germany: June 27, 2011

The moratorium on nuclear power production in Germany, in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, ended on June 15th, however, it is now looking like the closure may be permanent.  This is largely due to the fact that Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced that her government will seek to phase out nuclear power altogether. 

Although the moratorium has been lifted and energy companies could earn an additional 500,000 euros a day by switching the plants back on, they are unlikely to do so.  Indeed RWE, which operates the Biblis B and Philippsburg I plants, has postponed any decision on their operation and power giant Eon has announced it will not be activating its nuclear reactors.  While the power companies have been critical of the nuclear phase-out, it would appear that they are accepting the fact that nuclear power will become a thing of the past very soon. 

The phasing out of nuclear power will not come cheap for the consumer.  Prior to the moratorium, nuclear production accounted for 25 percent of the country’s power needs and the government has estimated that with the phase-out power costs for households will rise by 35 to 40 Euros.  However, this relatively modest increase largely assumes the Government will be picking up the tab for building extra offshore wind farms.

With the lack of nuclear production, some are warning of blackouts come this winter.  The Government is also warning that with five reactors going off line in southern Germany, this area could run short of power by late 2011.

While no one in Germany wants to risk the disaster that played out in Japan, it is also safe to assume that the public does not wish a cold dark winter later this year.