Electrical Engineering Professor: “Germany Urgently Needs An Energy Strategy Change”

The transition to green energies cannot work – a change of strategy is urgently needed

By Prof. Alwin Burgholte
(Translated, edited by P. Gosselin)

A secure power supply is the prerequisite for health, prosperity and work worldwide. An everyday life without electricity is unimaginable, would cause enormous costs, and there would be many deaths. The most important aspect of power supply is the power (in kW) secured in every second, which has been guaranteed by conventional nuclear, coal and natural gas power plants so far. Summed up energy yields (in kWh) over weeks, months or a whole year say nothing about supply quality.

Renewable energy producers are hydroelectric and biogas power plants, geothermal energy and, above all, wind and solar plants, all of which have been subsidized under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) for 20 years with a fixed feed-in tariff and whose output has to be fed into the grid as a matter of priority.

However, wind and solar plants can only generate power depending on the weather. Without wind and solar, no power is available. Low and fluctuating wind and solar supplies must be augmented accordingly by storage or regulated power plants. Also, wind and solar plants cannot build their own 50 Hz grid. Approx. 25% to 35% of the required power must be supplied by conventional power plants as minimum power, regardless of how large the power supply of the regenerative plants is. [1].

On July 5, 2020, in the period from 12:00 to 16:00, almost the entire power demand between 57 GW to 44 GW could be covered by renewable generators, only 5 GW were missing. The conventional power plants had to supply 15 GW, which corresponds to about 20% of the required power. This was the only way to ensure grid stability with this required minimum output (Lit.1, report page 57; minimum output 37%). The additional 10 GW were exported. Fig. 1 shows the power and electricity price ratios. [2].

Figure 1: Negative electricity prices through excess generation On July 5 and 6, 2020

“Ghost power”

Buyers were only found when additional money was paid for the purchase. The electricity price dropped to negative 65 €/MWh for 4 hours. This resulted in costs for 40 GWh x 65 €/MWh = 2.6 million euros, which the electricity consumers then had to help pay. It would have been cheaper to simply shut down wind farms. However, this is not permitted under the EEG feed in act, although even then the wind farm operator would receive the remuneration that would theoretically have been generated under the existing wind conditions. The term “ghost power” has become established for this. In the event of shutdown, electricity consumers would not have to pay the “disposal costs” of 2.86 million euros.

Any further expansion of wind and solar plants, if the existing subsidies under the EEG are maintained, will increasingly lead to periods of negative electricity prices. With the planned amendment of the EEG, the situation will become even worse. Because wind and solar plants will then be in the public interest and are supposed to serve public safety, prevention by citizen protests will hardly be possible. In 2020, there were 298 hours with negative electricity prices [3]. Every addition of wind and solar plants also reduces the operating hours of all power plants that do not receive EEG subsidies and thus worsens their economic efficiency.

Doubling the number of renewable energy plants will also have little effect, but would generate more surplus power, some of which would then have to be disposed of at even more negative electricity prices. In Figure 2, the March 2022 contributions from wind and solar were extrapolated to Figure 3 if installed capacity was doubled to 400 GW (Economic Minister Robert Habeck’s package). Power would then have to be imported on 23 days and disposed of at negative prices on 9 days up to a maximum of 130 GW. The required long-term storage is currently not available and technically hardly economically feasible to develop.

Figure 3: Electricity generation and consumption in terms of installed capacity Wind: 56 GW, Solar: 58.7 GW [4]

What needs to be done?

