DIW study
German electricity supply secured even after the nuclear phase-out
High energy prices and the exit from coal have recently rekindled the discussion about nuclear power. The last reactor should be shut down at the end of 2022. Photo: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert / dpa-Zentralbild / ZB
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Rising energy prices and the phase-out of coal have rekindled the discussion about nuclear power. The last kiln is to be shut down at the end of 2022. Will Germany then go out the lights?
According to a study, the power supply in Germany will be secured even after the planned shutdown of the remaining six nuclear power plants in the coming year. This emerges from a study that the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) will present this Wednesday.
The team, which also includes energy expert Claudia Kemfert, comes to the conclusion that even after the nuclear phase-out at the end of 2022, there will be “sufficient capacities” to secure the energy supply in Germany. Last year, the German electricity industry exported around four percent of its electricity production with 20 terawatt hours, write the DIW experts.
Also because of the integration of Germany into the European electricity system “no impairment of the security of supply is to be feared”, it goes on to say. The scientists around Kemfert are campaigning for the nuclear phase-out to be completed, all subsidies for nuclear energy to be abolished and for the search for a final repository for the high-level radioactive waste to be concentrated. The shutdown of the nuclear reactors is a “necessity” so that this search can succeed.
2011 decision sealed
With the shutdown of the remaining six nuclear reactors, Germany will finally opt out of nuclear energy in the coming year, thus sealing a decision made in 2011. Recently there had been repeated discussions about a possible revival of nuclear energy. Critics fear supply bottlenecks if Germany pulls out of coal-fired power generation before 2038.
The DIW experts consider this fear to be unnecessary. “After the shutdown of older nuclear power plants has been largely silent since 2011, only minor effects on the electricity system are to be expected for the next two years,” they write.
They also reaffirm the need to expand renewable energies faster than before. In the short term, rising CO2 emissions from the electricity sector can be expected in 2022 and 2023, which can only be offset by more solar and wind energy.
The security of supply would not be jeopardized in the medium term if the German electricity system switched “quickly to renewable energy sources in conjunction with storage facilities and flexibility options”.