How Germany plans to succeed in a nuclear free, low-carbon economy

How Germany plans to succeed in a nuclear free, low-carbon economy
Germany plans to meet ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets while it phases out nuclear power

WRI, part of the Guardian Environment Network
guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 July 2011 16.31 BST

<snip>

...(The) phase-in story is vital to understand, especially taking into account that Germany plans to meet ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets while it phases out nuclear power. So, how will this work?

A bit of history

The coalition that governed Germany from 1998 to 2005, led by the Social Democrats and the Greens, put in place a series of policies to scale up renewables and phase out nuclear energy. Just last year the new and current government coalition (a more conservative mix) decided on a new energy concept that consisted of two main elements.

1. Agreement to phase out nuclear energy, but on a slower timeframe. To do so they decided to extend the lifetimes of the 17 German nuclear power plants by eight to twelve years.
2. Agreement to an ambitious set of short and long-term energy and climate policy goals including:
* a 40% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 coupled with a longer term 80 to 95% target by 2050 (compared to 1990 levels),
* a massive expansion of renewable energy in all sectors, e.g. an increase of renewable power in power generation from 17% in 2010 to 35% in 2020 and 80% in 2050
* a target to reduce energy consumption from buildings by 20% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.
* A target to reduce energy consumption from transportation by 10% in 2020 and 25% in 2050.

After the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, however, there was a decision to go back to the original phase-out schedule of 2000, while keeping in place the climate and energy targets the government had set the year before. This approach was backed by a large majority, with eighty-five percent of parliamentarians voting for both a more rapid phase-out and a number of measures (see below) on the phase-in of clean energy....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/29/nuclearpower-energy



So Merkel's attempt to extend the life of nuclear plants was traded for more ambitious carbon reduction and renewable deployment goals than the original phase-out plan called for. Post Fukushima, when Merkel had to abandon the lifespan extension for the plants and the schedule reverted back to 2022, they retained the more aggressive carbon and renewable goals.

Energy giant RWE puts brakes on new coal and gas plants
RWE plans to expand its wind energy network in the future

German energy concern RWE says it will not start building any more gas or coal-fired power plants after ones already under construction are completed. But additional investments in renewables will have to wait a while.

Essen-based energy concern RWE is moving away from conventional power generation as of 2014 to focus on renewable energy sources like wind power, the company announced earlier this week.

But despite Germany's recent energy turnaround, the company will not expand its existing green energy program for at least the next three years.

"The next three years won't change that much," said Hans Bünting, the chief financial officer of the concern's renewables unit, RWE Innogy, adding that current projects costing some 3.9 billion euros had to be completed before the company switched its focus.

"We have to build what we're already building," he said....

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15231271,00.html


***********************************

A major energy industry "energy intelligence" website notes that "German utilities recently deemed coal-fired generation as economically unviable".

http://www.icis.com/heren/articles/2011/08/03/9482340/carbon-price-collapse-boosts-german-power-generation.html