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Comment by tfourb | Hacker News Reader

I’m with you on the first paragraph, but in the second paragraph you may not be aware that Germany has a clear and legally binding roadmap to end coal mining. Could it be quicker? Sure. Would it have helped if nuclear power stations would have remained on the grid in Germany? marginally at best.

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It would have completely replaced coal this year.

Hard coal maybe, but not lignite:

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Economic-Sectors-Enterpris...

How? Coal accounted for 33.3% of electricity production in 2022. Nuclear power accounted for 13.3% of German electricity supply in 2021.

I haven't done the numbers, but there's also Russia's invasion of Ukraine to consider, and the shift from natural gas to coal triggered by that.

Germany's shutdown of their nuclear generating capacity, and their dependence on Russian natural gas was a major factor in the invasion, and hence Germany's necessity to shift back to coal.

Nuclear was being phased out for a little longer than 2 years now.

It was a stupid move, considering that Germany also pushed to classify gas power as "clean" in the EU.

The notion of having a "clear and legally binding roadmap to end coal mining" in 2038 is a total joke. The politicians got to issue some nice press releases but most of the hard choices were foisted onto their successors. I guarantee that the deadline will be extended and exceptions will be made. Germans will still be mining and burning coal in 2039.

This comment betrays complete ignorance over the legal framework that these agreements are situated in, Germany’s political economy, the future and present cost structure of coal mining and comparable precedents in Germany’s recent history (including the abolishment of both hard coal and nuclear power).

So the plan is to ship coal from Poland or somewhere farther away to keep burning it in Germany’s coal-powered power plants?

Germany is mining ~10% (10 megaton/years) more coal than Poland, but is much less reliant on it for electricity and is significantly ahead at switching to renewables.

Current law is that Germany has to stop burning (not just mining) coal by 2038.

The current government wants to push this date up to 2030 and is evaluating if and how that's even possible (https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/innenpolitik/vorgezogener-k...).

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