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| Germany's Biblis Nuclear Plant, from www.spiegel.de |
An article in today's NY Times notes that Germany has already shut down 8 of its 17 nuclear reactors, and plans to close the rest by 2022.
This was a reaction to the Fukushima disaster in Japan. That a mishap of this scope could take place in a developed country has really spooked Germans.
Germany has been aggressively pursuing green energy and today gets 17% of its electricity from renewable sources (wind, solar and bio fuels) although the first two are somewhat unpredictable as they are highly dependent on weather conditions. Skeptics say that Germany's energy plan will lead to higher energy prices, higher emissions, and has already caused it to import more electricity from France and the Czech Republic--countries that use nuclear plants to generate much of their electricity.
The German plan estimates that electricity from renewable sources will double in the next ten years, but also calls for the construction of additional coal and gas-fired plants.
Japan is already backing off its initial pledges to completely phase out nuclear energy. It will be interesting to see if Germany will follow through with theirs.
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