Money talks: May 30th 2011

True dedected. I think so.
Browse porno

Hi all,

before you continue to talk nuts about Germany's changing energy supply just checked from time to time the following www pages:

(1) EEX (stock market on energy prices and energy provision by renewables)
http://www.transparency.eex.com/de/

(2) Register on the installation and production of renewable energy from all (850.000) individals plants in Germany
http://www.energymap.info/energieregionen.html
(data are from fall 2010 but regularily being updated)

(3) Annual inventory of production and costs of renewables in Germany
http://www.eeg-kwk.net/de/EEG_Jahresabrechnungen.htm

(4) Energy production by PV in Germany online data
http://www.sma.de/de/news-infos/pv-leistung-in-deutschland.html

In fact I produce my own electrity (costs 16 cent/kWh (EBIT) which is cheaper than electricity - 24 cent/kWh - bought from the local provider) as well as the heat on the roof, which supports a well insulated 4 family home. So what is then for consumers the reasoning of continuing the dependency of energy provision served by the big players in the game, which are known to cause adverse negative side effects on the environment (look into the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico), climate (c.f. inspect the decaying ice shields), economy (look on Japan), risks (look on Libya) et cetera.

So in Germany we are not in panic about nuclear power, but probably smarter in developing new techniques, using them, and taking the profits of selling them.

A frenetic green guy (and climatologist from profession) for more than 30 years.

Hi,

Thanks for this article, but I would to correct several mistakes made in the "ministries of fun" part.
A commite d'entreprise (CE), has actually 2 main activities:
- The representation, mandatory when the company has more than 50 employees, is responsible to organize the communication with the management. Every element that impact the employee working environment is supposed to be discuss at the CE including salary, building, safety, lay-off ... The CE is also in charge to manage the money paid by the company to the social housing, and give priority to social housing to the company's employees. For its spending (trip, admin ...) then CE receive 0.2% of the global salary mass.
- The social activities. That's the part this article is about. The social activities are an optional part of the CE (not mandatory by law). The budget of this social activity is between 0 to 5% of the salary mass, in average in France the budget is about 1 o 1.5%.

The 2 examples given in this article are 2 aberrations of the system that reach 4 to 5% of the global salary mass. These aberrations were put in place when these companies were still managed by the government, in order to prevent employees to move to the private sector, without providing salary increases. Even if these examples are terrible, I do not think they are giving justice to the general work the CEs are doing in France. Not that they are perfect, I was very annoyed by how the unions have the priority and how they take advantage of it push their own interest, but nothing that a good vote can not take care of.

In short, CEs are not really the ministries of fun, the social activity is not required by law, but decided by the management, and the budget you were talking about are misrepresenting the reality.

This was a disappointingly poor summary of the decision in Germany to bring forward the shutdown of nuclear power.

Firstly, it is essentially a climbdown of the government in reversing the decision last year to extend the lifetime of nuclear plants from 2021 (as agreed in the law from 2000) to 2034. Fukushima was the fig-leaf for this but the law was likely not to survive the number of challenges to it in the court. So much so in fact that the Environment Minister had publicly stated this last year. Of course, changing the law twice in one year is an invitation to legal challenge.

Secondly, the costs of nuclear energy do not stop once the plants have been built. The costs of decommissioning, disposal and storage of nuclear waste are arguably far higher. Indeed the storage costs are currently incalculable. Fortunately, the law has seen fit to absolve the power generators from the responsibility of dealing with the waste, although there has been an attempt to price in the cleaning up of one dump.

Thirdly, nuclear and renewables do not make particularly good bed fellows. I thought this point had already been made in The Economist? Both essentially target the base load and require quick fire, ie. gas plants to cope with peak demand.

Fourthly, parts of Germany are actually very sunny - the area south of the Main is considered similar to the area south of the Loire in France as suitable for solar generation but there are plenty of places further north that are at least suitable for solar thermal generation.

Fifthly, the problem of storage for renewables for those "cold, overcast winter days" has essentially been solved according to the Fraunhofer Institute - make gas from water and carbon dioxide when producing more than load.

Sixthly, the current drought is increasing the likelihood of plants being shutdown due to the unavailability of water for cooling. Given the reliance on nuclear this is currently the biggest risk in terms of blackout and something the French are starting to get really worried about.

The move to renewables with certainy not be smooth and power will almost certainly get more expensive. However, any observer of German industrial policy should have seen the signs - the volte face by the car companies who have suddenly discovered electric cars will be another welcome source of investment for the infrastructure needed for the efficient distribution and storage of power across the country.