Germany Responds to Donald Trump’s Lies About German Electricity Grid

September 11, 20244 weeks ago Zachary Shahan 0 Comments

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Germany may not have liked being pulled into Donald Trump’s closing arguments at the debate last night, or maybe it did, but in either case, the country has responded. In particular, the German Foreign Office took to X to correct the record.

As I wrote earlier today, in his closing arguments, Donald Trump stated the following: “You believe in things like we’re not going to frack. We’re not going to take fossil fuel. We’re not going to do, things that are going to make this country strong, whether you like it or not. Germany tried that and within one year they were back to building normal energy plants. We’re not ready for it.”

As someone who has followed the German energy story for more than a decade, I didn’t even know what he was trying to say. And I certainly didn’t know why Trump thought it was a topic to bring into his closing arguments. Representatives of Germany, however, seemed to find it funny, as well as an opportunity to highlight the work the country has done to advance clean energy.

This is what the German Foreign Office tweeted: “Like it or not: Germany’s energy system is fully operational, with more than 50% renewables. And we are shutting down – not building – coal & nuclear plants. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest. PS: We also don’t eat cats and dogs. #Debate2024”

Like it or not: Germany’s energy system is fully operational, with more than 50% renewables. And we are shutting down – not building – coal & nuclear plants. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest. PS: We also don’t eat cats and dogs. #Debate2024 pic.twitter.com/PiDO98Vxfo

— GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) September 11, 2024

Here (and at the top of this article) is a chart from Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE:

Net public electricity generation in the first half of 2024. The chart shows the net electricity generation from power plants for the public electricity supply. This is the electricity mix that actually comes out of the socket. Generation from power plants of “companies in the manufacturing, mining and quarrying sectors” i.e., industrial generation for own consumption, is not included in this graph.

As you can see there, wind energy alone, which has been Trump’s favorite clean energy source to hate on, try to block, and spread false claims (i.e., lies) about, produced more electricity in the first half of the year in Germany than brown coal, hard coal, and natural gas combined! Wind energy alone. The energy source that is supposedly too unreliable and causes cancer, according to noted scientist Donald Trump.

Solar energy, meanwhile, has already surpassed natural gas and hard coal and is close to surpassing brown coal. When it does that, it will become the second-largest source of electricity in Germany, only trailing wind energy. (Well, if you combine hard coal and brown coal, it’ll still be third, but it won’t be too long until it climbs above their combined output.)

It’s funny — of all the countries to try to highlight to lie about renewable energy and claim “we’re not ready for it,” Germany has got to be one of the absolute worst. It makes you wonder what kind of prep Trump did for the debate and for his closing argument, or just how much he’s able to keep a train of thought or stay focused. It also makes you wonder where the heck he is getting his information. Attacking renewable energy and using Germany as an example? It’s just bonkers. Maybe, as the German Foreign Office alludes, it’s not as bonkers as spreading misinformation about immigrants eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs, but it’s still bonkers. It’s easy to say that the claims about Germany are relatively minor compared to other things Trump says, but they are still objectively ridiculous. Let’s be careful not to normalize clownish, ridiculous, and dangerously stupid behavior and statements.