Germany's last three nuclear power plants are set to be closed by the end of 2022 as part of the country's plan to phase out nuclear energy.

Germany's remaining nuclear power plants were initially scheduled to be closed by December 31, but the government may consider a temporary delay due to potential natural gas shortages and provided there are no safety concerns.

"Germany's remaining nuclear power plants are scheduled to be closed by 2022 as part of the country's energy policy to phase out nuclear power."

Germany plans to shut down its remaining nuclear power plants by the end of this year, as part of its decision to move away from nuclear energy after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Germany is reconsidering the closure of its last three nuclear power plants, initially scheduled for December 31, due to potential energy shortages caused by reduced Russian gas supplies.

The Fukushima nuclear accident occurred in 2011, prompting Germany to decide on phasing out its nuclear reactors.

The Fukushima nuclear accident occurred in 2011, leading to Germany's decision to phase out its nuclear plants.

The Fukushima nuclear accident occurred in 2011, leading to Germany's decision to phase out nuclear energy.

The Fukushima nuclear accident occurred in 2011, prompting Germany to speed up its nuclear phase-out.

The Fukushima nuclear accident occurred in 2011, which led to Germany's decision to phase out nuclear energy.

"Germany's move away from nuclear energy has led to an increased dependence on coal due to the complications caused by the Russo-Ukrainian War and the country's goal to achieve 100% green power by 2035."

"Germany's energy transition and reduction of nuclear energy have led to an increased dependence on natural gas and possibly other fossil fuels, making it challenging for the country to achieve its renewable energy goals, especially in the face of external pressures such as the Russian-Ukrainian war."

Germany's energy transition and reduction of nuclear energy have led to increased dependence on coal and gas.

Germany has become more dependent on coal as an energy source due to its energy transition and reduction of nuclear energy, with the lost nuclear electricity production being replaced primarily by coal-fired production and net electricity imports.

Germany has become more dependent on liquefied natural gas (LNG) due to its energy transition and reduction of nuclear energy, as evidenced by the inauguration of its first LNG terminal.

"Germany is considering delaying the decommissioning of its last three nuclear power plants due to the potential energy crisis in Europe, but the exact number of operational plants is not specified."

There are three nuclear power plants still operational in Germany, accounting for about 6% of the country's electricity generation.

"There are three nuclear power plants still operational in Germany, accounting for 5% of the country's electricity production."

"Germany is postponing the closure of its last three nuclear power plants due to potential energy shortages, marking a shift in their policy to abandon nuclear energy."

"There are three nuclear reactors still operational in Germany, and there is consideration to keep them online due to the country's looming energy crisis."

The nuclear accident that led to Germany's decision to close nuclear power plants was the Fukushima accident in Japan.

The 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster led to Germany's decision to close its nuclear power plants, as part of an effort to move away from nuclear energy.

The Fukushima accident in 2011 led to Germany's decision to close its nuclear power plants, as announced by Mrs Merkel.

The 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan led to Germany's decision to close its nuclear power plants, with former Chancellor Angela Merkel speeding up the phaseout.

The Fukushima accident in 2011 led to Germany's decision to phase out its 17 nuclear reactors, which provided 25% of the country's electricity, resulting in increased coal and gas usage due to insufficient renewable energy sources.

The last nuclear power plants in Germany were closed on April 15, 2023, as part of the country's energy policy.

Germany has decided to keep two nuclear power plants on standby until April 2023, reversing its initial plan to shut down all nuclear power plants by the end of 2022.

The last three nuclear power plants shut down in Germany were Isar-2, Neckarwesteim-2, and Emsland, which ceased operation on April 15, 2023.

The last three nuclear power plants shut down in Germany are likely Isar 2, Neckarwestheim 2, and Emsland, operated by E.On SE, EnBW AG, and RWE AG, respectively.

"Germany primarily uses wind turbines and solar panels as its main renewable energy sources, with these sources covering 54 percent of power consumption in January and February."

Germany primarily uses solar and wind energy as part of its renewable energy sources.

Germany primarily uses solar and wind power as its renewable energy sources.

"Germany's primary renewable energy sources are expected to be wind and solar energy as the country aims to go carbon neutral in the next 25 years."

