Germany shut down three of its last six nuclear power stations on Friday, another step towards completing its withdrawal from nuclear power as it turns its focus to renewables.
The government took the decision to speed up its phasing out of nuclear power following Japan’s Fukushima reactor meltdown in 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the coastal plant in the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years earlier.
The reactors of Brokdorf, Grohnde and Gundremmingen C, run by utilities E.ON and RWE, were shut down on Friday after three and half decades in operation.
The last three nuclear power plants – Isar 2, Emsland and Neckarwestheim II – will be decommissioned by the end of 2022.
The phase-out of an energy deemed clean and cheap by some is an irreversible step for Europe’s biggest economy, facing ambitious climate targets and rising power prices.
“For the energy industry in Germany, the nuclear phase-out is final,” said Kerstin Andreae, the head of energy industry association BDEW.
The six nuclear power plants contributed to around 12% of electricity production in Germany in 202. The share of renewable energy was almost 41%, with coal generating just under 28% and gas around 15%.
Germany aims to make renewables meet 80% of power demand by 2030 through expanding wind and solar power infrastructure. By Felix König – Eigenes Werk (own work) – Samsung S750, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/…
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