DortmundThe debate about nuclear power plants in Germany has long been very controversial, but in the midst of the energy crisis the discussion has risen to the highest political and economic level. The recent resistance test with which the stability of electricity production and supply in the country has been evaluated has concluded with the desirability of leaving two of the last three nuclear power plants that remain active in German territory in a reserve situation and that have to be disconnected before the end of the year.
The Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister of Economy, the green Robert Habeck, has announced a minimum solution: the two nuclear reactors, specifically the Isar 2, in Bavaria, and the Neckarwestheim, in Baden-Württemberg, will remain in stand by until mid-April 2023 in case it was necessary to resort to it in case the country suffered extreme problems to generate electricity this winter. The Emsland nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony, on the other hand, will be closed at the end of the year as planned.
Habeck has pointed out that it is very unlikely that the electricity will go down for hours in Germany, but it cannot be completely ruled out. The worst-case scenario for a collapse would occur if France continued to massively import electricity from Germany because its nuclear plants have to be taken out of service – as it is happening for safety reasons due to the heat and lack of of water for the reactors-, if the liquefied gas terminals being built on the German coast are not completed in time, if the delivery of Russian gas is stopped permanently, and if the winter is unusually cold and long
For the economy ministry, leaving two reactors in reserve means, technically, that Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim will stop generating electricity at the end of the year, but will remain in a state where they could be reconnected by the deadline of a week However, the operating company of Isar 2, Preussen Elektra, a subsidiary of the energy giant Eon, has warned, in a letter addressed to the ministry, that keeping the plant in reserve for an eventual reconnection to the grid in the short term is ” technically unfeasible”. The head of this company assures that the problem lies in the fact that the reactor is completely shut down and the fuel rods that keep it running are about to run out.
Habeck said that he had “taken note of the letter with some surprise”, but he defended that in the preliminary talks with Preussen Elektra a temporary closure of the power plants had indeed been declared as possible. In any case, it would be a matter of making the reactor work, if necessary, for a few more weeks, as is being done so far.
The German government’s position on the nuclear issue has drawn harsh criticism from economic experts. The president of the Institute for Economic Research in Munich, Clemens Fuest, has stated that “disconnecting the nuclear power plants in the middle of an enormous electricity crisis seems to me totally insane and extremely unsupportive of Europe”.
The leader of the opposition, the Christian Democrat Friedrich Merz, has demanded to extend the life of the three reactors that are still active to ensure the electricity supply in Germany and has accused Habeck of “taking the hair of the whole country”. Merz has argued that German nuclear power plants are “the most modern and safest in the world” and to give them up in the midst of an energy crisis is “irrational”. A similar point of view is held by the liberals, junior partners of the Berlin government, who would like to keep the nuclear plants operating until at least 2024.
The Energy expert at the Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, Claudia Kemfert, on the other hand, has pointed out that it is unnecessary to keep two reactors in reserve. “The energy supply in Germany is assured, also without nuclear energy”, he said.
The head of Greenpeace in Germany, Martin Kaiser, has spoken along these lines, demanding from the German government a package of savings measures, effective energy management and a rapid expansion of wind energy in the south of the country . Greenpeace’s German climate and energy expert, Karsten Smid, has called the restart of coal-fired power plants “necessary”. “It is bitter, but inevitable” to free oneself from dependence on Russian gas, he said. Smid, however, calls for the commissioning of lignite power plants, which are particularly harmful to the climate, to be abandoned. The goal shared with the green leader Habeck is to end dependence on fossil fuels as soon as possible and completely.
More coal and more renewables
In the first half of the year, almost a third of the electricity generated in Germany came from coal-fired power plants. The share of fossil fuels rose 4.3 points, to 31.4%, compared to the same period of the previous year, according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics.
Wind and photovoltaic power also increased significantly. All renewable energy sources together obtained a share of 48.5%. In the first half of 2021, the share of renewable energy sources was 43.8%. The generation of electricity from gas was reduced by 2.7%, reaching a share of 11.7%.