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Comment by zmb_ | Hacker News Reader

About 40% of energy production in Germany is still coal, and 15% nuclear. Nuclear will be shut down by 2022 and coal will be shut down more or less quickly depending on politics. This means that Germany will be looking for a replacement for over half of their energy production within the few next decades.

There is not enough hydroelectric capacity in Germany, so the only viable solution is gas -- in addition to lots of solar and wind. Hence Nord Stream 2. Germany wants to have multiple options for gas providers in order to negotiate good deals.

So yes, gas is definitely the future of German energy production, unless something completely unexpected happens.

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> There is not enough hydroelectric capacity in Germany

Build pumped storage plants in 1km succession along all the high Fall lines of the Mittelgebirge. Ideally right next to the Wind Turbines that are already there. Sure, it's only 50-300m of height, but in sum it will be enough.

Voith and Siemens will be more than happy to produce those Turbines.

Reducing energy consumption is also an option. Likely not the most popular one. But living in balance with the environment instead of a constant minus in energy resources should at least not be completely ignored. We don't need the amount of energy we use - it's just comfortable and nice.

Maybe France will build more nuclear plants and sell the power to Germany.

It currently looks rather that France is not going to build any more nuclear power plants but rather wants to extend their use of renewable energies - which are cheaper than new nuclear power plants.

Climate change is wreaking havoc on existing plants, too. The rivers they use to cool them are getting too warm and they're having to shut plants down over the summer (when they actually need the power).

It is rarely noted this downside of nuclear. Yes, they can produce electricity 24/7 at full power... until they don't. If there is a technical problem, they have to shut down. As you said, there are environmental conditions forcing them shut down. And if a nuclear power plant shuts down, typically a whole GW or more is dropped from the grid. France has recurrently shortages in electricity production, if too many nuclear power plants are off the grid. In the last winter, in Germany about 50% of the nuclear power plants were off grid for various reasons (mostly maintenance) too.

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