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‘If 1.5m Germans have them there must be something in it’: how balcony solar is taking off
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
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Germans also have 7 times the power bill
nb4 someone laughs at us Germans for pulling out of nuclear power: No, nuclear is not cheap. It's literally the most expensive way to generate electricity. Solar is cheap and better for the environment.
Nuclear is cheaper than your average electricity cost.
I know because I'm Swedish and you use us as your cheap electricity.
Source?
Beats coal anytime. Or Russian gas.
I obviously don't consider fossil fuels as an option. And I do doubt that it's cheaper to build a nuclear plant compared do building a coal or gas fired one.
Nuclear is reliable, predictable and stable 24/7 source. Solar not so much and possibly not that great for the environment if we don't figure out what to do with used solar panels. Also their production is not exactly clean. Whereas nuclear requires a wasted fuel storage somewhere and the fuel will eventually run out of radiation in some hundreds of thousands years.
Storing something extremely dangerous extremely safely for "some hundreds of thousands of years" doesn't exactly sound cheap, does it?
Not that expensive either. And that's already included in the energy price. Also volume is magnitudes smaller than used solar panels.
French electricity enters the chat.
French electricity leaves the chat in summer when their plants need to be shut down because the rivers are too warm or don't carry enough water in the first place. And that's nothing to say what they will do in the next decade years when a good portion of their reactors should be commissioned out.
I blame Bavaria. If Germany had multiple price zones like other European countries instead of one giant one prices would plummet here in the north, while they'd explode in Bavaria. The state that does not want wind power, does want nuclear power, but already knows ahead of time that its geology (with lots of mountains and granite) is unsuitable for nuclear waste storage. Meanwhile, north German wind power and Scandinavian hydro dams complement each other perfectly. The Bavarians could do the same with the Austrians, they just don't. They want to eat cake and have it, too.
Am Bavarian can confirm. The CSU has been in power this state since forever. Especially old people just keep voting for them cause it's the way it always was. They had to form a coalition after the last elections. Their partner is essentially the exact same party but even more right wing. Not even kidding, I could not name a single area where they differ other than their main guy apparently handed out nazi newspapers in his younger years or smth. He blamed it on his brother and then the scandal just died off.
Those small balcony systems pay for them here in Germany at ~35 Cents/kWh in a few months. Even if your power bill is 7x cheaper, they will pay for themselves easily.