Germany set to abandon nuclear power for good

The world's fourth-largest economy stands alone among leading industrialised nations in its decision to stop using nuclear energy because of its inherent risks.

It is betting billions on expanding the use of renewable energy to meet power demands instead. The transition was supposed to happen slowly over the next 25 years, but is now being accelerated in the wake of Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant disaster, which Chancellor Angela Merkel has called a "catastrophe of apocalyptic dimensions".

Berlin's decision to take seven of its 17 reactors offline for three months for new safety checks has provided a glimpse into how Germany might wean itself from getting nearly a quarter of its power from atomic energy to none. And experts say Germany's phase-out provides a good map that countries such as the United States, which use a similar amount of nuclear power, could follow.

The German model would not work, however, in countries like France, which relies on nuclear energy for more than 70 per cent of its power and has no intention of shifting.
"If we had the winds of Texas or the sun of California, the task here would be even easier," said Felix Matthes of Germany's renowned Institute for Applied Ecology. "Given the great potential in the US, it would be feasible there in the long run too, even though it would necessitate huge infrastructure investments."

Nuclear power has been very unpopular in Germany ever since radioactivity from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster drifted across the country. A centre-left government a decade ago penned a plan to abandon the technology for good by 2021, but Merkel's government last year amended it to extend the plants' lifetime by an average of 12 years.

That plan was put on hold after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami compromised nuclear power plants in Japan, and is being re-evaluated as the safety of all of Germany's nuclear reactors is being rechecked. Germany currently gets 23 per cent of its energy from nuclear power, about as much as the US. It's ambitious plan to shut down its reactors will require at least USD 210 billion investment in alternative energy sources, which experts say will likely lead to higher electricity prices.

Germany now gets 17 per cent of its electricity from renewable energies, 13 per cent from natural gas and more than 40 per cent from coal. The Environment Ministry says in 10 years renewable energy will contribute 40 per cent of the country's overall electricity production. The government has been vague on a total price tag for the transition, but it said last year about USD 28 billion a year will be needed, acknowledging that USD 107 billion alone will be required through 2030 to install offshore wind farms.