> Germany has still over 100 active coal-fired power plants

No, Germany has 97 coal BLOCKS in its power plants (down from 150 in 5 years), but those are NOT all active.

Also Germany's coal consumption is at an all time low, down a third in only 5 years.

fyi it's mostly because of becoming net importer and deindustrialization. Amount of low carbon TWh is unchanged since 2015

The article is not about turboprop but about open-rotor engines which are a modern variation of propfan engines.

Since you've undertaken the effort of distinguishing, please elucidate the difference in your own understanding of it, (and not whose brand or publication name is validating the terminology) in more detail.

Those are turboprop like the A400m or C-130. The article is about open-rotor engines which are a modern variation of propfan engines.

Thank you for the clarification!

> In a calm cloudy winter week all renewables and battery storage are totally screwed. Hydro doesn’t really care about a calm cloudy winter week and is the reason my state was 100% renewable last year. So it’s definitely not a problem for ALL renewables.

Effectively all renewables.

When was the last time a new dam and hydro electric power plant was built in your country?

Either all of the favourable geography has already been dammed, or good luck getting environmental approval.

Alas, this is absolutely right. It's trivial to find places to put hydropower using global elevation data and GIS tools, but almost all of the good ones are already either being exploited, or in the process of being readied for use, or facing barriers such as the side-effect of destroying cities or heritage sites.

Are collision avoidance system and automated emergency braking not standard in the US? Here in Switzerland basically every new vehicle has them.

> Also, by closing operating power plants, Germany weakened European energy production at the time when we geopolitically need it the most.

Ironically that was France which needed to shut down a lot of its nuclear reactors in 2022 and 2023 due to repairs. So according to your own logic France "weakened European energy production at the time when we geopolitically need it the most."

Here in Switzerland the reason given for the "energy crisis" was also mostly France as Switzerland usually imports a lot of energy from France.

Looks like that maintenance did a LOT of good. In 2024, France’s net electricity exports (gross exports - imports) reached ~ 89 TWh, a record.

France's total nuclear generation was ~ 361.7 TWh in 2024. It is expected to be even above that in 2025.

https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-marke...

France is currently the nation that exports the MAXIMUM electricity in Europe.

Switzerland as well: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/trade-policy/swiss-post-tempora...

It's in line with very high COL countries like Switzerland, but higher than most other OECD countries.

The biggest cost factor is also not the housing itself but care/nursing.

This is for seasonal energy storage with only 1 charge and discharge per year. It competes with water reservoirs not with batteries.

That means it has only 1 chance per year to recoup the investment. And that requires exorbitant energy spot selling price, which too rarely happens to rely on. The economics just isn't there.

The national sausage of Switzerland:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cervelat