Germany primarily uses wind and solar power as its renewable energy sources, with these sources accounting for nearly 40% of the country's electricity generation.

Germany's energy transition aims to achieve carbon neutrality by accelerating the transition to renewable energy sources, driven by the need to address climate change and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Germany's energy transition aims to replace traditional energy sources with renewable energy, requiring significant investment and resources.

"Germany's long-term goal is to transition to renewable energy and achieve carbon neutrality, with a plan to promote renewable energy at three times the current rate and move away from fossil fuels."

Germany's energy transition aims to achieve carbon neutrality in 25 years by increasing renewables and decreasing fossil fuel reliance, with the current government driving this effort.

"Germany's energy transition aims to achieve carbon neutrality, with the country committed to reducing reliance on fossil fuels and transitioning to cleaner energy sources, despite temporary setbacks and adjustments to its nuclear power plant operations."

The remaining three nuclear power plants in Germany generate about 6% of the country's electricity.

The Russian-Ukrainian war has caused a temporary delay in Germany's plan to close its nuclear power plants, as the country grapples with energy security concerns and the impact of the war on the EU's energy transformation goals.

The Russian-Ukrainian war led to a temporary delay in closing Germany's nuclear power plants due to concerns about securing a stable energy supply.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused Germany to reconsider its plan to shut down nuclear power plants, citing potential natural gas shortages and energy security concerns.

The temporary delay in closing Germany's nuclear power plants is due to the maintenance shutdown of nearly half of its nuclear power plants, as well as the crisis with Russia and the war in Ukraine, which has led to a shortage of Russian gas and a need to extend the use of nuclear reactors.

The Ukraine War in February 2022 led to a temporary delay in closing Germany's nuclear power plants as Europe faced a dilemma due to its dependence on Russian natural gas and oil supplies.

Germany is reconsidering its nuclear exit plan due to the need for a stable energy supply following the shortfall in Russian gas and oil supplies after the military operation in Ukraine.

Germany is reconsidering its nuclear exit plan due to the Russian-Ukrainian war's impact on natural gas supply, but the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action denies reports of extending nuclear power plant service.

Germany is reconsidering its nuclear exit plan due to the energy crisis in Europe caused by the war in Ukraine and the resulting shortage of Russian gas supplies.

Germany is reconsidering its nuclear exit plan due to the reduction in Russian gas supply, which may lead to energy shortages during winter.

"Germany's nuclear exit plan is being reconsidered due to the reduction of Russian gas supplies, which has led to economic and energy security concerns."

Germany's decision to extend nuclear power plant operations was influenced by the Russian-Ukrainian war, which affected the country's ability to achieve its energy transformation goals due to the boycott of Russian oil and gas.

The Russian-Ukrainian War, particularly Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the use of energy as a weapon, is an external factor that influenced Germany's decision regarding nuclear power plant operations.

Germany's decision to extend nuclear power plant operations was influenced by the need to secure a stable energy supply due to the shortfall in Russian gas and oil supplies after the military operation in Ukraine.

Germany considered extending nuclear power plant operations due to natural gas supply issues caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war, but the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action denied the reports, stating that nuclear power policy is still under review.

Germany's decision to extend nuclear power plant operations may be influenced by the changed perception of Gazprom as a reliable gas supplier, following their deliberate withholding of supplies to the European spot market.

Germany is moving away from nuclear energy and does not consider it a clean, green, or renewable energy source, implying a focus on other forms of renewable energy to achieve carbon neutrality.

"Germany is shifting its focus from nuclear energy to green power, aiming for 100% green power by 2035, but faces challenges due to the Russo-Ukrainian War and its impact on the country's energy supply."

Germany's last three nuclear power plants are set to be closed by the end of 2022 as part of the country's plan to phase out nuclear energy.

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Content: Three nuclear-fired power plants will be taken off the grid in Germany on Friday as part of the country's plan to end atomic power.

"The nuclear phaseout makes our country safer and helps to avoid radioactive waste," said Federal Environment and Nuclear Safety Minister Steffi Lemke.

