Germany's drive to end nuclear power serves as model for others
on average amounts to $223 a year per household. The funds are used to subsidize all sustainable energy projects including putting solar panels on homes and massive wind farms to ensure that the investment breaks even.
In 2010 the tax generated $11.7 billion in funds for renewable energy projects and is expected to generate more than $19 billion this year. So far this program has been copied by several other countries and U.S. states like California.
Renewable energy currently provides 17 percent of Germany’s energy needs and the Environment Ministry says that in ten years renewable energy will contribute 40 percent of the country’s overall electricity production, thanks largely to the tax program.
Dietmar Schuetz, the president of Germany’s Renewable Energy Association, suggests creating a more favorable regulatory climate to spur private investment in alternative energies. He says that such a move could generate as much as $212 billion.
Officials have declared a three month moratorium on nuclear energy while it conducts safety inspections during which seven reactors will be shut down. Merkel has suggested that the oldest reactors will not be brought back online.
Christiane Schwarte, a spokesman for the Environment Ministry, sought to assure consumers that there would be no power outages as a result of the reactor shutdowns.
Johannes Teyssen, the CEO of E.on, which operates two German nuclear plants that will be shut down, disagrees and warns of potential power outages.
In an interview with Der Spiegel, he said, “There may be problems with grid stability following the planned shutdown of the nuclear power plants.”
He explained, “The grids are not designed to handle such a serious redistribution of loads. Major capacities will be eliminated in the south (of Germany) as a result of the power plant shutdowns. We lack the necessary power lines to transmit wind-generated electricity from the north. This could lead to massive problems in the grid, even power outages.”
Teyssen believes that the shift away from nuclear energy will not be immediate and that it will continue to be used for some time.
“Chancellor Angela Merkel has correctly pointed out that we will need nuclear energy for quite a bit longer as a “bridge” technology (to the era of renewable energy). It may already now become extremely difficult to keep the electricity grid stable. Even more extensive measures would be impossible to absorb,” he said.
“Our ideas work. Exiting the nuclear age would also be possible in a country like the U.S.,” he said.
Germans are likely to tolerate these higher costs and potential challenges in the short term as they have staunchly opposed nuclear power since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Public opinion polls show that 80 percent of Germans are opposed to nuclear power and following the first explosions at Japanese nuclear plants, tens of thousands of Germans protested outside a nuclear plant in Stuttgart. Activists carried signs that read, “Nuclear power – no thanks.”
