Krazy Krauts. Japan sits on the junction of several major tectonic plates and is famous for its geological instability - you don't need to be a geophysicist to figure out why nuclear power isn't such a great idea in a country like that. Germany, on the other hand, sits comfortably over the Eurasian plate and is relatively geologically stable.

Thanks to an irrational kneejerk reaction to the Fukushima disaster, Germany now a) doesn't have enough power - and the German winter is cold enough that some poor buggers will probably end up freezing to death; b) will move away from nuclear to the less ecologically sound alternative of coal burning and c) will pay a lot more for its energy. So much for the idea that the Germans are a sensible lot...

Dear Twerps and Nongs

But isn't there a remote chance that Germany can convert dirty coal fired exhaust into carbon captured poison gas (being a German specialty)?

Germany's final (environmental) solution will therefore be almost as illogical as Gillard's carbon scheme - wherein we the poor taxpayers will support environmental profittering by 500 of Australia's largest polluting companies.

Only twerps and nongs would fail to understand the logic of Gillard's Green forced carbon tax to justify rises in energy prices by big business....

Pete

The Germans are setting themselves up for mass humiliation if this experiment backfires. Conceivably they could get a worst of both worlds outcome whereby they have both lower GDP and higher emissions. They seem somewhat loopy on two fronts; firstly despite some 20,000 tsunami deaths nobody at Fukushima got a fatal dose of radiation and secondly by building new coal plants while espousing green ideals. If at the same time they want to bail out Greece and Italy and compensate nuclear generators they may have bitten off more than they can chew. It's hard to see how this can end well.

As other posters have noted, the German government has been stampeded into a solving a problem that exists in Japan, not Germany. How many of the nuclear plants in Germany are like to get hit with a tsunami? And by closing the plants Merkel has guaranteed an increase in the emmisions which the green groups are lobbying to avoid.

This is momumentally bad policy on the part of the German government.

It is fascinating to watch the different reactions to Fukushima in UK and Germany. Never did I expect to see Germany behave in a ludicrous way whilst UK (possible exception of Scotland) acted sensibly. After the Japanese disaster (the tsunami and earthquake, not the nuclear incident which killed nobody) the UK government set up a scientific inquiry as to whether they should go ahead with building the 9 or 10 new nuclear stations that were planned.
Boffins said that because UK does not have earthquakes of any great magnitude and no tsunamis the construction should proceed. When that decision was read out on the House of Commons the government - Conservativ - said so we go ahead. Minister sat down, up gets shadow Minister - Labour - and said yes, absolutely, go ahead. Even the one Green, who of course comes from a wealthy seaside area on the South Coast, said go ahead so long as it does not require subsidy.
Merkel has been a big disappointment in many ways, her moronic performance, albeit politically popular, will cost Germany dear in the future.

You had better have another look at wherever you are getting your info from. My info is the reactor that is shut down now will not be restarted, and replaced with alt; renewable energy. All reactors will be shut down by 2022, and replaced with alt renewable energy. There is no mention of burning coal for power.

579,

"My info is the reactor that is shut down now will not be restarted, and replaced with alt; renewable energy. All reactors will be shut down by 2022, and replaced with alt renewable energy. There is no mention of burning coal for power."

That should be very amusing for the rest of us. Without coal or nuclear, they're going to run into some serious problems generating baseload power. It won't be so amusing for the Germans suffering constant blackouts. How appropriate that 'schadenfreude' is a German word.

579
Pardon me, but where have you been? Renewable energy is no where near developed enough to take over from nuclear or fossil fuel plants as such. It may be possible that they can reduce the operating time for those conventional plants, and that may save carbon, but that's about it. There has been talk of solar plants becoming reliable enough to develop base load power, but if you look again at the example always cited, a unit in Spain, its a pilot plant which the owners hope may work for 20 hours a day most days.

So if you want to include lots of renewables you have to design the network so that it can accommodate the intermittent nature of renewables. Nuclear plants are specifically base load. Varying their output once they are up and running is very difficult. Germany will have to replae them with conventional plants. They have no choice in the matter. That's why the decision is basically insane.

It is actually a bit of a joke. With the Greens holding the balance of power, Angela was forced into making this promise, with no action for a few years.

In a few years, the Greens will probably no longer hold the balance of power and this stupid promise can quietly be ditched, or postponed for a century or two.

Plantaganet, you haven't got the idea yet. The carbon tax is not about emissions, it is an excuse for raising enormous amounts of revenue with a new tax which avoids the odium of having to raise any of the old ones.

Renewable energy is a joke, to be fussed over by the chardonnay socialists. Just look at the costs (from the SMH):

Thorium nuclear about $50 per Mwh

Coal fired $79 per Mwh

Gas fired $97 per Mwh

Wind power $1400 per Mwh

Solar power $4000 per Mwh

Better to just turn off the electric heater and put on a jumper. I have used wood fires all winter, with no regard for CO2 emissions. The Chinese are developing thorium power at the moment after the yanks developed it in the seventies and then dropped it, as it didn't produce enough plutonium for their nuclear weapons.

Thanks Plerdsus

The Indians also are looking into thorium power - which may become a reality, in say 50 years, at present rate of international "progress"...

Meanwhile how does eveyone from Brisbane upward avoid getting heatstroke?

Put another way - jumpers are fine for the cold (where I also live) but how do the hot miners (and family) on which Australia relies stay cool?

Perhaps the starving billions could become Australia's first punkah wallahs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punkawallah - those that operate fans 'manually" with there hands or feet?

Planta

A bit of a mixed bag on the detail on new German Coal fired plants.
Some claims that they replace older plants with higher levels of CO2 output (but I'm not convinced). A fair bit of indication that they will need the plants to pick up slack from shutting down nuclear.

http://www.celsias.com/article/germanys-greens-criticise-government-over-new-coal/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304259304576375154034042070.html

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110713-36277.html

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,472786,00.html

R0bert