Huh, where did I give the impression that we can't? I'm saying that we'd be dependent, implying that we can because otherwise we couldn't be dependent.
Today we might import power because it's cheaper, but we can build another coal or nuclear plant and produce that 10% we're currently importing. Building enough solar panels or wind turbines, on the other hand, to produce 1093TWh/year (2014 figure) is going to be difficult. Even if it's only about electricity and we keep on heating with oil and driving oil-powered cars, we need 112TWh/year (2014) of electricity.
Yes, we're building wind turbine farms in sea, but "we're hoping that'll get us from 14% to 16% renewable energy by 2023"[1]. It's more than a rounding error, but not by much.
I guess I think if the Netherlands are at risk of being cut off by the UK, France and Germany, then the situation in the world is much more dire than it should be. Interdependence is the nature of the European project.
Yeah that's fair. I am not very afraid of that happening indeed, it's not as if any of our neighbour's armies could not do whatever they want with us anyway.
The USA is in a good spot to do it themselves, but I did want to make people here think a bit about the decision and realize how they'd feel in this position. If you had to get your power from Mexico, Canada, and/or Russia (those places seem large and have realistic distances for cables off the top of my head), and be dependent on those three countries for your energy needs. Would that be desirable and worth the slightly higher price of fission energy? The situation is not comparable for multiple reasons but it seems like a factor to weigh in, even if it's a small factor and mainly applicable to my small-European-country scenario.
Today we might import power because it's cheaper, but we can build another coal or nuclear plant and produce that 10% we're currently importing. Building enough solar panels or wind turbines, on the other hand, to produce 1093TWh/year (2014 figure) is going to be difficult. Even if it's only about electricity and we keep on heating with oil and driving oil-powered cars, we need 112TWh/year (2014) of electricity.
Yes, we're building wind turbine farms in sea, but "we're hoping that'll get us from 14% to 16% renewable energy by 2023"[1]. It's more than a rounding error, but not by much.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_Netherlands