Burning More Coal Due To Shutting Down Nuclear Plants

The environmental movement in Germany is so deeply brainwashed that its members fail to realize that shutting down nuclear plants leads to burning more coal. The naive assumption of the Greens that nuclear plants can be replaced via clean energy sources is ridiculously misguided. In reality, coal will be a primary source for electricity if Germany goes ahead with its plans to shut down all its nuclear plants.  The Germans are building over 20 coal-fired power plants to offset the shut down of nuclear power. Thus, shutting down nuclear plants increases air pollution and CO2 emissions. Some researchers even judge that the soot from burning coal is a bigger factor in the increased arctic temperatures than are CO2 emissions.

Germany drew some 20 percent of its total power from wind, water, solar and thermal energy sources in 2011. Even at this level there were increased costs as well as huge problems distributing power from the windy northern sections of Germany to the southern part of the county. On particularly windy days, some wind turbines had to be switched off because the current network cannot cope with the quantity of wind power being generated. It will require years, if not decades, to get all the permits required to build new power lines across the country that would make the goal of 50% of electricity from renewables feasible. 

Germany has already experienced a 10% increase in the cost of electricity. The costs will sky rocket if they close all their nuclear plants, as the country will go from being an exporter of electricity to being an importer. In addition to the increased number of coal fired plants within Germany, some of the imported energy will come from coal fired plants outside of German borders. Further, the intermittent nature of wind power requires wildly expensive backup power plants being built to fill in the gaps during periods of light wind, making significant increases in wind energy a form of economic suicide for Germany's energy intensive manufacturers.

Thus, the anti-nuke Greens in Germany are leading to increased soot and CO2 emissions due to forcing the country's utilities to burn more coal.