Does renewables pioneer Germany risk running out of power?
Let’s make a crazy prediction for Germany. Things will come to a head there. Fanatical greens will stop anything that actually is capable to stave off a disaster. What will that look like? Blackouts and brownouts. Rationing of energy. Germans will start to buy backup generators for the backyard in order to be safe. Air pollution will be unprecedented as those small machines are not very efficient or clean. Prices will skyrocket and the German disaster will spill over into neighboring states that will cut ties in order to stop contagion. At some point, Germans will have enough ad vote all those fanatics out of power. Any political party that ever mentions anything like renewables again will be relegated to the dustbin of history. Suddenly there will be studies that say this was all a hoax. It will be blamed on Merkel and Germany will become the first post-renewables country and build new nuclear power stations. Not for tomorrow but we don’t have to wait forever anymore.
Germany, a poster child for responsible energy, is renouncing nuclear and coal. The problem is, say many power producers and grid operators, it may struggle to keep the lights on.
