Volkswagen is deciding whether to start closing auto factories in Germany for the first time in history. Compounding this is the fact that all Germany committed their automakers to a future of making electric vehicles at a time when China is dumping EV's. ‘A very serious situation’: Volkswagen could close plants in Germany for the first time in history
I admit that being that close to Kiev where a nuclear reactor did in fact blow up and release untold amounts of radiation into the atmosphere would be a bad reality pill to swallow, and wake-up call. But you have to take each and every accident separately and investigate whether or not that could happen in your own country. A tsunami caused the back-up power supply generation to get flooded out and useless... shorting out all power to cool the reactor, as I remember it. And the Russians were playing dangerous games with their emergency systems in Kiev... The one in Japan was a major design flaw, and the explosion in Kiev was totally preventable... and also a design flaw. We have billionaires here in the U.S.A. trying to get approval for the next generation nuclear power generation. What do you know about it? What specific type of fuel will they use. Thanks... in advance.
Shocking election results as the ‘far right’ has made major gains in Thuringia and Saxony. Next steps: Germany will be loading Poles onto boxcars.
I don't know much about nuclear reactors. They don't have that much in common with chemical plant reactors. I have heard that the newer designs are an order of magnitude more safe than the older designs.
The CEO of Mercedes says that Germany's auto industry is in a Darwinian survival fight. It's sink or swim. Mercedes-Benz CEO says auto market is in a ‘Darwinian battle’ as German carmakers flounder
EU approved up to 45% tariffs on Chinese EVs. Maybe they are starting to comprehend what Chinese dumping can do to their industry
One more fight that Germany (and the rest of Europe) is going to lose: AI. And it's due to their lack of energy supply. Artificial intelligence requires huge amounts of data, and handling that data requires a tremendous amount of energy. From a podcast I heard recently, the three regions that will dominate the AI industry will be China, the U.S., and the Middle East. The ME has oil, China has coal, and the U.S. has natural gas. And all three have very good-to-excellent education systems at the college level. The French are one of two countries that could put themselves in a position to make an effort in AI, but it would take more nuclear plants (which they are typically willing to build, but may not want to fund). The other country would be Norway, which has extensive offshore oil drilling. Unfortunately for them, their oil sources are starting to dry up. The rest of Europe is committed to reducing energy usage and going with wind and solar power, which is nice for the environment, but not conducive to AI. Europe has an excellent education system that is needed for developing AI, but without energy, they are dead in the water.
package nuclear plants and renewable energy is going to negate a lot of that inherent advantage to be gained by cheap nat gas/oil/coal. Last time I checked, renewables are cheaper to build, and battery storage tech is advancing by leaps and bounds, will germany allow the new package nuclear plants?
Didn't they shut all of the nuclear plants down? Was it because of some public referendum ot just a decision by their government?
yes they did but with new tech (no meltdown), smaller scale, not producing bomb grade fuel, and less waste disposal issues, the new nuclear isn't your old nuclear
A lot of us said the Ukraine war would deindustrialize Germany and Europe. We were called "Putin's puppets" etc. chemgator was a leading Too Hot cheerleader for war. People need to learn to think strategically. Trump and Elon seem to be having a positive impact on German politics
Germany effectively produces services, not goods. When you have as many engineers as they have, you can do that and let everyone else in the world build cars. The value of the engineering services they provide to everyone else is too great. Granted, this leaves them reliant on trade, but they have an ace up their sleeve.
It's simple... no power/electricity, no manufacturing. Angela Merkel killed that entire country with her Draconian energy policies... which were the same policies and trajectory the U.S.A. was on when the Dems were in the WH. All part of the plan... and if failed, at least here in the U.S.A. it has.
If there had been no Ukraine war Germany would still be getting cheap Russian energy via the Nord Stream pipeline. As Putin noted, if the Democrats hadn't stolen the 2020 election there would be no Ukraine war
