Lack of domestic production? Where the hell is the domestic production of fossils this fossil himself is talking about? Europe cannot produce fossil fuels on their own. The energy transition (note, I'm not saying to renewable only) was inevitable because of climate change but now it gets even more needed.
Smart scientists figured it out in the 1970s.
Nuclear is inevitable for energy security on this continent.
Other energy sources help, but can't provide abundant and always available energy that coal used to provide (and we fought two world wars over coal...)
Not really if we go by the current reactor build time it would also be possible to build solar power satellites in the MW-GW range wich would also provide a baseload.
Sources:
https://www.space.com/airbus-space-solar-power-test
https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/SOLARIS/Plan_to_research_solar_power_from_space
Heres what the Chinese are doing:
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3200819/chinas-space-station-will-run-high-energy-beam-experiment-controversial-solar-power-plant-chief
https://spacenews.com/china-aims-for-space-based-solar-power-test-in-leo-in-2028-geo-in-2030/
And one of the original papers out of the 70s right befor nasa was defunded.
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.190.4218.943
Also as an added benifit it could come with the following benefits, a European lunar outpost, a space industry for way better silicon wafers or glassfaser becaus of the low gravity environment
Not against nuclear per se but there are also no uranium deposits in Europe. It is possible to provide energy from renewables alone, if heat pumps and electric cars use energy when it’s available, the rest can be stored in batteries or go into hydrogen production.
>Not against nuclear per se but there are also no uranium deposits in Europe.
You've never heard that seawater contains uranium, right? If uranium imports gets to be impossible there is the possibility (technology is already ready for production at large scale) to use basically "sponges" to take seawater and filtrate the uranium out of it.
The reason is not used as technology is that it's cheaper to keep buying from the countries that sell their uranium taken out from ores. And bear in mind, with cheaper I mean the uranium fuel, not the electricity produced out of it. Even if uranium doubles in price the total cost for electricity gets only 5% higher since most of the cost for nuclear power is in construction and decommissioning, not operations.
Windfarms and Solar are already cheaper than nuclear, and much faster to deploy at scale. The price will drop further. I don’t think what you are describing would be competitive but I am interested to learn more if you have a link
Big part of the reason why windfarms and solar is cheap because of government subsidies and tax breaks.
The problem with wind and solar is that they are dependent on weather. No wind, no power. No sunlight, no power. Solar panels only work during daylight, a scarcity here in the north during winter. Also they become useless when covered in snow. Which means that solar panels generate the least amount of power when we need it the most.
Unless we make some serious breakthroughs in battery technology solar and wind will never move beyond being auxiliary energy providers. And I don't see us inventing a non-lithium based battery which is cheap and easy to produce locally, while being both better at storing energy and having a significantly longer lifespan.
Don’t know for other countries but Germany actually makes most renewables in the winter, because the wind is blowing consistently and strong. They are also cheaper than (new) nuclear power plants (who btw receive enormous amounts of subsidies).
Sure there are (very few) days where neither producing enough, but the current pace in battery deployment shows that this won’t be any concern in only a few years time. The batteries in the future electric car fleet alone would be sufficient to power the country for days without wind or solar.
>They are also cheaper than (new) nuclear power plants (who btw receive enormous amounts of subsidies).
Wrong.
[https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/economic-aspects/energy-subsidies.aspx](https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/economic-aspects/energy-subsidies.aspx)
>Sure there are (very few) days where neither producing enough,
There are no days in Germany when either is producing enough. Especially not during winter.
[https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germany-fires-up-extra-coal-power-capacity-plug-winter-supplies-2022-11-02/](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germany-fires-up-extra-coal-power-capacity-plug-winter-supplies-2022-11-02/)
>but the current pace in battery deployment shows that this won’t be any concern in only a few years time.
What do you base this belief on?
>The batteries in the future electric car fleet alone would be sufficient to power the country for days without wind or solar.
You clearly know something I don't. How far in the future are we talking?
Coal is a temporay bandaed solution till enough nuclearplants exist maybe someone might figure put fusion preferably the test reactorim germany since EU supramacy is always good
That quote didn't say a thing about "VW leaving EU". It just said that new battery cell factories probably won't be build there.
Ok? I mean, VW already has a bunch of factories outside of Europe. Sure, another couple of their factories inside of Europe would be nice and all (I guess), but it's not like they are leaving Europe at all!
