Quote from morganist:
I thought this was interesting. It just goes to show the impact of the Japanese nuclear meltdown. I wonder how much it will cost them to shut them down and the alternatives they will use. Perhaps investment in German energy comapnies that provides gas or oil or coal might be a good investment.
Quote from jprad:
This is a classic case of political pandering. My guess is that within a few years Germany's going to completely reverse this move.
It's simple math. 23% of Germany's electricity comes from 17 nuclear power plants. One was already off-line due to problems, the other seven were shut down after Fukushima.
That leaves 9 operational units. Assuming the 23% was provided equally by the 16 that were originally operational they've lost 10% of total electric capacity.
Wait until summer and let's see some rolling blackouts...
Germany decides to abandon nuclear power by 2022
Quote from bigdavediode:
Actually Germany is a net exporter of electricity, so some of the plants aren't needed.
Plus they are leaders of the world in deploying solar PV, which they already have 17 Gigawatts installed and they're continuing to expand in that area to meet their Kyoto targets.
Quote from jprad:
Sound bites are great but, numbers tell an entirely different story.
First, PV. Yep, Germany's gone all-in and 17TWh is a lot. But, in the scheme of things it's only 2% of Germany's total electric generation, which is around 600TWh.
Second, yes again, Germany is a net exporter of electricity. But, that amount is only 12TWh.
Since nuclear power produces 23% of Germany's electricity the loss of 7 of 17 operational reactors means that they've lost about 60TWh of capacity.
But, because they consume around 550TWh it means that the loss of those reactors could put them at a net deficit. If that's the case then come the summer there will be rolling blackouts.