Gas prices - Where is gas still affordable?

Consumer advice centers are currently suing Tesla, among other things, because of the CO2 figures that are stated as zero. Tesla sells CO2 certificates allowing other companies to emit more. Do you mean this type of accounting?

For everyone logically evident, zero means net zero.

For this, Tesla sells CO2 certificates

This is a quandary that primarily has nothing to do with accounting, but solely with the sale of emission rights. So no, I mean accounting, not emission credit trading.

Realistically, we are allowing ourselves two parallel power generation systems: the "renewables" and the fossil reserve. Since the output of the "renewables" can drop to 0.0 kWh during the famous dark doldrums, the fossil backup system must be able to cover 100% of the demand, so it would actually be sufficient for the entire electricity demand. This actually makes it clear that the "renewables" are completely unnecessary.

And the electricity demand is always the same? No, it is not. Less electricity is consumed at night. I once read that the day with the highest electricity consumption was a very hot summer day. Many air conditioners are running then. But: there is also plenty of solar power. So you don’t have to maintain the maximum demand.

The outcry that renewables are unnecessary completely ignores climate change. Don’t you believe in it? Somewhere at the beginning someone wrote, "a gas that makes up 0.04%"—well, that may not sound like much. The fact is: that is 50% higher (!) than in pre-industrial times. Sounds more impressive, right? And this increase has been caused by humans. No one claimed that renewables are cheaper. But maybe then the planet will still be habitable for our children. So I would really care about that. Because I have some!

You also need sensible storage options for the renewables. It doesn't have to be just batteries. Why not produce hydrogen or better methane from excess renewables? You could also continue to use the gas infrastructure for that. It is technically possible! What it costs is another question. Today, wind and solar power are sometimes curtailed.

And about biogas: a very significant part of the land is used to grow animal feed. That will also decrease with declining meat consumption. You can't grow wheat year in, year out, which is by far the most important bread grain. Instead of animal feed, energy crops and biomass for biogas plants could be grown (of course adapted to the region, specifically what). Naturally, there must still be a net energy gain compared to production. As far as I understand, biogas has also been politically deliberately restricted. There is certainly still potential there.

Conclusion: Anyone who does not believe at all that a 50% increase in the CO2 content of the atmosphere by humans has influenced the climate will not be convinced. They believe we can just keep burning fossil fuels forever and everything will be fine.

And for everyone else, all one can say is: let’s do something. Renewables are by no means superfluous. Quite the opposite! Technically everything that is needed already exists today, without nuclear power, by the way. We just have to want it and implement it!

And the eternal whining "but what’s the point, others aren’t joining in" — someone has to start! Michael Jackson already knew: "I'm starting with the man in the mirror..." Recently there was an encouraging article in a magazine that you might also want to hang on the wall. Five things that can give courage that things are indeed progressing elsewhere in the world. We are by no means as alone in Germany as it is always portrayed.

We are by no means as alone in Germany as it is always portrayed.

I think that is a very important sentence. It is about much more than just saving renewable energy and gas. In Africa, a counter-movement against plastic and Styrofoam is beginning, in France supermarkets are not allowed to throw away food, in the Netherlands only 100km/h is driven on the highway, in Copenhagen the modal split in mobility is 43/35/22. More than half of the movements are not done with the individual car. There are 1000 examples elsewhere where it is being contributed that we handle resources more carefully. I know of no initiative from Germany on a broad front that could take a pioneering role. It is not only wrong to think we are "the only ones who want to do something," but we are just before the last place.

There are also positive examples in Germany, just google Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis and Energiewende. There was a report in an online magazine yesterday, but you get more data through reports that you find using those search terms.