Germany says goodbye to nuclear energy this Saturday, with the closure of its last three reactors, in a decision marked until the last moment by an intense and heated debate, even more polarized by the recent energy crisis.
In 2011, after the Fukushima catastrophe, the decision of the government of the conservative Angela Merkel was approved by a large majority in the German parliament -with 513 votes in favor and 79 against-, but the uncertainty caused by the war in Ukraine revived the debate on a road that, until today, generated 5% of the electricity consumed in Germany.
The end of the operation of the last three reactors still in operation -Isar 2, Neckarwesthiem 2 and Emsland- was initially scheduled for December 31, 2022, but the executive chaired by the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz delayed its completion for three months after the tests The ‘stress’ to which the electrical system was subjected revealed vulnerabilities, shortly before winter.
Even so, and already in the final stretch of the stoppage, the German industrial organizations warned about the possible consequences for a sector penalized by the high cost of electricity, while the Christian Democratic opposition, as well as the liberal partners of the Government, proposed various formulas to postpone the closure of the reactors.
In turn, some two dozen scientists, including two Nobel Prize winners, on Friday called for the maintenance of the last three plants in operation to achieve climate objectives, given the increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused by the higher coal consumption last year, while a poll commissioned by public television ARD revealed that 59% of Germans currently reject abandoning nuclear power.
In statements to the Spanish agency Efe, the specialist in energy markets Jonas Egerer explained that the current situation is due, in part, to the fact that, after 2011, the Government did not take measures for a transition to a totally renewable system, having previously conceived gas-fired power plants as a long-term technological bridge for the supply of electricity, thus accepting an increasing dependence on Russian gas.
The professor at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg points out that the last-minute decision to extend the life of the reactors by three months was mainly due to the poor performance of hydroelectric power plants in 2022, but, in his opinion, “with due preparations” there are no risks of supply for the coming winter.
However, he warned that, in certain scenarios, especially if gas becomes more expensive, the reduction in supply could increase electricity prices in the German wholesale market, so that the final cost and the additional use of fossil fuels “may vary greatly depending on various framing factors”.
The energy expert Anke Herold, on the other hand, is more confident in the future: “In general, the electricity supply in Germany in 2023 is very secure and the lost production from nuclear power plants can be compensated without problems”, points. she told Efe.
The director of the independent research center Öko-Institut adds that “it is unlikely that greenhouse gas emissions will increase again in Germany, as happened last year, since the compensation will be based mainly on renewable energies.”
As detailed, the three reactors still in operation generated a total of 33 terawatts/hour in 2022 and, that year, the new installed wind and photovoltaic plants produced an additional 20 terawatts/hour, to which another 13 will be added in 2023, which makes up for the gap left by nuclear power.
Additionally, Herold argues that the surplus in electricity production in 2022, of 26.3 terawatt hours, almost equaled the volume generated by the three reactors and, as if that were not enough, the plants that run on fossil fuels have a higher installed capacity. to the one currently in use.
Source: TSF
