The Germans has changed their minds about abandoning the peaceful atom

Sergey Kondratiev, Principal director of the economic department of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented on the closure of nuclear power plants in Germany to the Vzglyad online newspaper.

In a few days, the last operating nuclear power plants in Germany will be closed. A whole era is ending in the country. However, unexpectedly, two-thirds of the Germans were against it. Because they realized on their wallets that the more energy sources, the safer. However, farther on, German politicians have even more dangerous plans in the energy sector.

Why did ordinary citizens of Germany change their minds and oppose the closure of nuclear power plants in the country?

“The reason is banal – it is the economy. In the past two years, both commercial consumers and ordinary Germans have experienced very high price increases in the wholesale market, which have also been passed on to retailers. Prices on the wholesale market increased 10–15 times at peak times, while retail prices grew more slowly. However, for certain categories of consumers, they grew by 40-50%. It was a price shock,” Sergey Kondratiev says.

Can Germany achieve 80% renewable energy by 2030, that is, in six years?

The expert believes that this will be extremely difficult, as Germany will face very strong challenges that it is unlikely to be able to cope with.

“The German energy market model, based on renewable energy and gas as a transitional fuel, actually broke down even before the Nord Stream explosions. It was broken back in 2021, when gas prices became very high and electricity became very expensive. In 2022, this model became completely unviable when Germany refused to import gas from Russia and the Nord Streams were blown up, the expert says.

The second important point is that not a single large country in the world has yet lived in conditions where 80% of electricity is generated through wind and sun. “There are countries where hydro generation plays a decisive role in the energy sector. These are, for example, Brazil, Paraguay, Norway. But hydro generation is controlled, unlike solar and wind,” Kondratiev says.

The problem lies precisely in the scale of the German economy and its energy system. To cope with such a share of unmanaged solar and wind farms in such a large energy system looks like an unbearable challenge. Yes, and in such a short period of time - six years.

“I'm not sure this challenge will be allowed. And I’m not sure that 80% of renewable energy sources will be able to ensure the stability of such a large energy system,” Kondratiev notes.