Greenpeace: Germany could use wind power which is "usually switched off" to replace nuclear

No explanation is provided in the article below why Germany has "a lot of surplus wind power we could add which are usually switched off," but it probably relates to the fact that wind power is highly intermittent and unreliable, unlike the nuclear and coal plants "run flat out most of the time."



Snap [Hoax] Analysis: World to warm if Japan panic spreads





LONDON (Reuters) 3/16/11- Global warming will intensify if leading carbon emitter China drops the world's most ambitious nuclear power building program and Germany shuts down its nuclear plants amid panic over Japan's atomic energy crisis.



Wednesday's decision by the world's biggest coal burner and largest climate-warming carbon emitter to suspend approvals for new nuclear plants follows a decision by Europe's biggest carbon emitter Germany to shut seven nuclear plants.

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The head of Greenpeace International's renewable division said the closure of the nuclear plants would have no carbon impact because Germany's coal plants already run flat out most of the time.



"They are usually running 24/7 anyway so an increase in output is almost impossible," Sven Teske said.



"We do have a lot of surplus wind power we could add which are usually switched off," he said, adding that more energy efficiency and a little more gas-fired production could fill in the gap.