Exit from nuclear power, coal, raw materials (Fritz Vahrenholt) Germany

Link: http://www.kaltesonne.de/fitz-vahrenholt-ausstieg-aus-kernenergie-kohle-undder-grundstoffindustrie-wie-sich-eine-fuhrende-industrienation-ab/ Please see link above for original text, embedded hotlinks and comments. This is a computer translation from German with a few modifications for better readability. See translate.google.com.

Speech by Fritz Vahrhenholt at the symposium "Energy and Raw Materials - Future with Opportunities and Risks" on May 31, 2018 at the Technical University of Clausthal Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt

Exit from nuclear energy, coal and the basic industries - how a leading industrial nation is abandoning these essential industries What was demanded in the Green Party program in 1986, the abolition of the nuclear industry, the automotive industry and parts of the chemical industry, has long since become consensus in the middle of society. How could that succeed? With apocalyptic horror scenarios, the cleavage of the atom, as well as the slight increase of the vital molecule CO2 in the atmosphere, become ciphers of disaster. A warming caused by predominantly natural processes is abused for the great transformation of society. Can we rationalize this self-destructive development again?

Let's face it: anti-industrialism in Germany is well advanced. We love innovative products like IPhone, solar cells or flat screens. The value chains but from the extraction of raw materials on metal production to industrial production are rather anathema to politics and the public. Fighting hunger in the world, but not with genetic engineering, mobility yes, but without combustion engines, growing power consumption for mobile phones and laptops, but not from coal and nuclear energy.

It would be nice if the satisfaction of our needs through light and air, without interfering with the natural balance, could best be done without effort. This trail into the backwardlooking idyll leads directly to the loss of competitiveness, to the loss of the extraordinarily high level of prosperity we have achieved through technological advances and innovation. In the age of globalization, this wealth dividend is melting in the OECD countries, as is Germany. Workers in Germany compete with workers in Southeast Asia - without technological advantage, this competition is lost.

The departure of German society from industry can shed light on the foundations of every industrial society, namely energy production. The German energy transition is an 1

imminent disaster. After the nuclear phase-out, the next step is now: the decarbonisation of the German energy supply and, incidentally, the transport sector as well. According to the German Climate Protection Plan, by 2050 80 to 95% of the total energy supply will come from renewable energies.

We have set up 30,000 wind turbines, without knowing where we get the power in calm weather. We also do not know what to do with the surplus electricity when there is strong wind and 56,000 MW push into the grid. Then we give away the electricity to our neighboring countries at negative prices or we turn off the wind turbines and pay as if they had produced. That adds up to 1 billion a year. And the total energy transition costs more than 25 billion a year, by 2025 520 billion.

Today we already have the second highest electricity prices in Europe. Private households and the non-repayment industrial companies as well as trade pay the bill. In the meantime, we see that new industrial investments are not being made in this country. In view of the electricity prices driven up by the renewables, the battery factory planned by Groko will become a mirage or another billions of graves. You do not invest in a country where you do not know where energy prices are going.

But the majority of the population supports this development. It was the UN, parts of science, politics, the media managed to simplify the complex climate matter public appeal: the CO2 determines our climate. That the climate has fluctuated even without CO2, that in the last 20 years, only a slight warming has taken place, so in a time when CO2 emissions have doubled, has natural causes. That until the year 2000, the temperatures have risen sharply but also! Much of this warming is attributed to the natural cycles of the Atlantic. We forget that in the medieval warming period 1000 years ago the temperatures were at least as high as today. And we forget that the temperature increase of the last 150 years has had its main cause in that we come from a small ice age. The small ice age is the measure of the climate alarmists, which they invest in the warming of today. If the temperature development of the next few years continues to stagnate or even cool, then there would be a chance to cool down the hysteria.

Now, if I tell you that every year thousands of birds of prey and hundreds of thousands of strictly protected bats are killed by wind turbines, then you may be wondering, why are we doing it all? The greatest destruction of nature in Germany after World War II is not coal or nuclear energy but green, renewable energies. The plan of the federal government is to triple the wind energy capacity by 2050, 1 for every 2.6 km a facility.

Prof. HĂźttl has just spoken of five to seven times the capacity - a wind turbine every 1.5 to 2 km!

Why are we destroying our homeland? Because the apologists of anti-industrialism managed to spread fear. Only with doomsday scenarios can it be possible to bring down the German automotive industry. And besides, we are doing fine, very well even, despite nuclear exit, despite coal exit, despite energy price explosion. And, in particular, we Germans have the penchant to save the world after we brought about unmitigated misfortunes in the 20th century.

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The bad thing is that we do not expect any innovations from future generations, no coalfired power plants with CCS, no gas-fired power plants, no fusion technology, no inherently safe nuclear power plants - but politicians want to dictate the challenges of the future with silly wind power technology from the last century. Maybe after all, the onset of profound financial crises and the resulting loss of wealth are will help us stop destroying that which created our wealth. We must return to what has led to this prosperity: openness to innovation.

I don’t have much hope.

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A beautiful, pastoral German countryside and village between Kassel and Frankfurt in 1962 before construction of tens of thousands of gigantic wind turbines.

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