"It is now essential to ... advance the search for a final repository for high-level radioactive waste as well as permanent solutions for low- and medium-level radioactive waste," the environment ministry said.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel speeded up the phaseout following the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan.

Friday's shutdown affects power plants in Brokdorf in Schleswig-Holstein, Grohnde in Lower Saxony and Gundremmingen C in Bavaria.

Germany's remaining three nuclear plants — Emsland in Lower Saxony, Isar 2 in Bavaria and Neckarwestheim 2 in Baden-Württemberg — will be closed by the end of 2022 "at the latest," the environment ministry said.

"Since 2011, Germany has been drawing a line under a highly problematic technology in an orderly, reliable process," Lemke said.

Nuclear accounts for about 10 percent of Germany's electricity production. The shutdown has sparked criticism as Germany will have to dramatically ramp up renewable energy and has also increased its reliance on highly polluting coal-fired power.

"Security of supply in Germany continues to be guaranteed," said Robert Habeck, federal climate and economy minister. He added that reliable and "sustainably generated electricity" is a "central requirement for aligning our economy and industry toward climate neutrality."

That stance puts Berlin at loggerheads with France, where nuclear is the largest element of its energy mix (and also helps supply Germany).

EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said in September that existing nuclear plants, which provide low-carbon electricity essential to the green transition, can be kept running "for two, five, 10 years," adding: "Why deprive ourselves of this production capacity?"

France is planning to scale down the share of nuclear in its electricity mix from 75 percent to 50 percent by 2035, but President Emmanuel Macron said in November that France "will restart the construction of nuclear reactors" while "continuing to develop renewable energies."

Macron also said France will invest €1 billion into research and development, notably into small modular reactors.

Belgium recently decided to shut down all its nuclear power plants by 2025, but plans to invest €100 million in new generation nuclear reactors and research.

More from ... Louise Guillot

Germany's remaining nuclear power plants were initially scheduled to be closed by December 31, but the government may consider a temporary delay due to potential natural gas shortages and provided there are no safety concerns.

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Content: Germany ’ s last three nuclear power plants may be delayed
In light of the potential energy crisis in Europe in the winter, officials revealed that Germany intends to delay the decommissioning of the last three nuclear plants in the country, although it will only temporarily prolong the life of the plants, but it marks the first time that Germany has deviated from the energy policy introduced in the millennium and has so far been enshrined by almost all parties.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) quoted senior officials as saying that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has not yet formally adopted the proposal to delay the discharge, and if it is decided to do so, there are technical and legal issues, including passing through parliament.
The cabinet is currently discussing some details, and while it will have to wait for the results of the energy demand assessment in the coming weeks to come to a conclusion, officials have revealed that everything is almost a foregone conclusion.
The last three nuclear plants in Germany were due to be decommissioned on December 31, and the government reportedly believes that a temporary delay would require two conditions: Germany is likely to suffer from a natural gas shortage and there are no safety concerns about keeping nuclear reactors in operation.
The shift in German policy underscores the shock of Russia ’ s invasion of Ukraine to European political circles, especially Germany, which has been closely tied to Russia ’ s economy and has long relied on Russian gas supplies.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he began to increase military spending, send weapons to Ukraine, break years of pacifism, supply arms to conflict zones, the latest energy policy shift, and involve the almost sacred issue of “nuclear abolition ” in German politics.
The German economy ministry, which dominates energy policy, declined to comment on the report, saying only that it all depends on the outcome of an assessment of Germany ’ s energy needs.
The remaining three nuclear power plants account for about 6% of Germany's electricity generation, and if they continue to supply power, they will not have to use natural gas or coal-fired power to fill the gap, allowing some areas to continue to have natural gas.
In some parts of Germany, huge coal-fired power plants have resumed operations in response to a potential power outage from a Russian supply cut in June, disrupting Germany ’ s progress so far in reducing carbon and fighting air pollution.
The German government has drawn up two executive orders on how to reduce natural gas and energy consumption over the next two years.
Energy authorities estimate that Germany will need to reduce its use of natural gas by 20% in order to avoid a shortage of natural gas this winter and next.
It is unclear when the German authorities may extend the discharge period, with some officials offering a few months, but the ruling Liberal Democrats believe it should be extended to 2024.
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"Germany's remaining nuclear power plants are scheduled to be closed by 2022 as part of the country's energy policy to phase out nuclear power."

