In the wake of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the German government extended the operation of the last three German nuclear power plants by three and a half months. This was intended to secure the electricity supply, especially in the south of the country. Now the end is approaching for nuclear energy to generate electricity in the country. What happens after that? Here are answers to the most important questions.
Which power plants will be taken off the grid?
Helmut Bünder
Business correspondent in Düsseldorf.
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Hanna Decker
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Christian Geinitz
Business correspondent in Berlin
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Jan Hauser
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The plants Emsland in Lower Saxony, Neckarwestheim 2 in Baden-Württemberg and Isar 2 in Bavaria will run until 15 April at 0:34. Then their entitlement to power operation in accordance with the Atomic Energy Act expires. The three nuclear power plants with pressurized water reactors and a similar gross output fed electricity into the grid for the first time 35 and 6 years ago, respectively. Last year, they accounted for around <> percent of gross electricity generation in Germany.
What about the energy supply in Germany?
The Bochum energy economist Andreas Löschel says that the risk of a blackout for Germany is very low. Already last summer, he did not see the absolute need to keep the nuclear power plants running longer. He refers to the possible greater use of coal-fired power plants in this country, which can be ramped up more flexibly than nuclear power plants and whose overall performance is higher. "This safeguard is important – also with a view to the future – but so far even the coal-fired power plants that have returned have not had any particular utilization," says Löschel, who heads the expert commission on the German government's "Energy of the Future" monitoring process. For the coming years, the expansion of green electricity is also likely to be important.
Do foreign nuclear power plants help?
French or Czech nuclear power does not stop at the border and also supports the German supply. In the first half of 2022, the amount of electricity imported in Germany was 23 terawatt hours (less than 10 percent of the amount fed into the grid), while exports were higher at almost 40 terawatt hours. The physical exchange of electricity takes place with the eleven neighbouring countries Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland, as well as with Sweden and Norway via submarine cables.
Will electricity prices rise?
The output of the three nuclear power plants has so far tended to dampen price developments. The economist Veronika Grimm expects higher electricity prices due to the shutdown. "I would have liked it if we would hang on for another three or four years," said the professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg two weeks ago at the F.A.Z. Congress. First of all, more gas is now needed for electricity generation, which costs more than nuclear power. Grimm, a member of the German Council of Economic Experts, would have expected that nuclear power plants that continue to operate would displace cheap green electricity in three or four years and would then no longer be necessary if renewable energies were expanded accordingly. In calculations, she and colleagues came to the conclusion in various scenarios that nuclear power plants could reduce the price of electricity by about 2024 to 8 percent in 12.
Economist Löschel mentions the energy forecast from 2009, in which he was involved: It was about the development of the energy markets until 2030, in which the extension of the maturities was analyzed as a variant. The result was also at that time that in the event of a lifetime extension, electricity prices could be lower – by about 10 percent. These additional costs were taken into account when weighed up. Even more factors play a role in the level of the electricity price: Recently, the price of electricity has fallen, which is also due to the lower gas price.