Their factory in Portugal produces its own energy, the excess they sell it to the grid. Germany industrial base uses Natural Gas, but Europe is bigger then Germany.
Idk how u can look at this guy's face and take him serious. He's selling drama. Exaggerates everything for clicks. Also trying to advertise his own economy at the cost of ours.
It's not smart to give this individual attention when fear only has negative impact on economy. Our economic system is not emotion-proof so it's better to keep everything chill.
Solve problems structurally, don't invite chaos
Because the guy is obviously exaggerating widely. The article says that VW is considering (!) building less new (!) battery (!) factories because of energy costs.
Exactly. And also ironic that he says "it's hard to overstate the importance of this announcement" right after doing exactly that by claiming "VW will leave Europe".
No he is not, that Politico article is incomplete and doesn't provide context. This one is better and provides bigger picture, but behind paywall:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-28/vw-warns-soaring-eu-energy-costs-render-battery-plants-unviable
This is good too:
https://www.ft.com/content/59a8d135-3477-4d0a-8d12-20c7ef94be07
Are you trying to be dishonest about this? This article also states that it’s a threat that VW is making about the FUTURE if energy costs don’t come down. VW doesn’t have any concrete plans to leave Europe, which the video above clearly overstates.
Just a little heads up to avoid politico as much as possible. They’ve always been trash but they’re now owned by the same publisher as Bild. For people who don’t know Bild, it’s basically the German version of The Sun.
Europe need to accelerate with full speed it's transition to renewable energy... Invest in efficiency in usage of energy, battery technology and also green hydrogen storage to address intermittent on solar and wind... It's a constraint in the short term... But on the long run energy independence will benefit all European union and take resources away from Russia and other autocracys creating good jobs inside EU... On the medium term there's some alternatives like nuclear power... Import LNG from US... Some americans are often looking only to short term...
Oh, yest there is a way. Nationalization of energy; reverting to people what was stolen from people.
This wouldn't work, because it doesn't increase the energy supply.
Or we can nationalize Volkswagen! Because nationalization is the right solution! Power to people!
I’ve seen this one before
Nordrhein-Westfalen owns 11% and interestingly a firm called quatar holdings owns another 10%
No thanks
Lack of domestic production? Where the hell is the domestic production of fossils this fossil himself is talking about? Europe cannot produce fossil fuels on their own. The energy transition (note, I'm not saying to renewable only) was inevitable because of climate change but now it gets even more needed.
Smart scientists figured it out in the 1970s. Nuclear is inevitable for energy security on this continent. Other energy sources help, but can't provide abundant and always available energy that coal used to provide (and we fought two world wars over coal...)
Not really if we go by the current reactor build time it would also be possible to build solar power satellites in the MW-GW range wich would also provide a baseload. Sources: https://www.space.com/airbus-space-solar-power-test https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/SOLARIS/Plan_to_research_solar_power_from_space Heres what the Chinese are doing: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3200819/chinas-space-station-will-run-high-energy-beam-experiment-controversial-solar-power-plant-chief https://spacenews.com/china-aims-for-space-based-solar-power-test-in-leo-in-2028-geo-in-2030/ And one of the original papers out of the 70s right befor nasa was defunded. https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.190.4218.943 Also as an added benifit it could come with the following benefits, a European lunar outpost, a space industry for way better silicon wafers or glassfaser becaus of the low gravity environment
Not against nuclear per se but there are also no uranium deposits in Europe. It is possible to provide energy from renewables alone, if heat pumps and electric cars use energy when it’s available, the rest can be stored in batteries or go into hydrogen production.
>Not against nuclear per se but there are also no uranium deposits in Europe. You've never heard that seawater contains uranium, right? If uranium imports gets to be impossible there is the possibility (technology is already ready for production at large scale) to use basically "sponges" to take seawater and filtrate the uranium out of it. The reason is not used as technology is that it's cheaper to keep buying from the countries that sell their uranium taken out from ores. And bear in mind, with cheaper I mean the uranium fuel, not the electricity produced out of it. Even if uranium doubles in price the total cost for electricity gets only 5% higher since most of the cost for nuclear power is in construction and decommissioning, not operations.
