German Nuclear Plants Needed Until 2042, Lawmaker in Merkel's Party Says
Germany must keep its nuclear power plants operating for two decades beyond a planned phase-out in 2022 to buy time for developing substitute renewable energy sources, a lawmaker in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party said.
Merkel’s Christian Democrats are pushing for the 20-year extension as she prepares to announce a nuclear revival strategy in September, Michael Fuchs, the CDU’s deputy leader in parliament, said yesterday in an interview.
“A 20-year extension is realistic -- an infrastructure for renewable power isn’t built overnight,” said Fuchs in his office in Berlin. “This is about pragmatism and not about a dogmatic attachment to nuclear power. We need affordable power as we strive to fulfill our climate goals.”
Calls by CDU lawmakers to let reactors run until about 2042 are at the longer end of proposals being considered by an independent commission that’s due to publish its findings this month. Merkel says she’ll partly base her decision on the commission’s assessment of power prices if some of the 17 remaining reactors operate between four and 28 years longer.
Backed by industry and the states of Bavaria and Baden- Wuerrtemberg, coalition lawmakers are pushing Merkel to opt for giving plants longer operating lives. Horst Seehofer, Bavaria’s prime minister, this month called for the reactors to be run “indefinitely.” The state has five nuclear plants and none should close unless there are safety concerns, Seehofer said.
Nuclear Opposition
Free Democrat Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle has said he backs an extension of nuclear power of about 15 years, while CDU Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen has said that only a “moderate” extension should be considered. Atomic energy is “not the energy of the future,” Roettgen told Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper on July 30.
“We’re seeing jostling now for influence as Merkel comes close to spelling out Germany’s new energy mix”, said Claudia Kemfert, chief energy analyst at Berlin’s DIW economic institute in an interview today. “The stakes are very high, from investment in renewables to utilities’ profit outlooks.”
The combined profit of Germany’s four biggest energy companies, E.ON AG, RWE AG, EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG and Vattenfall Europe AG stands to grow by about 6.4 billion euros ($8.5 billion) for each year they run atomic plants longer, according to a July 29 DIW report.
The opposition Social Democrats and the Green Party, which made the nuclear phase-out accord law under former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 2002, oppose extending nuclear power.
Biggest Power Market
Germany, Europe’s largest economy and biggest power market, derives about 23 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, including half of its so-called base-load on which industry and consumers draw around the clock. Renewable energy delivers another 14 percent of power, a share which Merkel wants to push to 30 percent by 2020.
“That’s only possible if we speed up research and investment in smart grids and storage capacity for wind and solar power,” said Fuchs.
CDU and FDP lawmakers will try to agree a new energy-policy as soon as parliament returns from the summer recess on Sept. 6, said Fuchs. Merkel’s Cabinet aims to sign off on the proposals by the end of that month, he said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Brian Parkin in Berlin at bparkin@bloomberg.net; Patrick Donahue in Berlin at at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net.
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