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.

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?

  • UlrikHD@programming.dev
    357·
    1 year ago

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

    • Hyperi0n@lemmy.filmEnglish
      2710·
      1 year ago

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

      • mineapple@feddit.de
        15·
        1 year ago

        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

      • p1mrx
        14·
        1 year ago

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

    • Caveman@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      That’s true, although I think they decided on coal since it’s cheaper financially (not ecologically and healthwise of course).

      It would make sense to just simply move them but the fact that they want to burn coal is just weird.

      • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
        3·
        1 year ago

        So that means it will not be cheaper in the medium to long term. Since they will have to deal with the burden on their healthcare system, especially among their ageing population. Plus the scummy carbon offset trades that they have to wiggle themselves into.

        • Caveman@lemmy.world
          2·
          1 year ago

          Exactly, I prefer gas and oil to coal any day but that’s only because the “better than coal” bar is incredibly low.

    • A2PKXG@feddit.deEnglish
      52·
      1 year ago

      I didn’t say density is the paramount parameter. Also, once you optimize one drawback, it generally gets less important.

      I just wanted to put the image into context, and show that it isn’t a big step backwards, just sideways perhaps. Or in other words, a sigle wind farm isn’t relevant, the sum is