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Get ready for a trend reversal with the new federal government this year.
It includes biomass power though. Cutting down entire forests in the US and Canada, shipping them as wood chips in giant tankers running on basically crude oil over to Europe to be burned I wouldn't consider "renewable", as it takes a lot less time to cut down a tree and burn it than it takes for one to grow back. In that case coal is also renewable, you just have to wait long enough.
Biomass from wood is made of waste (sawdust). Also much biomass is methane and biodiesel.
Literally entire forests are being cut down and shipped to EU countries. Now searching for a source about what I've read before about US and Canadian forests being cut down, I found EU forests are also being burned Link Link Link. But the US is the largest supplier of wood Link Link. Also Canadian forests are being exported Link.
Edit: Biodiesel is also a thing. Massive parts of the Brazilian rainforest are being cut down for plantations for biodiesel Link Link. In Indonesia same story Link
Ok fine, but we're talking about Germany here and they don't import renewables.
Not renewables, no. But they do import biomass. And here is a shipping list of biomass imports into Germany, importing most biomass from India, Russia and Turkey.
Also, burning lignite (braunkohle) is the worst possible form of producing energy. Lowest efficiency while producing the most pollution. This is an environmental nightmare. Why even care about renewable energy when you're still burning lignite.
Maybe it's imported for fuel and not for electricity.
The EU energy market is broken. If you stop burning braunkohle the price for electricity will drop drastically. The most expensive plant makes the prices. And in this case it's braunkohle.
Biomass power plants run on fuel. I haven't seen a car running on wood. Also, Germany is a very large exporter of bio diesel so I doubt they import that.
A small amount of biomass is needed as backup power if we want to have a 100% renewable grids
Doesn't look like "small". But sure, go have biomass, coal, oil, gas, whatever, just don't call it renewable because it isn't.