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Content: This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: Russia’s move on Ukraine triggers western sanctions

Marc Filippino
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Wednesday, February 23rd, and this is your FT News Briefing.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Russia is edging closer to war. President Vladimir Putin is endorsing Russian-backed separatists who claim the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, western powers are pushing back both with sanctions and by suspending the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. But can Germany kick its Russian gas habit?

Guy Chazan
Its industry has really become addicted to relatively cheap Russian gas so it’s in a bit of a bind, really.

Marc Filippino
Plus, how are Russian markets holding up through all this? Unsurprisingly, not so great. We’ll tell you more. I’m Marc Filippino, and here’s the news you need to start your day.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Very late on Monday night, Russian president Vladimir Putin decided to send what he called peacekeeping troops into eastern Ukraine. They’ll support two Russian-backed separatist states that he’s recognised as independent. This crossed a line for western powers, and they retaliated with a salvo of sanctions against Moscow on Tuesday. The US is targeting two of Russia’s largest financial institutions, as well as Russian elites and their family members. The FT’s Henry Foy has more on Europe’s sanctions towards Russia.

Henry Foy
So the European Union has decided to sanction a lot of individuals and entities. They’ve gone after 351 members of the Russian parliament. These are elected MPs, elected representatives who voted for the independence of these statelets, these separatists to be recognised for troops to be sent in, and also 27 individuals and entities who are linked to actions that have undermined Ukraine’s sovereignty. The key thing here, though, is the EU, just like the US and the UK who also announced their own sanction packages, are saying this is not it. This is just the first wave. And if you continue aggression against Ukraine and if there is a full invasion of the rest of Ukraine not held by these pro-Russian separatists, then there will be more — much, much more. This first wave is targeted. It’s not particularly economically damaging, but it’s a sign that there is unity across the west in standing up to this.

Marc Filippino
Henry, is all this enough to push Russia from further escalation?

Henry Foy
Well Marc, officials I speak to here in Brussels, in the EU, inside of Nato, tell me basically, no. That effectively, Putin has made a decision that he is going to go the whole way and invade Ukraine. That’s a decision that he’s built up over years. It’s an emotional decision. It’s an irrational one. And there’s really little that the west can do about it, given that Putin has thrown away and torn up all the diplomatic efforts. And he will take these sanctions and the sanctions will slow him down. They will affect the Russian economy. They will make an invasion more painful than perhaps it would have been before. However, they’re not going to stop him if that is what he intends to do, and most people, the Nato intelligence community, the defence community, believes that that is his decision.

Marc Filippino
Now, how is Nato’s approaching all this? You know, a crucial issue for Russia is that it wants to keep Ukraine and other former Soviet countries out of Nato. What’s its role right now?

Henry Foy
So Nato’s role, they’ve been very clear about this, is to protect itself, to protect alliance members, to protect Nato members in Europe. So what they’ve done in recent months and weeks is to deploy more troops in eastern European countries that border Ukraine and Russia effectively as deterrents to Russia to say, look, if you are going to invade Ukraine, you’re not going to come anywhere near us because we are going to defend our own, our own members, but also to help with any cross-border fallout from an invasion of Ukraine, which is likely to be in the form of refugees, potentially spillover events such as terrorism.

Marc Filippino
Henry Foy is the FT’s European diplomatic correspondent.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The news of Russia sending troops to Ukraine sent the price of oil up to nearly 100 bucks a barrel yesterday, and there was other energy news too. Germany has frozen the approval process on the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Berlin would not approve the Kremlin-backed project. The pipeline is owned by the Russian-backed company Gazprom and would have increased a Russian gas supplies to Germany and the rest of Europe. The pipeline project has been in the works for years, and there has been a lot of pressure on Germany to stop it. But now that it’s been stopped, what’s next for Germany’s energy sector? Our Berlin bureau chief Guy Chazan joins me now to talk about this. Welcome to the show, Guy.

Guy Chazan
Hi.

