In the early to mid eighties, the world started pursuing solar and wind electricity generation to get away from the very polluting coal power generation which is still the most prominent form of power generation.
Right from the start, they knew that humans don't control the sun and the wind, and that peak energy demands were when the sun didn't shine and the wind wasn't at its strongest. As temperature gradients decrease at night, the wind usually subsides. They also knew that there was no way to store significant amounts of electricity—batteries have a puny energy density. Even now, petrol (gasoline) is 100 times more energy dense than lithium ion batteries.
To make matters worse, there had been a safe, clean form of electricity generation available since the early sixties. What's more, it generated electricity 24/7/365 in massive amounts. To make matters even worse, it's been calculated that nuclear derived electricity saved about 1.84 million lives and prevented the release of 64 gigatonnes of CO2.
Had the world pursued nuclear electricity generation for these almost 40 years (it's now July, 2022) as they have been pursuing wind and solar, most developed countries could have generated the overwhelming majority of their electricity needs from nuclear power. I'm talking 80% plus. Millions of people would not have died unnecessary early deaths and global warming would have been much less.
After relentlessly pursuing wind and solar electricity for 40 years, there's not one town on Earth with a population of 5,000 or more relying solely on them. That qualifies as a dismal failure.
The German case
By 2010, Germany had decided to go green in their electricity generation. This program is called Energiewende. Following Fukushima in 2011, Germany closed 8 of its 17 nuclear reactors. That made them more reliant on coal and increased not only CO2 production, but also deaths from coal power station pollution. They have approximately 1,100 excess deaths yearly due to shutting down their nuclear power plants. That means Germany's Energiewende costs more lives yearly than the combined death toll of Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Despite the many claims that renewable energy is cheap, Germany and Denmark, two of the most rabid followers of green power, have of the most expensive electricity in Europe. Here is more. If renewable energy is so cheap, why the high prices in places where it is most used?
The following is from Wikipedia: In 2014 Sigmar Gabriel, German minister of economic affairs and energy, lobbied Swedish company Vattenfall to continue investments in brown coal mines in Germany, explaining that "we cannot simultaneously quit nuclear energy and coal-based power generation". And then they wonder why hothouse gas production rose again and over a thousand extra people die each year.
The following is also from the Wikipedia Energiewende entry: In 2019, Germany's Federal Court of Auditors determined the program had cost €160 billion over the last 5 years and criticised the expenses for being "in extreme disproportion to the results". Despite widespread initial support, the program is perceived as "expensive, chaotic and unfair", and a "massive failure" as of 2019.
Following Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, many European countries face natural gas shortages, among them Germany. That made them fall back on coal again for electricity production. If they had nuclear energy, this would not have been the case. Here's what happened to electricity prices in Germany since Putin's invasion of the Ukraine. Thank Energiewende for these prices. Had they copious amounts of nuclear power...
Despite nuclear power stations closing, more electricity is generated from nuclear power than ever before. Read this interesting page on nuclear energy. Individual nuclear power stations now generate more power than ever before, which brings the total electricity generated by nuclear power to the highest levels ever. And many countries have made u-turns on their plans to shut down their nuclear power stations, and others are getting their first: Belarus, Bangladesh and Turkey are all constructing their first nuclear power plants.
Why the madness?
In two words: political correctness. Nuclear power generation is anathema to the libtard. It doesn't matter how many people die or if the Gulf Stream stops flowing and north-western Europe becomes bitterly cold—as cold as Canada at the same latitudes—as long as the principles of political correctness triumph.
Keep in mind that most people in all democratically elected governments, and nearly all in the media, are arts and humanities monkeys. They understand nothing except feelings and slogans. Reality and numbers are not on their radar. What is strange is that Angela Merkel, she has a doctorate in quantum chemistry, knowingly sold her country down the drain.
Political correctness has a price, a very high price, not only in monetary terms, but also in human lives. Self-government (such a politically-correct concept) in Africa has so far cost millions of lives, but who cares? Not your libtard. Earth can spiral into the sun, as long as political correctness is maintaned to the very end.
