Dave Elliott: Germany is continuing with its nuclear phase out, while pushing renewables strongly, with well over 100GW of wind and solar so far. Renewables overall, including hydro and biomass, should soon be supplying nearly 40% of its electricity. That has been helped by the fall in their costs and by continued support from consumer self-generation, mainly using PV, and locally owned projects, including wind. For example, the result of the first competitive German onshore wind tender in 2016 had prices ranging between 52 and 58 Euro/MWh for 807MW. That’s down from €80/MWh under the old FiT support system. 65 of the 70 successful projects were community-driven or co-operative schemes. Despite setbacks, it does not seem to be the case, as some insist, that Germany is replacing nuclear with coal, so that emissions are rising. The 2017 World Nuclear Industry Status report notes that, since 2010, the last year prior to the post-3/11 shutdown of the eight oldest nuclear plants, and 2016 ‘the increase of renewable electricity generation (+84.4 TWh) and the noticeable reduction in domestic consumption (-20.6 TWh) were more than sufficient to compensate the planned reduction of nuclear generation (-56 TWh), enabling also a slight reduction in power generation from fossil fuels (-13 TWh) and a threefold increase in net exports’: Though it is the case that Germany emission have been growing slightly, that’s mainly due to increases from transport.
Environmental Research Web 23rd May 2018 read more »
Berlin agrees to compensate power firms for nuclear phase out. The German government approved a draft law on Wednesday that paves the way for energy giants RWE and Vattenfall to receive hundreds of millions of euros in compensation for the country’s decision to phase out nuclear power. The exact sum has yet to be determined but the environment ministry said the amount was unlikely to surpass a billion euros. The draft law will bring Germany into compliance with a 2016 court ruling that found energy suppliers had a right to financial compensation over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s U-turn on nuclear energy.
The Local 23rd May 2018 read more »
Reuters 23rd May 2018 read more »
