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France decarbonized its grid in 15 years. What’s taking Germany so long?

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Which time frame are you talking about?

From what I can tell, France has a large chunk of nuclear and a solid amount of renewables. Still, it's not fully decarbonized yet: https://www.iea.org/countries/france

Denmark is coming close to full decarbonization. On occasion, they have days where their electricity demand can be met by renewables. But even they have a large number of fossil fuels in their total energy mix: https://www.iea.org/countries/denmark

For them, it was proper policy decisions + energy policy partnerships (across multiple parties) since the 1970s oil crisis.

As for Germany: Solid progress with renewables but large reliance on natural gas.

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Oct 25, 2022·edited Oct 25, 2022Liked by Art Lapinsch

Denmark relies heavily on dirty imports, and their ratepayers pay the highest electricity rates in the developed world ~$0.36/kWh. Germany coming in second @ ~$0.34/kWh. And it was very high before Putin cut off the gas exports. “Renewables are cheap” they say…

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/cost-of-electricity-by-country

France enjoyed 64g gCO2e/kWh, and ~$0.18/kWh prices in 2021. Germany, 330g intensity & $0.34.

France is getting electricity at ⅕ the carbon intensity of Germany, at ½ the price, bonkers! 🇫🇷 = Climate 🐐

Might be worth a deep dive on how they did that, and what a modern Messmer plan might look like…

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