Nuclear mattersGermany approves plan to shutdown nuke plants
On Thursday Germany’s parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of approving the country’s plans to end its nuclear program by 2022; Germany’s eight oldest reactors, which were closed shortly after the 11 March earthquake and tsunami in Japan, will remain off while the country’s nine other nuclear plants will be shut down in stages
Germany yields to public and produces shutdown plan // Source: bighaber.com
On Thursday Germany’s parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of approving the country’s plans to end its nuclear program by 2022.
The lower house of parliament voted 513-79 to shutdown Germany’s nuclear reactors based on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s proposal developed in the wake of Japan’s nuclear crisis.
Germany’s eight oldest reactors, which were closed shortly after the 11 March earthquake and tsunami in Japan, will remain off while the country’s nine other nuclear plants will be shut down in stages.
To compensate for the loss of nuclear power, which provides Germany with 23 percent of its power, the country plans to double the amount of energy it generates from renewable sources like water, wind, and solar to at least 35 percent.
“Some people abroad ask: will Germany manage this? Can it be done? It is the first time that a major industrial country has declared itself ready to carry through this technological and economic revolution,” said Norbert Roettgen, Germany’s environment minister, after the vote.
“The message from today is this: the Germans are getting to work,” he said. “This will be good for our country, because we all stand together. So let’s get to work.”
The vote makes Germany the world’s largest economy to undertake such a massive drive to transition away from nuclear energy and boost its renewable energy sources.
“The world is watching us now, and we will have to do justice to that,” said Renate Kuenast, the co-leader of the Greens’ parliamentary group. “That is the scale of this task: We must show that this works for the (world’s) fourth-biggest industrial country.”
“Of course it will cost something, but it won’t overburden anyone,” Roettgen said.
To successfully end its nuclear energy program with minimal disruptions, Germany must first build a $14.4 billion expansion of its electrical grid.
Electrical cables are needed to bring energy generated from offshore wind farms in the north to its manufacturing centers in the south. In addition, high-volume lines stretching to France must be built to allow for energy imports to cover any shortfalls.
Christoph Weber, a professor of energy economics at Germany’s University of Duisburg Essen, explained, “The grids are the Achilles heel and greatest challenge of the energy policy.”
“The government will have to overcome significant problems on the ground to get the lines built,” Weber added.