Marc Filippino
So Guy, one of our Lex columnists wrote that Germany has been like a junkie in its addiction to Russian gas. How dependent is Germany on Russian energy?

Guy Chazan
Well, it relies on Russia for 55 per cent of its gas imports, and that’s more than many other countries in Europe. It’s a sort of, it’s an indictment in a way of the country’s kind of energy policies over the past few years because in 2011 it took this rather controversial decision to phase out all its nuclear power stations by 2022, and it’s now also phasing out its coal-fired power stations by 2030. So it has all these very ambitious goals to change its energy mix, but that has made it relatively more reliant on gas. And when you’re more reliant on gas, you’re more reliant on Gazprom because that’s Europe’s major supplier.

Marc Filippino
Yeah, and Russia, in response to Germany’s move, said, OK, well, you know, this is going to have an impact on already high energy prices. How hard will higher prices hit Germany’s economy?

Guy Chazan
Well, we’ve already been getting a taste of it because over the past few months, energy experts have said that Gazprom seems to be deliberately withholding supplies to the spot market in Europe, and that has driven up prices. But it’s basically destroyed the reputation of Gazprom as a reliable supplier in Germany. The green minister of the economy yesterday said that explicitly, and that’s really a big change because in the past, whenever you sort of ask German officials, you know, what about this relationship with Russia? They always say, well, you know, even in the worst times during the cold war, Russia was a reliable supplier. Those flows of gas were never affected. But that seems to have changed in recent months, and the perception of Gazprom has accordingly changed as well in Germany.

Marc Filippino
So given that this perception of Gazprom has changed, what alternatives does Germany have when it comes to energy sources?

Guy Chazan
Well, none at the moment. That’s the problem. It basically is building a terminal for the import of LNG, liquefied natural gas. But that is very expensive, much more expensive than Gazprom’s gas. So it’s in a bit of a bind, really. But the big difference, I suppose, really from the Merkel era, the governments of Angela Merkel, is that we now have this government with the Greens, and they are determined for Germany to go carbon neutral in the next 25 years. And if that ambition is achieved, then there will be much, much more renewables, much more wind and solar, and much less reliance on fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas.

Marc Filippino
Less of a question on the economics of this whole thing and more about the safety of German people. I mean, it’s the middle of February. If people aren’t able to heat their homes, is there a potential issue with people being safe and warm in Germany?

Guy Chazan
Well, I don’t think so, because the consensus is that Gazprom and Russia would not do anything as suicidal as withhold gas supplies to Germany. I mean that literally would be destroying an energy relationship, which is mutually, very, very beneficial. It’s not just Germany that benefits from this. It’s Russia, too, which relies very, very heavily on the flow of foreign currency into its exchequer. I think actually, if it were to come to that, Germany is actually quite well placed at the moment because the winter is drawing to an end and it’s getting sort of LNG shipments via Rotterdam. So it has been able to diversify. And apparently ministers have been saying the energy security situation is OK at the moment.

Marc Filippino
Guy Chazan is the FT’s Berlin bureau chief. Thank you, Guy.

Guy Chazan
Thanks.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Marc Filippino
Moscow’s main stock benchmark has collapsed by a third since October. Markets have been responding to the escalating crisis in Ukraine. Investors are mostly worried about two things — one, a full-blown invasion by Russia into Ukraine, and two, how sanctions, which you know, we talked about earlier, will affect assets. Our capital markets correspondent Tommy Stubbington has been following this and says there’s one area in particular investors are watching.

Tommy Stubbington
Possibly the most extreme form of sanctions in terms of their impact on the Russian stock market would be an outright ban on trading Russian stocks or Russian bonds on the secondary market, which would make it effectively impossible for western investors to hold those assets. Now we’re not there yet, but I mean, obviously any outside risks that investors see will lead to investors effectively dumping the Russian assets that they hold, and they do hold those assets largely because they are included in the indices, the investment benchmarks, the billions and billions of dollars of investments follow.

Marc Filippino
Now how insulated is the market overall? And is it likely that the Kremlin would react?

