Tag Archives: Energy

Systemic vulnerabilities in Berlin’s infrastructure?

September 10, 2025 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

No way.

It can’t happen here. Again.

Suspected arson triggers Berlin blackout, 40,000 homes and businesses without electricity – A fire on two high-voltage pylons in southeastern Berlin triggered a major power outage Tuesday morning, leaving more than 40,000 households without electricity in what authorities suspect was an arson attack.

The suspected arson recalls previous attacks linked to the left-wing extremist group “Vulkangruppe,” which has claimed responsibility for targeting infrastructure in Berlin since 2011.

What’s a little power gap here and there…

September 4, 2025 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

As long as you can say you have the highest energy costs in Europe?

Or is it the highest energy costs in the world? I forget. Go, Greens!

Germany could see power supply gap in 2030, regulator says – Germany’s Federal Network Agency on Wednesday warned that rare electricity shortfalls could occur as early as 2030 if the country’s energy transition stalls, though supply is otherwise expected to remain secure through 2035.

The Security of Supply Report, approved by the federal cabinet on Wednesday, highlights the risks should renewable expansion slow, new gas-fired power plants fail to materialize, and electricity demand not become sufficiently flexible.

Crazy high energy costs, crippling taxation, ever-growing red tape, ineffective government…

August 4, 2025 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In Germany.

What’s not to like? This isn’t rocket science for businesses here. For businesses that are still here, I should say.

Germany’s biggest sports retailer considers moving production to China – Intersport eyes spare Chinese manufacturing capacity as Nike and Adidas back away from the country amid trade war.

One of the world’s largest sporting goods retailers is considering shifting production to China, just as brands including Nike and Adidas move production out of the country in response to US tariffs.

Go with the mass layoffs, Germany

July 4, 2025 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Mass layoffs for peace? Absolutely. It’s only the right thing to do.

Especially if you’re on the left.

Russian oil or mass layoffs: A German town’s conundrum – In Schwedt, life flows through an oil refinery. If it doesn’t get help — or restart Russian imports — people worry their jobs will be gone.

Germans still pretending they don’t need nuclear power…

June 30, 2025 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , Leave a comment

But it’s not as convincing as it used to be.

German government shows cracks over nuclear energy – The economy minister attended a meeting of EU states using nuclear energy, even though Germany shut down its last reactor in 2023. The environment minister was quick to insist Germany will stick to its nuclear phaseout.

“There are no further commitments [to the nuclear industry], nor will there be any.”

The highest taxation in Europe…

June 28, 2025 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

The highest healthcare and retirement costs, the highest energy costs, the highest regulation costs, then there’s the inflation, now the debt…

No, it’s a real mystery why Germans can’t afford to live on their wages anymore.

Why more Germans can’t afford life on their wages – German politicians are fond of saying, “Work must be worth it.” But ever more full-time workers need state benefits, and the new minimum wage hike is seen as disappointing.

German of the day: Schneckentempo

May 19, 2025 By in Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means moving at a snail’s pace.

But at least it’s still movement. In the right direction.

Germany drops opposition to nuclear power in rapprochement with France – Paris wins approval from Berlin to remove anti-nuclear bias in EU legislation, say officials.

Germany has dropped its long-held opposition to nuclear power, in the first concrete sign of rapprochement with France by Berlin’s new government led by conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Berlin has signalled to Paris it will no longer block French efforts to ensure nuclear power is treated on par with renewable energy in EU legislation, according to French and German officials.

German of the day: Märchenwald

May 11, 2025 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means fairytale forest.

You know, the German Brothers Grimm kind. The kind Germans these days level for wind parks.

Plan for windfarm in German ‘fairytale forest’ stokes green energy culture war – Far right accused of misinformation over turbines at Reinhardswald, which has left local people divided.

Deep in the woods that inspired the Brothers Grimm, past the tower from which Rapunzel threw down her hair and the castle in which Sleeping Beauty slumbered, lies a construction site that the far right has declared a crime against national soil and identity.

In this quiet corner of Germany’s “fairytale forest”, workers are clearing land and building access roads to erect 18 wind turbines.

Clean and lean

May 10, 2025 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Very, very, lean.

But at least it’s clean. Whatever that should mean.

Clean energy sources generated the smallest amount of Germany’s electricity in over a decade so far in 2025, dealing a blow to the energy transition momentum of Europe’s largest economy.

Electricity generation from clean power sources totalled just under 80 terawatt hours (TWh) during the first four months of the year, according to data from energy think tank Ember.

That clean energy volume is down 16% from the same months in 2024 and is the lowest for that period since at least 2015.