German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected calls to bring forward the country’s exit date for coal in power generation, currently set at 2038. “Those affected need some reliability on the path to climate neutrality,” said Merkel. “I don’t want to unravel this _…

https://www.netzerowatch.com/german-chancellor-angela-merkel-coal-exit-2038/

Germany had to turn to coal this past winter when freezing temperatures made its solar and wind units inoperable and it plans to import from neighboring countries to back-up its renewable electricity in the future. Germany’s millions of solar panels _…

https://www.netzerowatch.com/coal-rescues-germany-from-its-renewable-energy-folly/

With Germany facing the possibility of its worst recession since the second world war, public attention is shifting away from the Greens and climate activists. As protesters unfurl their banner along the canal beneath Germany’s newest coal plant, a barge piled _…

https://www.netzerowatch.com/greens-on-back-foot-as-germanys-newest-coal-plant-opens/

German power utility Uniper’s new Datteln 4 coal-fired power station will begin operating on May 30, it said on Tuesday. The 1,050 megawatt (MW) plant that has cost Uniper 1.5 billion euros was granted an exemption from Germany’s plan to _…

https://www.netzerowatch.com/germany-to-open-new-coal-power-plant-next-week/

 Germany is expected to import 45 million tonnes of hard coal this year, up roughly 1.4 percent from 2018 despite mounting competition from renewable energy, as the closure of domestic mines reduces domestic supply, importers said on Friday. The total _…

https://www.netzerowatch.com/germanys-coal-imports-rising-after-domestic-mining-ends/

Germany is likely to show up empty-handed to the COP24 summit in Poland in December as the country’s coal exit commission has decided to extend its work beyond the original end-of-2018 deadline. Germany’s task force on planning the definite phase-out of coal-fired _…

https://www.netzerowatch.com/green-no-more-germany-heads-to-cop24-without-coal-exit-plan/

Angela Merkel faces an unexpectedly strong challenge from the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, the leading opposition party, which has questioned Germany’s national consensus on the role humans play in contributing to climate change. On a Sunday in September, _…

https://www.netzerowatch.com/why-green-germany-remains-addicted-to-coal/

Andrea Nahles, the leader of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) on Tuesday said that the government commission on phasing out coal should not set a date prematurely for the end of coal-fired power generation in Germany. At the Day of German _…

https://www.netzerowatch.com/green-no-more-germanys-spd-rejects-premature-date-for-coal-exit/

Coal showdown reflects government’s floundering shift to renewable power. Not far from Germany’s Rhine River, a fight to thwart giant excavators from grinding away what’s left of the 1,200-year-old Hambach forest came to a head this month as thousands of _…

https://www.netzerowatch.com/germany-struggles-to-end-coal-power-as-populist-afd-challenges-green-consensus/

German utility RWE, its works council and trade unions say they oppose plans to end coal-fired power generation in Germany around 2035, raising questions over a possible compromise between a government commission and environmentalists. RWE said the date was unacceptable _…

https://www.netzerowatch.com/germanys-rwe-trade-unions-say-its-too-early-to-exit-coal-in-2035/

Germany may have set laudable goals for its ambitious “Energiewende”—or shift to a low-carbon economy—but it is still struggling to free itself from fossil fuels, in particular electricity generated from coal’s dirtier cousin lignite. In the latest demonstration of this struggle, an ancient _…

https://www.netzerowatch.com/germany-is-razing-a-12000-year-old-forest-to-make-way-for-a-coal-mine/

German police have expelled protesters in the Hambach Forest near Aachen. Environmental demonstrators have for years opposed plans to expand one of Germany’s largest open-pit coal mines.      Several hundred German police officers moved into Hambach Forest in western Germany on Wednesday _…

https://www.netzerowatch.com/german-police-clear-protesters-new-coal-mining-imminent/