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Germany got rid of a good portion of its nuclear power, it is setting records for renewable energy production, it still has exports and its carbon emissions are (supposedly) down. Or so the story goes in the mass media.

But the numbers tell it all. In the International Energy Agency's latest report in Feb 2012 on worldwide electricity use, it is shown that Germany's domestic production is slightly down (-0.2%) compared to the same period in 2011, imports are up by 7.7% and exports are down 0.9%. Below is a chart comparing the electricity production between pre-Fukushima Germany and the same period a year later.



Nuclear power production is down 32.5%- about a third of their production has been shut down. What is making up for this lost production? Over 80 percent of the lost nuclear has been replaced by burning fossil fuels, not with this beautiful renewable energy as described.



What of the exports that Germany still has? Why import and export? When a country has a significant portion of intermittant power like wind and solar, when overproduction happens, the country is forced to export this useless energy, often at a loss. This has produced disastrous effects in Denmark.

Remember, when you hear about renewable energy records:
1) the relative small percentage of useful renewable energy so that small total increases mean deceptively large percentage numbers, and
2) the difference between "installed capacity" for energy production and actual, useful energy production.