The upcoming elections in Hessen state (27 January) was part of my recent joint diary with nanne. In a comment, nanne even quoted an article comparing the race to the French elections, with utter asshole PM Roland Koch as Sarko and local SPD leader Andrea Ypsilanti as Ségo.
Now former federal economy minister Wolfgang Clement, SPD/coal lobby, wrote an op-ed attacking Ypsilanti's energy policy (one involving no new coal and nuclear, only renewables) as a recipe for the destruction of Hessen's industry... *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
Her. I hate Indo-European... *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
Welt Online: Clement warnt vor Wahl von Andrea Ypsilanti.
Now former federal economy minister Wolfgang Clement, SPD/coal lobby, wrote an op-ed attacking Ypsilanti's energy policy (one involving no new coal and nuclear, only renewables) as a recipe for the destruction of Hessen's industry...
"In a Radio 4 Interview (P.M 8th January) Grimston repeated the misleading base load argument and went on to wrongly imply the use of inter connectors to other electricity grids to bring in "base load power" as advocated by renewables promoters demonstrates that inter connectors imply nuclear - citing the fact that we already import power from all-nuclear France. Again a misleading conclusion - the inter connectors and others planned from Yorkshire to Norway and UK to Holland can equally well bring in and balance renewable power. In fact France often imports power from us when it's nuclear capacity is short.
What he also failed to say is that nuclear is so inflexible that at night the French reactors, which can't be readily switched off, must export surplus power to neighbouring European countries like UK, Germany and Belgium to keep the lights on. He also failed to mention the 3000 x 1.6 MW emergency diesel generators in private hands in France that operate alongside the special EJP tariff that encourages consumers to switch off their demand from the French grid when it's nuclear power stations are unavailable. Even the Giant CERN nuclear particle accelerator is influenced to do this."
I probably should put this back in the right thread below, but i was moved to answer Starvid strongly. If anyone is interested, read below. Skennah Kowa
The only useful things here are gas and hydro, and industrial demand reduction.
The French do regulate the output level of their reactors, but this isn't a very good thing to do, not from a financial point of view (compared to running 24/7 provided someone want to buy the power) and probably not from a materials point either. The reason they do it is because it's better to do it than to just waste the surplus power.
But exporting power at night is a great idea which shouldn't be demonized. The French sell power to someone with plenty of "regulation power", eg Switzerland, who can buy it cheap and conserve water in their hydro dams, water which they can use at day instead, maximisising their profits, the French profits and also minimizing the price of electrcity for consumers. It's a win-win situation, which is why it's done.
The same thing is done by the Danes, who have plenty of an even less flexible power source than nuclear, that is wind. Most of the time, the wind is not blowing and power is flowing to Denmark from the Norwegian and Swedish hydroplants and the Swedish nukes. When the wind does blow, power flows in the opposite direction, shutting down the Scandinavian hydroplants, making it possible for them to supply power at other, more profitable times. It works very well.
By the way, in spite of those small scale distributed generators, the French have the lowest CO2 emissions per kWh in Europe, after Sweden. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
