No, it’s going down. There was a sharp decline in 2019, in 2020 it was even lower due to the pandemic and then went up again to the level of around 2019. 2022 was a little worse because of lower gas consumption due to the war in Ukraine, gas was partially replaced with coal. The last nuclear power plants were shut down in April 2023, yet 2023 also saw lower coal consumption than even in 2020, which strongly suggests that nuclear isn’t replaced by coal.
Well, if we look at nuclear and gas we can also see that nuclear wasn’t replaced by gas in Germany. Gas and nuclear have very different purposes in the grid, on can be spun up almost on demand the other can’t. Anyway, at least in Germany there is no nuclear power anymore so arguing that something else should be phased out first is pointless, and saying that nuclear was replaced by coal or gas is spreading fakenews.
realitista@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Shutting down a nuclear plant while keeping coal ones open is replacing nuclear with coal.
zaphod@sopuli.xyz 7 months ago
No, it’s going down. There was a sharp decline in 2019, in 2020 it was even lower due to the pandemic and then went up again to the level of around 2019. 2022 was a little worse because of lower gas consumption due to the war in Ukraine, gas was partially replaced with coal. The last nuclear power plants were shut down in April 2023, yet 2023 also saw lower coal consumption than even in 2020, which strongly suggests that nuclear isn’t replaced by coal.
realitista@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Honestly even gas should be phased out before nuclear.
zaphod@sopuli.xyz 7 months ago
Well, if we look at nuclear and gas we can also see that nuclear wasn’t replaced by gas in Germany. Gas and nuclear have very different purposes in the grid, on can be spun up almost on demand the other can’t. Anyway, at least in Germany there is no nuclear power anymore so arguing that something else should be phased out first is pointless, and saying that nuclear was replaced by coal or gas is spreading fakenews.