The renewable mandate is not a bad idea per se, but the German opposition to nuclear power is incredibly harmful, and compounded by their inexplicable support for so-called e-fuels.
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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They shouldn't have shut down their old nuclear reactors before having an alternative to coal and gas. But nuclear is not the future. It is not economically feasinle to build new reactors and renewable energy is cheaper.
Meanwhile nuclear is not profitable without subsidies or government garanties.
Solar wind and batteries are the best way to generate electricity riggt now.
The e-fuels will ensure the "survival" of internal combustion engines, and obviously somebody is lobbying like crazy for that to happen.
And since this is Germany pushing them, we can more or less know who. Same people that tried to cover up and avoid liability for dieselgate.
The VW Group is all in on EVs. The big push is from niche sports car builders, which are an utterly insignificant amount of daily traffic and airlines.
Sports car builders are trying to keep a hobby alive, not part of the transportation industry.
It's true luxury cars are involved too, and secured themselves the so-called Lamborghini exception, and of course airlines are the major player here.
But EVs are a bit speculative still, and the existence of efuls is likely to delay them, and give these companies bad ideas about continuing to produce the same engines. I don't know for sure if they're involved in the push, but even if EVs are their plan A, I wouldn't at all be surprised to find out efuels are their plan B.
EVs aren't remotely speculative any longer. Fuel efficiency targets are locked in and anyone who wants to sell cars in 10 years is spending billions to get the infrastructure and development in place to make EVs.
Efuels are what are speculative and it is highly doubtful they will be anything but expensive. Which is fine for luxuries like sports cars. And even unnecessary international flights are a luxury. We just feel entitled to them.
Methane is always a possibility but I imagine that will be expensive while the infrastructure for that is put in place. And it is a lot of infrastructure that needs to be built in the hydrogen sphere.
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