You Can Now Buy 100 Per Cent Nuclear Energy - (Germany Doing Weird Things Again)

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

Date posted: 12/12/14

Dr. Conca reports that in Germany you can now go to a company called MAXATOMSTROM to purchase electricity that was produced completely from nuclear energy. Starting last week, MAXATOMSTROM offers a 100 per cent nuclear power plan, a first for Germany. Timed to coincide with the 20th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Lima, Peru, the new power plan consists solely of nuclear power, which leaves the smallest carbon footprint of any mix of sources, including renewables, which are load-followed by fossil fuel plants. According to Jan Pflug, MAXATOMSTROM spokesperson and a member of the Green party, the plan is also a way to protest against failed climate policies as well as the increase in coal use in Germany. Pflug indicated that global emissions are rising despite all the UN climate conferences. Germany, which is often touted as a role model, is a case in point. Currently, there are eight coal plants under construction or in development in Germany. Electricity generation from lignite is at its highest level since German reunification. This lignite is called brown coal because it is the dirtiest and lowest BTU burnable coal on the planet. Pflug attributes this use to the nuclear phase-out in 2011. Coal - Brown Coal - got a big boost from the nuclear phase-out. He claims that despite all claims to the contrary, they simply cannot quit both coal and nuclear at the same time. Plans for the future involve replacing all nuclear power with renewables, and old coal with new coal and natural gas. By 2030, the plan is for coal to be less than 20 per cent - down from 45 per cent today, gas to be 22 per cent - up from 10 per cent today, renewables to be 55 per cent - up from 24 per cent today, and others to be about 4 per cent. Nuclear would be zero. These are very ambitious goals. While renewables and nuclear have switched places since 2011. Coal has increased several percent since 2011, and gas has decreased the same amount. Sounds like a crazy plan.