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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[–] A2PKXG@feddit.de 54 points 1 year ago (16 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.

[–] UlrikHD@programming.dev 30 points 1 year ago (10 children)

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

[–] Hyperi0n@lemmy.film 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

[–] mineapple@feddit.de 16 points 1 year 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

[–] mineapple@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hard not to believe in a conspiracy there

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What conspiracy? Sounds like just savage profit maximization.

[–] p1mrx@sh.itjust.works -3 points 1 year ago

It'll be fine, they can just buy nuclear power from France and Sweden.

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