Tommy Stubbington
Share price declines, on their own, are probably something that I imagine the Kremlin wouldn’t be too worried about. They’d be more worried about the sanctions hurting at the level of the whole economy. And on that basis, the Russian economy is fairly well insulated from sanctions by the high level of dollar reserves that their central bank holds, which, you know, should be able to protect the rouble from any kind of run from overseas investors. And so the answer is the, you know, the Russian economy is certainly more sanctions-proof than possibly it was in the past.

Marc Filippino
Tommy Stubbington is the FT’s capital markets correspondent.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

You can read more on all of these stories at FT.com. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Make sure you check back tomorrow for the latest business news.

This transcript has been automatically generated. If by any chance there is an error please send the details for a correction to: typo@ft.com. We will do our best to make the amendment as soon as possible.

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Germany plans to shut down its remaining nuclear power plants by the end of this year, as part of its decision to move away from nuclear energy after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

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Ukrainian War Report # 19: Russian Bombing Hospital of Women and Children...
South Korean President Yoon Seok Nun ’ s wife is 12 years younger, high-value but controversial
Black and white set / waste nuclear energy dilemma today Germany tomorrow Taiwan
In a series of "Today / Tomorrow" projections, Taiwan compares itself to Hong Kong and Ukraine, and now has a different mirror object, which is Germany.
What is being compared here is not a sense of national subjugation or war, but the dilemma of energy choices.
The United States imposed a ban on Russian crude oil, and Germany said it could not follow up because the country's economy is heavily dependent on Russian energy.
Half of Germany ’ s natural gas, a third of its coal and a quarter of its crude oil are purchased from Russia.
At the end of last month, Germany shut down the "Nord Stream 2" gas supply, which has caused no small impact on its energy resources; if Russia's crude oil imports are stopped, the whole people's livelihood and economy will be greatly affected.
Germany chose not to follow in the footsteps of the United States, mainly for the sake of national interests, and must not abandon itself for the sake of sanctions.
Not only Germany, but most countries in Europe, with the exception of the United Kingdom, which has left the European Union.
Germany is highly dependent on Russia for energy, mainly after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Merkel ’ s government decided in an anti-nuclear demonstration that nuclear power, which originally accounted for 18% of nuclear power, should be shut down by the end of this year.
Nord Stream 2 was built for this purpose, but if Germany banned Russian oil, Russia threatened to shut down Nord Stream 1; thus, German industry would be paralyzed.
Similarly, the situation in Taiwan may be worse than in Germany.
Our green energy development is very unreliable, the power grid is fragile, natural gas is easily blocked by ships, and no neighbors can buy electricity.
Today, Germany reflects the energy crisis in Taiwan.
Germany Russian natural gas
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Taiwan's eight life insurance holdings of Russian bonds have been estimated at more than 10 billion yuan.
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Germany is reconsidering the closure of its last three nuclear power plants, initially scheduled for December 31, due to potential energy shortages caused by reduced Russian gas supplies.

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Content: Germany To Postpone Closure Of Last Three Nuclear Power Plants - WSJ

(@ChaudhryMAli88)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th August, 2022) Germany, faced with possible energy shortages in the winter as gas supplies from Russia have dropped, intends to postpone the closure of its last three nuclear power plants (NPPs) in a move marking a departure from a two-decade policy to abandon nuclear energy, The Wall Street Journal reported citing German government officials.

The decision, which has to be formally adopted by the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and would possibly require a vote in Parliament, could be weeks off, but already now the German government says two key conditions have been met that allow a temporary extension of the life of the three remaining NPPs, currently expected to close December 31: the possibility of a gas shortage and the confidence that a longer operation of reactors would pose no safety concern, according to the officials.

"The reactors are safe until Dec. 31, and obviously they will remain safe also after Dec. 31," the WSJ quoted a senior official as saying.

Scholz last week said for the first time that it could make sense to keep Germany's last three nuclear reactors online.

However, even if the life of the three German NPPs is extended, this will not be a panacea for Germany's looming energy crisis this winter as the country is mainly missing natural gas, primarily used for heating and manufacturing.

The European Union has been seeking to diversify energy imports and reduce dependence on Russia after Moscow started its special military operation in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly said that Russia has never used gas supplies to punish anyone, but sells energy solely in its own interests, to increase the welfare of Russians and on a commercial basis.

