Sure, fossil fuels need to be phased out, but that’s going to be a decades long process. The only country that’s trying to do that at scale right now is China, and even after rolling out renewables on an absolutely mindbogglingly scale, they still rely on fossil fuels for roughly half their energy. Europe hasn’t even started taking any meaningful action in this direction.
Except the two biggest exporters of electricity, not to mention Norway and Denmark (Finland?) Being well over 90% electric in their respective new sales car fleets, Spain going all out on solar, several off shore power plants and a number of long term batteries (non-electric). Oh and the number of hydrogen installations throughout germany. Except all those steps?
While that’s all true, these developments are happening within a broader energy system that remains structurally dependent on fossil fuels and none of them change that underlying dynamics in a meaningful way. For example, EV sales in Nordic countries represent just one segment of transport, but do nothing to address the freight, aviation, shipping, and industrial heat sectors where oil and gas remain entrenched. Spain’s solar buildout is genuinely impressive, yet Spain also heavily relies on the European grid which runs on natural gas for balancing and heating. Offshore wind and long duration batteries are necessary, but their deployment pace is far below what would be required to retire gas peakers and baseload fossil plants across Europe. Meanwhile, hydrogen installations in Germany are mostly small pilot projects that consume electricity rather than displace oil and gas at any useful volume. All these efforts, however laudable, operate within a system whose economics, infrastructure, and political incentives still favor fossil fuels. These kinds of isolated successes will not move the needle on the overall fossil fuel dependence.
And unless you’re in France, how do you think the electricity gets generated to power it?
![Strommix Schweiz, from energie-umwelt.chEdit: scratch that. But how about on or two AI data centers less?
Switzerland is part of the EU now?
Who says it is?
Ok, explain the relevance of you linking to Swiss energy mix then.
That your argument that you need gas power in the energy mix is invalid. That bit we have is only a historical remnant being phased out.
Edit: ok, not entirely invalid: current situation is that a lot of countries rely significantly on gas power. I think i get your point.
Sure, fossil fuels need to be phased out, but that’s going to be a decades long process. The only country that’s trying to do that at scale right now is China, and even after rolling out renewables on an absolutely mindbogglingly scale, they still rely on fossil fuels for roughly half their energy. Europe hasn’t even started taking any meaningful action in this direction.
Even to the point of banning solar panels from China LMAO
exactly
Except the two biggest exporters of electricity, not to mention Norway and Denmark (Finland?) Being well over 90% electric in their respective new sales car fleets, Spain going all out on solar, several off shore power plants and a number of long term batteries (non-electric). Oh and the number of hydrogen installations throughout germany. Except all those steps?
I agree, more needs to be done and fast!
While that’s all true, these developments are happening within a broader energy system that remains structurally dependent on fossil fuels and none of them change that underlying dynamics in a meaningful way. For example, EV sales in Nordic countries represent just one segment of transport, but do nothing to address the freight, aviation, shipping, and industrial heat sectors where oil and gas remain entrenched. Spain’s solar buildout is genuinely impressive, yet Spain also heavily relies on the European grid which runs on natural gas for balancing and heating. Offshore wind and long duration batteries are necessary, but their deployment pace is far below what would be required to retire gas peakers and baseload fossil plants across Europe. Meanwhile, hydrogen installations in Germany are mostly small pilot projects that consume electricity rather than displace oil and gas at any useful volume. All these efforts, however laudable, operate within a system whose economics, infrastructure, and political incentives still favor fossil fuels. These kinds of isolated successes will not move the needle on the overall fossil fuel dependence.