  • Public clarification and verified scientific findings describing the true facts should be demanded and presented in parliaments, the media and in interviews.
  • Critical conditions in the power grids need to be pointed out publicly.
  • Experts and consultants should be chosen according to their professional qualifications and not according to their ideological attitudes.
  • The “surplus electricity” generated should no longer be purchased. Wind and solar park operators should produce hydrogen from their surplus electricity to make their plants economically viable.
  • Wind and solar plants should only be expanded to the same extent as electrolyzers and storage facilities are added.
  • To reduce dependence on Russian natural gas, no further nuclear and coal-fired power plants should be shut down. Some of the nuclear and coal-fired power plants that are shut down must be brought back on line.
  • Electricity generation with gas-fired power plants should first be massively reduced and instead be provided by coal-fired and nuclear power plants so that the gas supply for the chemical, glass, paper and automotive industries as well as for food and consumer goods can be maintained.
  • Only long-term imports of natural gas and hydrogen can secure this supply in the long term. Politicians would also have to be able to answer for their decisions and be held accountable.

Prof. Alwin Burgholte, Wilhelmshaven, Germany, June 2022

Email: aburgholte@gmail.com, Tel.: (+49) 4421 998399

Prof. Alwin Burgholte is an electrical engineering expert and was responsible for the field of electrical equipment and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) at the Jade University of Applied Sciences in Wilhelmshaven.

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10 responses to “Electrical Engineering Professor: “Germany Urgently Needs An Energy Strategy Change””

  1. Electrical Engineering Professor: “Germany Urgently Needs an Energy Strategy Change” - Climate- Science.press

    […] Electrical Engineering Professor: “Germany Urgently Needs An Energy Strategy Change” […]

  2. mwhite

    Off topic but,

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GmYQRqMFFQ

    Victims of the Vax

    GB news -(Mark Steyn | Wednesday 13th July)

    1. Yonason

      @mwhite

      That video doesn’t seem to be terribly reliable. For e.g, he says that China “HAS” a one child policy “that’s been in place for 40 years.”

      1. They discontinued the one child limit at the beginning of 2016, reverting back to the previous two child limit.

      2. It lasted 35 years, not 40.

      3.. It was never 100% enforced.
      https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/china-ends-one-child-policy

      Yeah, I know it’s a History Channel link, but the same data are available on other websites.

    2. mwhite

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0YhwBJRreU&t=790s

      Victims of the Vax

      GB news -(Mark Steyn | Wednesday 13th July)

      1. Yonason

        Yes! Thank you.

        Here’s an ongoing project from Israel.
        https://www.vaxtestimonies.org/en/

        The more the scam is exposed, the sooner we may be able to bring the perps to justice.

  3. pochas94

    People, plants, and animals will be healthier and more productive with more CO2 emissions. But ignorant pseudoscientific theories have the day, so a decline has set in.

  4. posa

    What’s the point of carrying the costs of two overlapping generating systems? None. The only choices for powering a modern economy are fossil fuel based plants and nuclear. Have tghe courage Professor to tell the truth,

    In any case the argument is too tedious for people to understand. A good stiff course of “Freeze in the dark” would hammer the point home much more directly.

  5. John Hultquist

    This is a nice analysis.

    Of course, these ideas were mostly available on NTZ for years.

    One doesn’t have to be an EE to recognize nonsense.

  6. ADAV

    I am so “happy” that large parts of Europe get to experience what realists have warned about for years this coming winter. Feelings have ruled over intelligence for far too long. This winter it will end. Brutally I am afraid.

    Looking at Tagesspiegel’s interactive charts from yesterday the realist in me tells me Germany is out of natural gas some time between mid December and Mid-February. And since it’s been 11 yrs (what goes for 11 yrs?) since the last really cold winter there…well, not good. And of course, simple physics answers for how long the system can stay pressurized. And spoiler, it is NOT at 0% storage-level german journalists and “experts”…. Bundesnetzagentur warns of pressure-issues already in september in “the fingertips” of the system.

    Russia has played this game of chess long before EU entered it. No way Nord Stream I will resume wo. MAJOR consessions over sanctions. So. What says Von Der Leyhen? And Habeck?

  7. The Most Dangerous Thing – Newsfeed Hasslefree Allsort

    […] Related: Electrical Engineering Professor: “Germany Urgently Needs An Energy Strategy Change” […]

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