Contrary to plan, two nuclear power plants in the south of Germany will remain on the power grid until mid-April next year. The ‘Atomausstieg’, which Angela Merkel inaugurated shortly after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima in 2011, will be postponed for a few months. According to the original plan, the last three nuclear power plants in Germany were to be shut down on December 31 of this year.
According to a report presented by Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) in Berlin on Monday evening, the energy supply in southern Germany in particular is so fragile that the two plants in Bavaria and in Baden-Württemberg must continue to run as a reserve.
The situation in the two southern states is particularly precarious. In addition to the overstrained energy market caused by the war in Ukraine, energy is taken from French nuclear plants in the south, many of which are now shut down for maintenance, Habeck said. In addition, Habeck mentioned the drought, which means that less energy comes from hydropower plants and less coal can be supplied across the rivers. And Bavaria in particular has invested little in renewable energy sources.
Also read this article (January 2022): It’s almost over with the ‘Atomstrom’
Big compromise
For Habeck, who was flanked by network managers on Monday evening, keeping the nuclear power stations open temporarily is a major compromise. His party, the Greens, was founded in part as a protest against nuclear energy. It will be little consolation for the Greens that the power station in Lower Saxony is allowed to close: in Lower Saxony there are state elections in October. The Greens in Lower Saxony are particularly vehement against nuclear energy because the state has a large and highly controversial nuclear waste storage facility.
Habeck emphasized that by April 2023 nuclear energy will really be over. Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) disagrees: against the Süddeutsche Zeitung he said that as far as he is concerned, all three nuclear power plants will run until 2024 to push energy prices down.