Wind and Solar Farms Are Putting European Nuclear Out of Work
Nuclear plants are giving way in Europe as more electricity comes from renewables.
Vattenfall AB’s 44-year-old Ringhals-2 nuclear plant will be permanently halted.
Photographer: Bjorn Larsson Rosvall/AFP via Getty Images
Two nuclear reactors that have served homes and factories in Sweden and Germany for many decades will produce their last electricity by the end of this month.
The permanent halt of Vattenfall AB’s 44-year-old Ringhals-2 reactor is yet another sign of how the surge in renewable energy has upended traditional energy economics. The Nordic region’s biggest utility made the decision not to invest to keep the facility going because of the unit’s struggle to break even as power from wind and solar farms flood the European grids and increasingly crowd out traditional power sources.
In Southern Germany’s advanced manufacturing heartland, Energie Baden Wuertenberg AG is preparing to close Philippsburg-2, one of the nation’s biggest reactors, which has helped power the car industry’s megaplants since mid-1980s. While its fate was sealed by Chancellor Angela Merkel in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, it probably wouldn’t be closing without the nation’s unprecedented supply of wind and solar power.