Archive for the ‘Germany’ Category

April 4, 2011
Nuclear Townhall

What do you do when you’ve suddenly lost 7,000 megawatts of nuclear power?  Why you start importing electricity from someone who hasn’t closed their reactors, of course.
 
That’s what Germany has done since Chancellor Angela Merkel – surrounded by Greens – took the hasty step of closing down Germany’s seven oldest  reactors in response to Fukushima. Reuters reports today what seemed inevitable – the Germans, formerly an exporter of power, are now importing 12 percent of their electricity, mostly from France and the Czech Republic. Those countries have power to spare because they rely heavily on . . . . nuclear energy.

“Prior to this, a scenario typical of March had been in place, involving net exports of 70 to 150 GWh a day,” reports Reuters. "Power imports from France and the Czech Republic have doubled, those into the Netherlands and Switzerland have halved.”

That hasn’t been the only impact. “Wholesale prices of German quarterly power in 2011 have risen by 12 percent,” says Reuters, quoting a report from BDEW, the German utility industry association. “Carbon emissions prices have also risen by 10 percent.”

Chancellor Merkel ordered a three-month shutdown after Greens raised a public outcry over Fukushima. The uproar is likely to increase by the end of this month with the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl. Greenpeace International is reportedly preparing to release a study claiming a million people around the world died as a result of that accident. An extensive UN report done five years ago said the figure was 60 deaths with the possibility of 4,000 additional cancers. Analysts are going to be challenged trying to figure out why there is such a discrepancy between the two reports.

Read more about it at Reuters
 

In a day when even the major news outlets don’t seem to have a good grasp on what’s happening in the energy world, you have to rely on the blogs.



Dan Yurman’s “Idaho Samizdat” (now relocated to Ohio) gives a magnificent example in this long and penetrating analysis of Germany’s nuclear follies.


Did you know that Chancellor Angela Merkel may have imposed the 50 percent tax on nuclear reactors profits as a trap for German Green groups?  Once the government becomes so completely dependent on these revenues, it will be impossible for the Greens to close them down. And did you realize that Greens foresaw this trap and opposed the tax anyway because they will settle for nothing less than a nuclear-free Germany?


 â€¨Did you know that millions of Germans have their pensions vested in the nation’s four utility stocks and that the utilities may be using the threat of dividend cuts in their efforts to escape the burden of the tax?
 â€¨As Patrick Moore comments, every wind farm and solar collector the Germans put up just means more natural gas imported from Russia. Yet anti-nuclear sentiment is running so strong in Germany right now that is may cost Merkel the next election.


Read this blog entry for the best analysis yet on Germany’s dance with energy suicide.

Read more at Idaho Samizdat

Europe presents a paradox. The French are famous for their joie de vivre, national independence and relaxed laissez faire philosophy. They take frequent vacations, work 35 hour weeks in some quarters and enjoy their famous Bordeaux and Burgundy grapes.  The French take to the streets when the government tries to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. They love ideas and the abstract — and are not world reknown for their math and science.
 
The Germans, on the other hand, are typically cast as hard-working, disciplined, frugal, conscientious and not tolerant of frivolity. Their scientific and engineering skills are legendary. Their diligence has made Germany the engine of the Common Market economy and, until they were surpassed by China last January, the world’s largest exporter.
 
Under these circumstances, one might project that Germany would embrace nuclear power while the streets of France would be filled with protesters arguing that nuclear was unnecessary. Yet the opposite has happened. France has become the world’s most consummate nuclear economy while the Green Party take to the streets in Berlin this weekend to protest Chancellor Angela Merkel’s effort to extend the phase-out of German’s 17 reactors beyond 2020.
 
What is the explanation?  Is the Germans’ romanticism about a solar economy a rebellion against their own sterotype?  Does Germany have a streak of radicalism that allows small but loud minorities like the Greens to dominate their political discourse?  Does France have more motivation given its relatively scarcity of indigenous energy resources or is it aspiring to be the First Empire of nuclear energy. Why is it France is able to embrace nuclear power while Germany does not?

Political observers are predicting that Green and anti-nuclear activists in Germany will soon be taking to the streets to protect Chancellor Andrea Merkel’s recent decision to extend the life of the country’s 17 reactors.
 
A demonstration is planned in Berlin this Saturday with more to come in the next two months. Greens and Social Democrats have vowed to reinstate the law they adopted in 2000 to close down all reactors by 2020. Merkel’s cabinet ruled last week that the ban will endanger the German economy and has postponed the closing for another 15 years.
 
Merkel has aggravated the situation by attempting to by-pass Parliament, where the Greens and Social Democrats have enough votes to block the move. Merkel says her decision has merely extending the deadline and does not change the substance of the law, so parliamentary approval is not needed.
 
The nuclear issue will test Germany’s ability to lead the European economy. Right now Germany is the engine of the European Union but a failure to expand nuclear could test this role. Germany already imports some nuclear electricity from France and is increasingly dependent on Russia for natural gas. With Italy, Finland, Britain and Eastern Europe all reviving nuclear, Germany’s economic position could erode.
 
Merkel has bravely described nuclear as a “bridge” to a renewable future, but of course no such future exists. Without new construction, Germany risks following the U.S., with an aging fleet of reactors ever more prone to leaks and breakdowns, which only further tarnish nuclear’s reputation. The next few months could be critical in determining Germany’s economic future.

Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald