On the last day of 2021, Germany is fulfilling its commitment to close three of its remaining six nuclear power plants, preparing to shut down the remaining three next year.
Following the closure of the Brokdorf, Gronde and Gundremmingen nuclear power plants, the total energy the volume will decrease by about four gigawatts, which corresponds to the capacity of about a thousand wind turbines.
Plans to abandon nuclear power within twenty years at the beginning of this millennium were approved by the then left-wing central government of German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, and his successor Angela Merkel supported the extension of nuclear power plants in 2010, believing it would help reduce the country’s coal dependency. wider renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy use.
A year later, in response to protests by environmental activists following the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, Merkel abandoned the intention and set 2022 as the deadline for Germany to phase out nuclear energy.
However, at a time when energy prices are rising and European relations with Russia, the main gas supplier, are becoming increasingly tense, there are fears that the closure of nuclear power plants will exacerbate the situation and it is harder to imagine a worse moment for the move. Proponents of nuclear energy also point out that its use is helping Germany reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government said this week that the planned shutdown of all nuclear power plants next year and the phasing out of coal by 2030 will not affect the country’s energy security and allow Germany to achieve climate neutrality by 2045.
“Significantly increasing renewable energy energy “We can prove that this is possible in Germany,” said Robert Habek, Minister for Economy, Energy and Climate.
The three power plants that will be closed on Friday – Brokdorf about 40 kilometers northwest of Hamburg, Gronde about as far south of Hanover and Gundremmingen 80 kilometers west of Munich – were commissioned in the mid-1980s. Brokdorf once experienced particularly strong protests from nuclear opponents following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
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