Representatives of the 27 member states approved a package raising the current goal of 32% to 45% by 2030. About 22% of the EU’s total energy consumption came from renewables in 2021, meaning the new target will double the amount in less than a decade.
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.
What’s the deal with e-fuels? Did companies bastardize their legislation and make it so they can still pollute or something?
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.
Is that really a problem? if I run a generator off hydrogen that was produced as a biproduct of a nuclear reactor thats still green energy. It only produces water when burnt after all.
Agreement had been held up by France and several eastern European countries demanding that hydrogen produced with nuclear power should be counted toward renewable energy targets. The German government, which opposed this, said that will now not be the case, though there will “a bit more flexibility” on hydrogen targets for countries that meet their renewable energy goals.
I hate the German Greens. I hate the German Greens. I hate the German Greens.
This is especially ridiculous because nuclear reactors also produce heat that doesn’t become electricity, so it’s a good opportunity to do high-temperature electrolysis.