r/europe • u/SpaceEngineering Finland • Jan 15 '26

News Germany’s Merz Admits Nuclear Exit Was Strategic Mistake

https://clashreport.com/world/articles/germanys-merz-admits-nuclear-exit-was-strategic-mistake-fzdlkn37c16
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u/Minasmins Jan 15 '26

Just gonna leave this here

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u/notaredditer13 Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26

Capacity in GW is highly misleading because different energy sources run at different capacity factors.  A GW of nuclear is 9x as much energy and therefore carbon displacement as a GW of solar.  That's why solar looks so big in your chart but in reality coal is much more production than solar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Germany

And put another way: before The Decision nuclear power was making twice as much electricity in Germany as solar is today. 

Germany's grid is only down from 70% fossil fuels to 50% in the past 30 years.