https://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_ABANDONING_NUCLEAR_POWER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-23-08-12-00
BERLIN (AP) -- Germany is determined to show the world how abandoning nuclear energy can be done.
Theworld's fourth-largest economy stands alone among leadingindustrialized nations in its decision to stop using nuclear energybecause of its inherent risks. It is betting billions on expanding theuse of renewable energy to meet power demands instead.
Thetransition was supposed to happen slowly over the next 25 years, but isnow being accelerated in the wake of Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclearplant disaster, which Chancellor Angela Merkel has called a"catastrophe of apocalyptic dimensions."
Berlin'sdecision to take seven of its 17 reactors offline for three months fornew safety checks has provided a glimpse into how Germany might weanitself from getting nearly a quarter of its power from atomic energy tonone.
And experts say Germany's phase-outprovides a good map that countries such as the United States, which use asimilar amount of nuclear power, could follow. The German model wouldnot work, however, in countries like France, which relies on nuclearenergy for more than 70 percent of its power and has no intention ofshifting.
"If we had the winds of Texas or thesun of California, the task here would be even easier," said FelixMatthes of Germany's renowned Institute for Applied Ecology. "Given thegreat potential in the U.S., it would be feasible there in the long runtoo, even though it would necessitate huge infrastructure investments."
Nuclearpower has been very unpopular in Germany ever since radioactivity fromthe 1986 Chernobyl disaster drifted across the country. A center-leftgovernment a decade ago penned a plan to abandon the technology for goodby 2021, but Merkel's government last year amended it to extend theplants' lifetime by an average of 12 years. That plan was put on holdafter the March 11 earthquake and tsunami compromised nuclear powerplants in Japan, and is being re-evaluated as the safety of all ofGermany's nuclear reactors is being rechecked.
Germanycurrently gets 23 percent of its energy from nuclear power - about asmuch as the U.S. Its ambitious plan to shut down its reactors willrequire at least euro150 billion ($210 billion) investment inalternative energy sources, which experts say will likely lead to higherelectricity prices.
Germany now gets 17percent of its electricity from renewable energies, 13 percent fromnatural gas and more than 40 percent from coal. The Environment Ministrysays in 10 years renewable energy will contribute 40 percent of thecountry's overall electricity production.
Thegovernment has been vague on a total price tag for the transition, butit said last year about euro20 billion ($28 billion) a year will beneeded, acknowledging that euro75 billion ($107 billion) alone will berequired through 2030 to install offshore wind farms.
Thepresident of Germany's Renewable Energy Association, Dietmar Schuetz,said the government should create a more favorable regulatoryenvironment to help in bringing forward some euro150 billion investmentin alternative energy sources this decade by businesses and homeowners.
Lastyear, German investment in renewable energy topped euro26 billion ($37billion) and secured 370,000 jobs, the government said.
Aftertaking seven reactors off the grid last week, officials hinted theoldest of them may remain switched off for good, but assured consumersthere are no worries about electricity shortages as the country is a netexporter.
"We can guarantee that the lights won't go off in Germany," Environment Ministry spokeswoman Christiane Schwarte said.
Mostof the country's leaders now seem determined to swiftly abolish nuclearpower, possibly by 2020, and several conservative politicians,including the chancellor, have made a complete U-turn on the issue.
ViceChancellor Guido Westerwelle said Wednesday "we must learn from Japan"and check the safety of the country's reactors but also make sure viablealternatives are in place.
"It would be thewrong consequence if we turn off the safest atomic reactors in theworld, and then buy electricity from less-safe reactors in foreigncountries," he told the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper.
ButSchuetz insists that "we can replace nuclear energy even before 2020with renewable energies, producing affordable and ecologically soundelectricity."
But someone will have to foot the bill.
"Consumersmust be prepared for significantly higher electricity prices in thefuture," said Wolfgang Franz, head of the government's independenteconomic advisory body. Merkel last week also warned that tougher safetyrules for the remaining nuclear power plants "would certainly mean thatelectricity gets more expensive."
The Germanutilities' BDEW lobby group said long-term price effects could not bedetermined until the government spells out its nuclear reduction plans.Matthes' institute says phasing out nuclear power by 2020 is feasible bybetter capacity management and investment that would only lead to aprice increase of 0.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.
InGermany, the producers of renewable energy - be it solar panels on ahomeowner's rooftop or a farm of wind mills - are paid above-marketprices to make sure their investment breaks even, financed by a 3.5cents per kilowatt-hour tax paid by all electricity customers.
Fora typical German family of four who pay about euro1,000 ($1,420) a yearto use about 4,500 kilowatt-hours, the tax amounts to euro157 ($223).
Thetax produced euro8.2 billion ($11.7 billion) in Germany in 2010 and itis expected to top euro13.5 billion ($19.2 billion) this year. Theprogram - which has been copied by other countries and several U.S.states such as California - is the backbone of the country's transitiontoward renewable energies.
"Our ideas work. Exiting the nuclear age would also be possible in a country like the U.S.," Schuetz said.
Anotherfactor likely to drive up electricity prices is that relying onrenewable energies requires a huge investment in the electricity grid tocope with more decentralized and less reliable sources of power.Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle just announced legislation to speed upgrid construction but gave no cost estimate.
Andeven if non-nuclear power is more expensive, Germans seeing imagesdaily of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear complex seem willing to paythe higher price.
Ralph Kampwirth, spokesmanfor Lichtblick AG, Germany's biggest utility offering electricityexclusively from renewable sources, said since the Fukushima disaster ithas been getting nearly three times more new clients than normal, upfrom 300 to more than 800 per day, despite prices slightly aboveaverage.
Sticking with nuclear power would also have its costs and require public funds.
Theonly two new nuclear reactors currently under construction in Europe,in France and in Finland, both have been plagued by long delays and seencosts virtually doubling, to around euro4 billion ($5.7 billion) andeuro5.3 billion ($7.5 billion) respectively.
Thedisposal of spent nuclear fuel is also a costly problem, but it has noset price tag in Germany because the government has failed to find asustainable solution.
Many decades-oldreactors are highly profitable as their initial cost has been writtenoff, but they now face higher costs as regulators push for safetyupgrades in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. One of the most pressing- and costly - requirements is likely to be a mandatory upgrade toreinforce all nuclear power plants' outer shell to withstand a crash of acommercial airliner.
Utility EnBW pulled theplug for good on one reactor temporarily shut down by the governmentbecause the new requirements made operating it "no longer economicallyviable."
But even if Germany abandons nuclear energy, some of Europe's 143 nuclear reactors will still sit right on its borders.
SinceFrance and other nations are firmly committed to nuclear power,shutting down all reactors across Europe won't happen, but Merkel is nowpushing for common safety standards. The topic will be discussed at theEuropean Union summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
Merkelsaid the 27-nation bloc, which has standardized "the size of apples orthe shape of bananas," needs joint standards for nuclear power plants.
"Everybody in Europe would be equally affected by an accident at a nuclear power plant in Europe," Merkel said.