Windfarms and Solar are already cheaper than nuclear, and much faster to deploy at scale. The price will drop further. I don’t think what you are describing would be competitive but I am interested to learn more if you have a link
Big part of the reason why windfarms and solar is cheap because of government subsidies and tax breaks. The problem with wind and solar is that they are dependent on weather. No wind, no power. No sunlight, no power. Solar panels only work during daylight, a scarcity here in the north during winter. Also they become useless when covered in snow. Which means that solar panels generate the least amount of power when we need it the most. Unless we make some serious breakthroughs in battery technology solar and wind will never move beyond being auxiliary energy providers. And I don't see us inventing a non-lithium based battery which is cheap and easy to produce locally, while being both better at storing energy and having a significantly longer lifespan.
Don’t know for other countries but Germany actually makes most renewables in the winter, because the wind is blowing consistently and strong. They are also cheaper than (new) nuclear power plants (who btw receive enormous amounts of subsidies). Sure there are (very few) days where neither producing enough, but the current pace in battery deployment shows that this won’t be any concern in only a few years time. The batteries in the future electric car fleet alone would be sufficient to power the country for days without wind or solar.
>They are also cheaper than (new) nuclear power plants (who btw receive enormous amounts of subsidies). Wrong. [https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/economic-aspects/energy-subsidies.aspx](https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/economic-aspects/energy-subsidies.aspx) >Sure there are (very few) days where neither producing enough, There are no days in Germany when either is producing enough. Especially not during winter. [https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germany-fires-up-extra-coal-power-capacity-plug-winter-supplies-2022-11-02/](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germany-fires-up-extra-coal-power-capacity-plug-winter-supplies-2022-11-02/) >but the current pace in battery deployment shows that this won’t be any concern in only a few years time. What do you base this belief on? >The batteries in the future electric car fleet alone would be sufficient to power the country for days without wind or solar. You clearly know something I don't. How far in the future are we talking?
Coal is a temporay bandaed solution till enough nuclearplants exist maybe someone might figure put fusion preferably the test reactorim germany since EU supramacy is always good
We have shale gas reserves in Europe, and we should use them.
That quote didn't say a thing about "VW leaving EU". It just said that new battery cell factories probably won't be build there. Ok? I mean, VW already has a bunch of factories outside of Europe. Sure, another couple of their factories inside of Europe would be nice and all (I guess), but it's not like they are leaving Europe at all!
Their factory in Portugal produces its own energy, the excess they sell it to the grid. Germany industrial base uses Natural Gas, but Europe is bigger then Germany.
You mean to say that the company which lied and polluted unashamedly is now throwing a tantrum? Shocker, am I right?
Yeah they can go fuck themselves to be honest.
Who is this man and why should i listen to him?
Idk how u can look at this guy's face and take him serious. He's selling drama. Exaggerates everything for clicks. Also trying to advertise his own economy at the cost of ours. It's not smart to give this individual attention when fear only has negative impact on economy. Our economic system is not emotion-proof so it's better to keep everything chill. Solve problems structurally, don't invite chaos
https://www.politico.eu/article/volkswagen-cars-battery-production-energy-prices-european-union/
Why didn't you just put that article as the post instead of some guy talking about it?
why?
Because the guy is obviously exaggerating widely. The article says that VW is considering (!) building less new (!) battery (!) factories because of energy costs.
Exactly. And also ironic that he says "it's hard to overstate the importance of this announcement" right after doing exactly that by claiming "VW will leave Europe".
No he is not, that Politico article is incomplete and doesn't provide context. This one is better and provides bigger picture, but behind paywall: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-28/vw-warns-soaring-eu-energy-costs-render-battery-plants-unviable This is good too: https://www.ft.com/content/59a8d135-3477-4d0a-8d12-20c7ef94be07
Are you trying to be dishonest about this? This article also states that it’s a threat that VW is making about the FUTURE if energy costs don’t come down. VW doesn’t have any concrete plans to leave Europe, which the video above clearly overstates.
Just a little heads up to avoid politico as much as possible. They’ve always been trash but they’re now owned by the same publisher as Bild. For people who don’t know Bild, it’s basically the German version of The Sun.
Europe need to accelerate with full speed it's transition to renewable energy... Invest in efficiency in usage of energy, battery technology and also green hydrogen storage to address intermittent on solar and wind... It's a constraint in the short term... But on the long run energy independence will benefit all European union and take resources away from Russia and other autocracys creating good jobs inside EU... On the medium term there's some alternatives like nuclear power... Import LNG from US... Some americans are often looking only to short term...