How long can we shower in winter? And is the washcloth an alternative to the rainfall shower? An energy policy debate is raging here, the superficiality of which hides the fact that a reduction in gas consumption by 15 or 20 percent remains unattainable with such measures.
The country is learning the hard way that the competitive advantage Germany has gained through access to cheap Russian gas has led to great dependency and a loss of sovereignty.
The attempt to free oneself from this dependency drives up the prices for gas and electricity to unimagined heights in the short term. At the same time we are experiencing the global end of nuclear energy, even if the opposite is often claimed. Nuclear power is a gigantic risk in the event of war, as can be seen in Zaporizhia, Ukraine.
In addition, nuclear energy endangers the security of supply. Dependence on this energy has plunged France into a crisis. Old plants are standing still due to pipe cracks, other reactors were shut down because they can no longer be adequately cooled due to global warming. Around half of France’s nuclear power plants are currently shut down. France has to import massive amounts of electricity – at times the price for a megawatt hour there was twice as high as in Germany.
Nuclear power is an economic disaster. The Électricité de France group, which is over-indebted at 92 billion euros, has just had to be completely nationalized. The failure of nuclear power in France threatens to endanger Europe’s grid stability.
Even some power plant operators shy away from the further operation of nuclear power plants – nevertheless, Germany is arguing about an extension of the service life of its last three nuclear power plants in addition to washcloths and rain showers.
Germany is not dependent on nuclear power
Ironically, the country that today produces twice as much renewable electricity as nuclear power was able to supply in its heyday should be dependent on nuclear power for security of supply? Of course it isn’t.
For heating and shower water, the substitution potential with nuclear power is less than one percent. In addition, one can counteract the allegedly imminent voltage drop in the power supply system with intelligent load management. Therefore, the license to operate the last German nuclear power plants should end on New Year’s Eve.
With a view to network stability, the Bundestag will decide whether two of these will be kept in reserve until the end of March. With the climate crisis and Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, the dispute over investment flows in energy production has intensified.
We are currently experiencing a “big battle” between the old fossil-nuclear structures and renewable energies. In this battle, the strategy of the European Union and Germany, in addition to the diversification of fossil energy sources, aims above all to replace these sources with renewable energies.
But decarbonization is bringing energy production back home – without losing sight of diversification. Germany and its energy transition are the focus of attention here.
Today we import 70 percent of our primary energy. The consistent expansion of renewable energies and ramping up the hydrogen economy would make it possible to produce 70 percent of the primary energy here, even with increasing electricity demand. Reversing the relationship between imports and domestic production meant a huge gain in strategic sovereignty.
Stick to the course of decarbonization
Because then those states would lose power and influence whose business model is based on the export of fossil raw materials. These countries want diversification instead of decarbonization, which is the reason why the gas deal with Qatar that Germany was trying to achieve failed. In order to develop new fields, Qatar is demanding contracts with terms that are incompatible with the desired decarbonization in Europe.
As bitter as it is that Germany, under the pressure of the Ukraine war, has to withdraw coal-fired power plants from the reserve, it is sticking to the course of decarbonization. It was Germany that, by phasing out nuclear energy and moving into renewables, made the latter so globally competitive that more renewable than fossil capacities are now being connected to the grid worldwide. In addition, the electricity from future nuclear power plants would be three to four times more expensive than electricity from renewable energies – and that with nuclear power plant construction times of a good two decades.
Therefore, the announcement by French President Emmanuel Macron to build many new nuclear power plants, as well as the Japanese government’s decision to return to nuclear power, should not lead to a significant number of new nuclear power plants. Last year, the largest number of nuclear power plants in the world since the Fukushima meltdown in 2011 was shut down.
The economy must become local again
Germany’s agreement on the production of green hydrogen with Canada, on the other hand, is an example of how strategic sovereignty can be regained via the energy sector. Hydrogen, produced by wind farms in Newfoundland, is shipped and then used by German industry. A promising model, especially because of the cooperation with a democratic state like Canada.
On the other hand, this example is also misleading. Because the change in direction from fossil energy to renewable electricity and green hydrogen is far more than simply replacing one fuel with another. Rather, it will be accompanied by global structural changes and shifts in power.
In this context, Germany’s traditionally extremely export-oriented economic model – we buy cheap fossil fuels and use them for the industrial production of expensive goods in order to then export them – is coming under increasing pressure.
One wonders why, where green hydrogen is produced in the Global South, a basic chemical industry should not also be created that supplies fertilizer in addition to green ammonia?
Therefore, a policy that relies on the mere replacement of fossil gas with hydrogen is doomed to failure. Decarbonization is also about relocating the economy. For this reason, the expansion of renewable energies must also be pushed forward massively and quickly in Germany.
It cannot primarily take place in Canada or Morocco, the expansion must also take place in the North and Baltic Seas, in Upper, Lower and Middle Franconia. Only then will we be able to secure added value in Germany. Only then can the loss of energy sovereignty, which is currently being experienced particularly painfully, be overcome in the long term. Only then can the big battle between old and new be won.
The author: Jürgen Trittin is foreign policy spokesman for the Bundestag faction of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. He was chairman of the party and in the government of Gerhard Schröder Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
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