Germany dismantles a wind farm to expand a coal mine

For years, Americans endured smug lectures from liberal legislators and renewable energy boosters about the virtue and wisdom of Germany’s energy “transition” that consisted of heavily subsidizing wind and solar, shutting down coal and nuclear plants, and buying Russian natural gas.

Folks like myself warned that this strategy was incredibly foolish and would lead to disaster. That’s exactly what has happened. Russia has cut off the natural gas needed to power the grid when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing hard enough.

Now, Germany is so desperate for electricity that they are destroying wind turbines to expand coal mines to power the coal-fired power plants that remain on their grid.

The Tweeter above makes some interesting points, but the German government did not give in to the demands of the fossil fuel industry, they gave into reality.

Despite the fact that there is far more installed wind and solar capacity in Germany than coal capacity, generation from these weather-dependent resources is often lower than the output of the coal plants.

Traditionally, this would leave Germany more reliant upon Vladimir Putin’s natural gas. Today, it means they are tearing down a wind facility to make way for mining more brown coal.

Somewhere, Donald Trump is smiling.