Germany to phase out nuclear by 2022

This isn't the first time they've said this (the last was before the commodity boom), but

Germany will shut down all its nuclear plants by 2022, and eight reactors shut down after Japan's nuclear disaster in March won't be reactivated, the government announced Monday.

I'm generally bullish on nuclear power compared to other power sources (especially those which are currently baseload capable), so I'm sad to see this. And as a colleague of mine noted, the Russians must be grinning with glee that their geopolitical leverage and economic profits from natural gas will return with a vengeance.

Chart of the Day 2: PV solar by country

From Climate Progress. Amply demonstrates the power of subsidies. I also can't help but notice that Joe Romm appears to have ripped off Thomas Friedman's punch line:

JR: Well, conservatives must love importing oil from Saudi Arabia, since they’ve blocked every effort to promote efficiency and alternatives, so I guess they will love importing solar panels.

More geothermal problems

September hasn't been kind to geothermal power - first the AltaRock shutdown, then this:

Government officials here are reviewing the safety of a geothermal energy project that scientists say set off an earthquake in mid-August, shaking buildings and frightening many residents of [Landau, Germany].

Like other earthquakes that have been attributed to geothermal plants, the Landau temblor was sudden and brief and was accompanied by a sound that in some cases has been likened to a sonic boom. There were no injuries and there was no known structural damage to buildings in the city. But the 2.7 magnitude quake has stoked fears and set off debate in the state Parliament, which subsidized the construction of the plant, about the method’s safety.

At this rate, reputational obstacles may soon surmount (considerable!) practical ones:

But some experts in the field say they worry that projects like the one in Germany, if the managers deny responsibility for inducing earthquakes or play down the effects on people’s lives, could damage the reputation of geothermal energy, even in highly environmentally conscious areas of the world like California or Western Europe.

And these assets aren't even running yet; once they are the economics are pretty good, but the risk-return ratio is not very attractive for anyone considering a project from scratch.

German solar power

Via FP Passport, last Thursday was a big day for solar power in Germany:

This week, two of Germany's most important solar energy projects came online -- the second biggest solar power project in the world and one of the first solar thermal "power towers." The projects are part of the country's plan to provide 20 percent of its energy through renewable sources.

Officials flicked on the switch at two of Germany's most important new solar energy sites on Thursday.

The irony, of course, is that Germany isn't very sunny. And for a while their government incentives were so high that they drove up the price of silicon around the world, worsening the economics of solar power for sunnier, poorer countries.

Now, of course, Germany is driving an massively ambitious new solar project a bit further south. The NYTimes recently enumerated the "numerous pitfalls":

...Maghreb politics, Saharan sandstorms and the risk to desert populations if their water is diverted to clean dust off solar mirrors.

but at least someone is trying to bring online solar power from a more natural location.

Sequestering carbon... in the atmosphere

What happens when you build a coal carbon capture and storage (CCS) and then can't get a permit to store the carbon? You pump that carbon into the atmosphere, of course.