Eduardo Porter, of the NY Times, asks the question ... Is the global effort to combat climate change, painstakingly agreed to in Paris seven months ago, already going off the rails? He reports that Germany, Europe champion for renewable energy, seems to be having second thoughts about its ambitious push to ramp up its use of renewable fuels for power generation (in place of their existing nuclear power). Hoping to slow the burst of new renewable energy on its grid, the country eliminated an open-ended subsidy for solar and wind power and put a ceiling on additional renewable capacity. Germany may also drop a timetable to end coal-fired generation, which still accounts for over 40% of its electricity, according to a report leaked from the German environment ministry. Instead, the government will pay billions to keep coal generators in reserve, to provide emergency power at times when the wind does not blow or the sun does not shine, which happens in Germany. Renewables have hit a snag beyond Germany, too. Renewable sources are producing temporary power gluts from Australia to California, driving out other energy sources that are still necessary to maintain a stable supply of power. In Southern Australia, where wind supplies more than a quarter of the regional power, the spiking prices of electricity when the wind was not blowing full-bore pushed the state government to ask the power company Engie to switch back on a gas plants that had been shut down. But in what may be the most worrisome development in the combat against climate change, renewables are helping to push nuclear power, the main source of zero-carbon electricity in the U.S. into bankruptcy, and indeed the world, would do well to reconsider the promise and the limitations of its infatuation with renewable energy. The economics of nuclear energy are mostly to blame. It just cannot compete with cheap natural gas. Most reactors in the country are losing between $5 and $15 per megawatt-hour. Read on.
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