The German government has also outlined measures to reduce gas and power consumption in the country over the next two years. The measures in particular include lowering the temperature in public buildings. According to Germany's energy regulator, gas consumption will have to be cut by 20 percent if Germany wants to avoid a gas shortfall during this coming winter and next winter.

The three officials who spoke to the WSJ said the extension of the NPPs' life would only be made for several months.

The power plants in question are Isar 2 in the southern state of Bavaria, Neckarwestheim 2 in Baden-Wurttemberg and Emsland in Lower Saxony. They are operated, respectively, by E.On SE, EnBW AG, and RWE AG.

After the start of Russia's special military operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine, the West has stepped up sanctions pressure on Russia, which has led to an increase in prices for energy and food in Europe and the United States.

The Fukushima nuclear accident occurred in 2011, prompting Germany to decide on phasing out its nuclear reactors.

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Content: 'Sustainability challenges' What Big Oil, green movement conceal from us

The US funds its military aid to Ukraine with tax dollars and some of America’s allies fund Putin’s military with purchases of his oil and gas exports. And that’s the absurdity that has come to define the Russian invasion
Representative image

NEW YORK: It has long been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. By that definition, we’re the ones detached from reality if we keep accepting what the oil industry and the green movement keep telling us over and over again and expecting a different result. The greens keep saying that because the price of wind and solar is now as cheap as, or cheaper than, fossil fuels, they’ve won the energy war. Game, set, match — welcome to the green planet.

The oil companies say — as they have in each previous energy crisis since 1973 — that the only answer to this energy crisis is the one they’ve offered for the past 49 years: drill, baby, drill. Welcome to reality. Well, they’re both wrong, and accepting the repetition of either of these tired shibboleths is hurting us economically, environmentally and geopolitically — especially, of late, geopolitically.

Because our continued addiction to fossil fuels is bolstering Vladimir Putin’s petrodictatorship and creating a situation where we in the West are — yes, say it with me now — funding both sides of the war. We fund our military aid to Ukraine with our tax dollars and some of America’s allies fund Putin’s military with purchases of his oil and gas exports.

And if that’s not the definition of insanity, then I don’t know what is. Have no illusion — these sins of the green movement and the oil industry are not equal. The greens are trying to fix a real, planet-threatening problem, even if their ambition exceeds their grasp. The oil and coal companies know that what they are doing is incompatible with a stable, healthy environment. Yes, they are right that without them there would be no global economy today. But unless they use their immense engineering talents to become energy companies, not just fossil fuel companies, there will be no livable economy tomorrow.

Let’s look at both. For too long, too many in the green movement have treated the necessary and urgent shift we need to make from fossil fuels to renewable energy as though it were like flipping a switch — just get off oil, get off gasoline, get off coal and get off nuclear — and do it NOW, without having put in place the kind of transition mechanisms, clean energy sources and market incentives required to make such a massive shift in our energy system.

It’s Germany in 2011, suddenly deciding after the Fukushima accident to phase out its 17 relatively clean and reliable nuclear reactors, which provided some 25 percent of the country’s electricity. This, even though Germany had nowhere near enough solar, wind, geothermal or hydro to replace that nuclear power. So now it’s burning more coal and gas.

A 2019 working paper for the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research found that in Germany “the lost nuclear electricity production due to the phaseout was replaced primarily by coal-fired production and net electricity imports. The social cost of this shift from nuclear to coal is approximately $12 billion per year. Over 70 percent of this cost comes from the increased mortality risk associated with exposure to the local air pollution emitted when burning fossil fuels.”

Today, the European Union is drawing up a plan to break its addiction to Russian oil and gas by 2027, but, in the meantime, Putin is laughing all the way to the bank. As CNN reported in April, citing a report by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air: “Russian revenues from fossil fuel exports to the European Union soared during the first two months of the Ukraine invasion” — to $46.3 billion. That was more than double the value of Russian energy imported by the E.U. during the same two-month period a year earlier.

That was not because the E.U.’s volume of imports doubled. Higher oil and gas prices accounted for most of that increase. In other words, Putin starts a war that creates instability, which drives up oil prices, so he makes twice as much money exporting roughly the same amount of oil.

