this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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German energy giant RWE has begun dismantling a wind farm to make way for a further expansion of an open-pit lignite coal mine in the western region of North Rhine Westphalia.

I thought renewables were cheaper than coal. How is this possible?

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 11 months ago (15 children)

It's about density. Renewables Are great, but not on terms of value add per square foot. The coal under the wind mill is worth orders of magnitude more than the windmill.

And, it's not as bad as it sounds. In general, the number of windmills keeps increasing.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (9 children)

If you care about energy density, nuclear is the best solution, not coal. I guess Germans don't care though

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Germans literally shut down all thier nuclear power in favour for coal power.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It was meant to be replaced by renewables but our minister of economics dumped the whole solar and wind turbine industry. Additionally his party made up bullshit rules about a minimum distance for turbines to households, which was apparently 10x of the reasonable distance and which made it very hard to find spots in densely populated Germany. And to this day, the federations with a renewable energy surplus have to pay more for electricity than those who give a shit about renewables. -it is discussed to be changed now but idk

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Hard not to believe in a conspiracy there

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