Germany Saturday ended its production of nuclear-powered energy as it took its remaining three nuclear plants offline in a bid to appease the climate.
The move did not, however, appease German citizens, who have been facing a dramatic energy crisis. A survey of 1,024 German voters revealed that 60% of respondents oppose shutting down the plants, citing increasing energy costs. Their concerns were not shared by climate messianists, particularly those in the country’s environmental Greens Party who cheered the decision.
But on the same day the plants were shut down, Germany’s leading electric utilities company EON told customers their electricity bills would increase by 45%. The announcement came as a financial blow to Germans, who already pay some of the highest electricity costs in Europe.
Furthermore, while the decision to end nuclear energy in favor of more renewable forms was intended to reduce carbon emissions, the result has been disappointing. Germany’s wind farms, which create a total of 66.5 gigawatts of power, are not producing nearly enough energy for the German population. According to environmental consultant and nuclear energy expert Mark Nelson, there would need to be a 400% expansion of wind to accommodate just half the country’s energy needs.
In the meantime, says Nelson, Germany’s wind power is still producing about 50% of the net CO2 emissions emitted by an efficient gas-powered energy plant, while churning out only enough energy to match the three defunct nuclear plants.
This has forced the Scholz administration to import nuclear energy from France and begin leaning more on energy produced from coal, which generates even more carbon emissions.
“Germany should not only not shut down the nuclear power plants, it should reopen the ones that shut down," said tech billionaire Elon Musk in an interview. Those are the fastest ones to restart. It’s crazy to shut down nuclear power plants,” he said in an interview posted to social media. “Please do not shut down nuclear power plants and please reopen the ones that have been shut. This is total madness to shut them down. I want to be clear: total madness.”
Nevertheless, the German government is applauding itself for reducing its reliance on Russian energy. Last year, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz admitted the country was helplessly dependent on Russian oil, four years after German officials mocked President Trump's warnings to find alternative energy sources.
Now Europe’s largest economy has traded in dependency on Russia for dependency on China, according to the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment Director Diana Furchtgott-Roth. Ninety-five percent of Germany’s solar cells and 50% of the raw materials used to build Germany’s wind turbines are manufactured in China.
Germany’s defunction of its nuclear plants appears unlikely to pull it out of the energy crisis facing Europe. In September, just after Russia cut off its oil supply to the continent, EU President Ursula von der Leyen proposed rationing electricity to “flatten the curve”.
