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Nuclear futures: Renewables blossom in Germany’s post-nuclear vision
Nuclear futures: Renewables blossom in Germany’s post-nuclear vision
The roots of Germany’s anti-nuclear stance go back many decades, and are stronger than ever today.
<snip out discussion of Merkel's U-U-turn and her earlier claims about "indispensable" necessity for nuclear as bridge technology ensuring "security of supply" >
This raises two questions:
did removing seven power plants endanger the security of supply to the German national grid?
And what convincing long-term strategy is there in place to manage the shift to carbon-free energy without nuclear power?
The loss of the power stations cut the nuclear contribution to the country’s energy by about a quarter, from 22% in 2010 to 16% in 2012. Yet Germany is still a net exporter of electricity, and the power not generated due to the shutdown has not led to a requirement to import foreign nuclear power. The key findings of a detailed study by the Institute for Applied Ecology on this matter clearly demonstrated this, where the authors stated that: “The existence of power imports is not an indication that the (domestic) security of supply is in jeopardy. The shutdown of nuclear power plants has not resulted in increased imports of power from foreign nuclear power plants and thus has not been counterbalanced by foreign power imports.”
In other words, the sudden shutdown of seven nuclear power plants had no detrimental effect on security of supply, and was compensated for within the German energy infrastructure.
Which policies and strategies does the Energiewende (the project to transform Germany’s energy system into a mainly renewables-based one by 2050) rely on? The Renewable Resources Act, passed in 2000, established a system of feed-in tariffs to promote the build-up of renewables. Renewables share in overall German electricity generation has since increased from 7% in 2000 to 23% in 2012. Each year, another 10,000 MW of (intermittent) renewables capacities are being installed – an amount that almost matches the remaining 12,000 MW of (non-intermittent) nuclear capacities from Germany’s nuclear reactors still in operation.
In fact, the policy of phasing out nuclear power begun in 2001, emerging from a long history of protests by the anti-nuclear mass movement that dates as far back as the 1970s. So depending on your view, Germany is really just back on track after the reminder of Fukushima...
The roots of Germany’s anti-nuclear stance go back many decades, and are stronger than ever today.
<snip out discussion of Merkel's U-U-turn and her earlier claims about "indispensable" necessity for nuclear as bridge technology ensuring "security of supply" >
This raises two questions:
did removing seven power plants endanger the security of supply to the German national grid?
And what convincing long-term strategy is there in place to manage the shift to carbon-free energy without nuclear power?
The loss of the power stations cut the nuclear contribution to the country’s energy by about a quarter, from 22% in 2010 to 16% in 2012. Yet Germany is still a net exporter of electricity, and the power not generated due to the shutdown has not led to a requirement to import foreign nuclear power. The key findings of a detailed study by the Institute for Applied Ecology on this matter clearly demonstrated this, where the authors stated that: “The existence of power imports is not an indication that the (domestic) security of supply is in jeopardy. The shutdown of nuclear power plants has not resulted in increased imports of power from foreign nuclear power plants and thus has not been counterbalanced by foreign power imports.”
In other words, the sudden shutdown of seven nuclear power plants had no detrimental effect on security of supply, and was compensated for within the German energy infrastructure.
Which policies and strategies does the Energiewende (the project to transform Germany’s energy system into a mainly renewables-based one by 2050) rely on? The Renewable Resources Act, passed in 2000, established a system of feed-in tariffs to promote the build-up of renewables. Renewables share in overall German electricity generation has since increased from 7% in 2000 to 23% in 2012. Each year, another 10,000 MW of (intermittent) renewables capacities are being installed – an amount that almost matches the remaining 12,000 MW of (non-intermittent) nuclear capacities from Germany’s nuclear reactors still in operation.
In fact, the policy of phasing out nuclear power begun in 2001, emerging from a long history of protests by the anti-nuclear mass movement that dates as far back as the 1970s. So depending on your view, Germany is really just back on track after the reminder of Fukushima...
http://theconversation.com/nuclear-futures-renewables-blossom-in-germanys-post-nuclear-vision-14364
AUTHORS
Erik Gawel
Professor of Economics at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
Sebastian Strunz
Research Fellow at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
