Germany’s Renewable Path to a Nuke-Free Future

Germany’s Renewable Path to a Nuke-Free Future
The US Could Follow — If Only There Were the Political Will
by Tina Gerhardt – September 14, 2011


When Germany announced in June that it would phase out nuclear energy by the end of 2022, arguing that the shift would have not only environmental but also economic benefits, critics charged the goal was impossible.

Germany, they argued, would need to import greater levels of nuclear energy from France, natural gas from Russia or coal from Poland. Germany’s four leading nuclear-producing energy firms — Eon, RWE, EnBw and Vattenfall — warned that Germany would face winter blackouts.

Germanwatch was quick to challenge the findings of critics, publishing a study that stated Germany could produce enough energy to meet its needs without blackouts, if it switched to renewables.

...Renewable energy sources, the plan states, will generate 35 percent of electricity by 2020; 50 percent by 2030; 65 percent by 2040; and 80 percent by 2050. (Germany currently generates 23 percent of its electricity from nuclear plants.)...

“One thing is crystal clear, there is no going back.”
- Jochen Flasbarth, the head of the German environmental agency