"No one is being hit with this sobering reality more than the Europe’s premier green trailblazer, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country is currently in the grips of Europe’s record-breaking freeze this winter.
Germany’s held up as the world’s wind and solar capital.
But, at the moment, the ‘green’ stuff can’t be purchased, at any price.
Its millions of solar panels are blanketed in snow and ice and breathless, freezing weather is encouraging its 30,000 wind turbines to do absolutely nothing, at all.
[Note: don’t forget about the constant supply of electricity from the grid that these things chew up heating their internal workings so they don’t freeze up solid!]
So much for the ‘transition’ to an all wind and sun powered future – aka the ‘Energiewende’.
Despite being the object of consternation and much vilification over the last 20 years, Germany’s coal-fired plants are now being appreciated for what they are: truly meaningful power generation sources, available on demand, whatever the weather.
... "Wintertime wind and solar energy “between 0 and 2 or 3 percent – that is de facto zero,” says German power distribution professor.
... Much of the country has seen considerable snowfall, meaning solar panels are often covered by snow and thus rendered useless.
Even without snow cover, the weeks-long overcast sky prevents any noteworthy solar power generation.
... this winter there have been many long windless periods, and so Germany’s approx. 30,000 wind turbines have been largely out of operation.
... German RBB (Berlin-Brandenburg) public broadcasting recently aired a report (above) on the region’s winter energy woes titled: “Germany’s green energies strained by winter.”
The report acknowledges that all the power is “currently coming mainly from coal, and the power plants in Lausitz” are now “running at full capacity”.
Strangely the RBB report has been taken down from the archives, yet is fortunately available on YouTube thanks to wind energy protest group Vernunftkraft.de."