By Kalte Sonne

By Dipl.-Phys Werner Köppen

Deception Maneuvers 1. The cause of the energy crisis

Robert Habeck has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of waging an economic war against Germany and Europe. “Russia has used gas and energy as weapons against Germany”

The facts:

Gas shortages and inflation are homemade and begin well before Russia’s invasion (see The Great Transformation 8.8.2.)

Green energy policy

# Green energy policy is not only the energy policy of the Green Party, but Angela Merkel has already made it a top priority and all parties except the AfD have made this policy their own.

# The coalition agreement of the “traffic light” states:

“The tightened 2030 climate target (…) requires (…) (also) the construction of modern gas-fired power plants (…) of now precisely 23 GW”

(Author: which corresponds to 40 to 50 power plants with a capacity of 500 MW/power plant.)

# The reason for this demand of the green energy policy for CO2-emitting power plants is the fact that a viable power supply with the renewable energies wind and sun only works in conjunction with conventional power plants (gas, coal).

The oil embargo

On the economic and financial sanctions package against Russia, Ms Baerbock announced in February this year. “This will ruin Russia.” The oil embargo against Russia at the beginning of June has had little effect there. Russia has greatly expanded its oil supplies to India and China and can thus compensate for the loss of EU supplies. For the first time in more than a year and a half, Russia has passed Saudi Arabia as China’s most important oil supplier. It was not until mid-June that Russia cut natural gas supplies by 40%, then by 60%

In summary, it must be said that the green-red energy policy of recent years, begun under Angela Merkel and continued by the Traffic Light Coalition, has abolished Germany’s energy security. Putin and the Ukraine conflict are blamed for the self-inflicted energy shortage and in order to “annoy Putin”, Robert Habeck recommends that Germans save energy, e.g. shower less, lower the room temperature, work more from home and drive less.

Although the further extension of the nuclear power plants would be possible, this is brazenly declared not feasible. Exploiting Germany’s natural gas reserves is rejected because the Greens are against fracking. The Nordstream 2 gas pipeline remains closed to punish Putin. So all possibilities to mitigate the consequences of the gas shortage are rejected by politicians at this time.

Deception 2

At the end of July, Russian gas supplies will be reduced to 20%. In the discussion about an extension of the deadline for the nuclear power plants, Robert Habeck and other Green politicians state “We have a heat problem, not an electricity problem”

Insertion: Electricity and heat are 2 manifestations of the same physical basic quantity, the energy and you can of course convert both forms of energy into each other: In China, nuclear energy is used to heat housing estates and in our neighbors in France, electric heaters in apartments are not uncommon. Now there has been a boom in the purchase of fan heaters in Germany and if they are all switched on during the cold winter, then Germany has a power problem

Even the Ministry of Economic Affairs is not quite sure that there is no electricity problem, because the State Secretary for Economic Affairs Patrick Graichen recommends that German companies buy emergency power generators in order to be prepared against possible power outages. Following calls for the continued operation of the German nuclear power plants still on the grid, the Federal Government has commissioned a further stress test for the German power grid under even stricter assumptions.

A first stress test in March had shown that the power supply in Germany is secured even in the event of an acute gas shortage. Based on this, the German government decided that it was not necessary to continue operating the three remaining nuclear power plants. What exactly is to be understood under the now even tightened conditions of the 2nd stress test is not clear, the results should be available in August. As far as the operational safety of the nuclear power plants is concerned, the TÜV has now determined that not only the Isar 2 plant in operation can run longer without any problems, even a reactivation of the decommissioned Gundremmingen nuclear power plant would be possible.

Claim: Nuclear power plants replace only about 1% of gas consumption

Longer operating times for nuclear power plants save at most one procedureof natural gas demand, claims Green Planet Energy, which is based on a study by the analysis institute Energy Brainpool. Green Planet Energy, formerly Greenpeace Energy, is a supplier of green electricity and is fighting against an extension of the lifetimes of nuclear power plants because they prevent the spread of electricity from renewable energies: “Longer-running nuclear reactors are harmful brake pads for the energy transition, because they block the feed-in of green electricity through their sluggish production method”.

Energy Brainpool carries out commissioned studies for the BMWK, Greenpeace and Die Grünen among others:

The author could not verify the 1% value with the data given, but received a value of about 4.5% and if one takes into account the efficiency of gas-fired power plants of close to 50%, then the energy supplied by the 3 nuclear power plants corresponds to about 8% of the gas consumption.

Some voices on the extension of the nuclear power plant deadline. Call for university professors:

“The call is a special feature: 20 professors from German universities, all renowned researchers from technological, scientific and economic fields, are calling on the Federal Government to reverse the nuclear phase-out. The petition is to be approved by the German Bundestag for the general public to sign. From 50,000 votes, the scientists are allowed to explain their demands in the Bundestag committee.”

Survey: Majority wants to extend the operating times of the three nuclear power plants

“According to a survey, a clear majority wants to extend the operating times of the three remaining nuclear power plants in view of Germany’s dependence on Russian energy imports .

70 percent of those surveyed are in favor of extending the term, according to a survey by the opinion research institute Civey.”

Internal language for the Green Party

The Greens are increasingly under pressure in the nuclear debate and their arguments are characterized by different statements. On this topic, Die Welt writes:

“In the internal e-mail, which is available to WELT, the Federal Office recommends a uniform language regulation and a certain procedure. This is in response to the fact that the nuclear debate is “still being upheld” in the media.

“As calm and concise as possible”

“Fundamentally important: We don’t let ourselves be driven by sham debates here. In the past, we have decided on the basis of facts and the state of affairs and continue to do so,” says the mail from Berlin. It is advised to “answer as calmly and concisely as possible.”;

Whatever the final recommendation of the Greens, the German citizen who is called upon to renounce (which does not help with regard to the “punishment of Putin” (see above) must be aware that parts of the Greens are consistently fighting for the implementation of their ideology, regardless of the consequences for the population.

About the author: Dipl.-Phys Werner Köppen, Space Research DFVLR, then responsible for research and development, marketing and service in the private sector.