly the same, if you had asked for a coal or nuclear plant.”
That is another absolute LIE.
Coal and nuclear have built the society we live in, because they produce ON CALL, and in copious amounts, RELIABLY.
50 year old coal plants still often produce very close to rated output 24/7/365 with planned maintenance known well in advance.
Nuclear plant can and have run at rated output 24/7/365 except for scheduled re-fuelling.
Wind Turbines.. you can’t even rely on them to produce even a tiny fraction of their rated output when required. Certainly not 24/7/365.
0% reliability.. it is.. thank you.
sod 18. April 2015 at 19:48 | Permalink | Reply
“So i do not understand, why you folks here think, that Germany is currently running a “green” policy.”
Because Gabriel, SPD, suggested a penalty tax for coal.
At least pay attention, genius.
sod 18. April 2015 at 19:48 | Permalink | Reply
“CDU is pro-coal and SPD ist at least not anti-coal.”
CDU stands for whatever preserves their power. Currently their strategy is to let the SPD do whatever they want, watch it fail and blame it on the SPD, then increase their share of the vote in the next election as people run from the SPD. CDU stands for nothing, in other words. Want limitless mass immigration, yeah, just let Özoguz from the SPD open the floodgates. Want wind turbines? Just let Gabriel from the SPD wreck German energy supplies. Want socialist market regulations? Let Nahles from the SPD push through minimum wage laws. Want free stuff for all? Let SPD push through full pension with 63.
CDU stands for nothing. They used to, but they junked it.
You are just not worth the effort. Total IDIOT.
You mean, like, “Sod off, Swampy”?
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/51581
Insults and a link to violence.
Is that all you have got to offer?
If Germany abandons brown coal, will the lights go out in the same way as they went out when those 8 nuclear pölants were closed by Merkel?
In the same way, as the lights went out in Japan, after 50 nuclear plants stopped providing power?
——————-
Brown coal is getting a problem for utilities, that is the reason why Vattenfall wants to get rid of it.
http://www.adn.com/article/20150414/sweden-vattenfall-wants-sell-brown-coal-operations
Brown coal needs court backup, to get residents from the mining area (this needs a significant reason, via the german “Grundgesetz”). In the near future, a judge will decide, that there is no public need behind brown coal mining and the operation will stop.
Mark my words.
Dream on Sod:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/04/15/former-un-climate-chief-coal-is-essential/
why do you bother littering this blog with your propaganda?
A link to violence? What are you talking about? A good green soldier should know what the word means.
Your bluster is ridiculous but I’ll try something different:
Off with you. Swampy.
sod 19. April 2015 at 13:08 | Permalink | Reply
“Brown coal needs court backup, to get residents from the mining area (this needs a significant reason, via the german “Grundgesetz”).”
…A Wind turbine needs an exclusion zone, as it is making the countryside unfit for human habitation or animal life through Infrasound terror… That this exclusion zone has been reduced to a radius of 350m in Schlewsig Holstein is a sick joke, responsible for this antihuman destruction program is the rich left-green Gutmenschen faction in the inner cities… They don’t care about destroyed lifes in the countryside.
Shall we compare the impact? Produced energy for unusable land? You wouldn’t like that comparison.
Yep, Goodbye Germany, goodbye EU, goodbye UK and down goes La France socialist.
Not long now before one of those countries suffers a major electricity supply issue. A base load supply collapse.
The aftermath of this should be fun to watch from outside. 🙂
P. any idea why that went into auto-mod ?
If greens get 5% of the vote give them control over 5% of energy production, not 100%.
“Wir wehren uns.” Perhaps a more accurate translation of that phrase would be, “We defend ourselves.”
That sounds rather flat, wouldn’t you say?
I would. The German “wehr” has more punch to it. A literal translation softens it up.
[…] The Potsdam think-tank has been an influential adviser to the German government — so persuasive that the German energy sector is now in desperate straits. A march of blue-collar workers ending at Angela Merkel’s office in Berlin was scheduled on April 25 to protest Germany’s hara-kiri attack on its own coal-fired power industry. The workers’ slogan was, “Enough, we oppose!” Understandable, since the latest German policy folly would render 85-95% of the coal-fired-power industry unprofitable by 2020, risking 100,000 jobs and leaving Germany, well, powerless. Spokesman for Germany’s IG BCE union Thomas Rohde says, […]
Test – commenting from admin mode.
[…] The Potsdam think-tank has been an influential adviser to the German government — so persuasive that the German energy sector is now in desperate straits. A march of blue-collar workers ending at Angela Merkel’s office in Berlin was scheduled on April 25 to protest Germany’s hara-kiri attack on its own coal-fired power industry. The workers’ slogan was, “Enough, we oppose!” Understandable, since the latest German policy folly would render 85-95% of the coal-fired-power industry unprofitable by 2020, risking 100,000 jobs and leaving Germany, well, powerless. Spokesman for Germany’s IG BCE union Thomas Rohde says, […]