While Germany jumped off nuclear before it had a safety net of sufficient clean alternatives, at least it has been on a serious, path-defining quest to get them. Indeed, the whole world owes Germany a huge debt for driving down the price of solar panels and wind turbines through the subsidies and tax incentives it created. In Germany, wind turbines, solar panels and other renewables covered 54 percent of power consumption this past January and February — which is AMAZING. In 2021, renewable energy sources accounted for only about 12 percent of total U.S. energy that was consumed.

Still, the most important delusion of the green movement today — of which I am a proud, if grouchy, member — is telling itself that because the price of wind and solar technology has fallen so low now that it can beat coal and natural gas in most markets, often even without subsidies, it’s “game over” for fossil fuels. I wish. Price is only half the story.

If you can’t install the transmission lines — to get that sun and wind power from the vast open spaces where it is generated to the big urban areas where it is needed — and if you cannot set aside more land to install the scale of solar and wind farms you need to replace coal, gas or nuclear, it doesn’t matter that your renewables are cheaper on a per-kilowatt-hour basis.

And today transmission is a huge problem in the U.S. and Europe, where many people don’t want wind farms, solar fields, electricity lines — or natural gas pipelines — in their backyard. I wish this were not the case, but there is no immaculate pathway from brown energy to green energy. The road is paved with cruel trade-offs. Pick your poison — but grow up. Meanwhile, ever since the 1973 Arab oil embargo, the big oil companies have basically said in each successive crisis: Sure, we need more clean energy, but you have to understand — it doesn’t scale. Right now, we’re in an emergency, so we just need to drill more. You hear the same refrain today, which is why we’re in danger of wasting yet another oil crisis and never breaking our fossil fuel addiction.

For those oil companies sitting on large natural gas deposits — which are needed in this transition because gas is cleaner than coal — it means tapping those deposits but doing so with zero methane leakage; otherwise gas becomes as bad as coal. But it also means thinking much more seriously about how fossil fuel companies truly make the transition to become “energy companies,” not just oil companies, so they can leverage their amazing pools of engineering talent to provide more energy solutions that save the planet, not warm it.

Friedman is an Opinion Columnist with NYT©2022

The New York Times

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The Fukushima nuclear accident occurred in 2011, leading to Germany's decision to phase out its nuclear plants.

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Content: ...
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Heat waves and energy options
Jeffrey Kemp
Posted in: Last Updated:
“It ’ s hotter than the desert. ”
The phrase has made headlines in the European press over the past week, as an unusual heat wave has disrupted life in many countries, especially Portugal, Spain, France and the United Kingdom.
On July 19, London experienced its hottest day since daily record-keeping in the 19th century, with temperatures above 40 ° C or 104 ° F, and extremely high temperatures were prevalent in other countries in the Northern Hemisphere that are not used to such heat, including Russia, China and Japan.
For most Americans living in cities that routinely reach temperatures between 38 and 40 degrees Celsius, the benefits of air conditioning are taken for granted.
All subways and major trains are cool like most shops, office buildings and hotels.
Florida used to have a very low population at this time of year due to the hot summer.
But air conditioning arrived in the 1920s and became commonplace by 1940.
Florida is now the third most populous state.
In contrast, most cities in Europe only have limited air conditioning in luxury office buildings and hotels.
London ’ s huge underground system cools down on very few of the many different lines.
Rising temperatures are widely seen as further evidence that global warming caused by climate change is a clear and present danger and will worsen, unless drastic steps are taken to reduce carbon emissions.
Until recently, both the United States and Western Europe have been leading global efforts to move more quickly toward renewable-energy societies.
Then came the Ukraine War in February 2022 which set back the move towards green energy.
Europe was particularly dependent on Russia for natural gas and oil supplies.
But once tough sanctions were imposed on Russia after the war began, Europe found itself faced with a cruel dilemma.
Now the main priority for European countries is to diversify their fossil fuel energy supply, and eventually wean themselves off any major dependence on Russia.
This means increasing its purchases of fossil fuels from alternative sources, including the Middle East, Africa and North America, and increasing its own supply of coal, the most polluting fossil fuel.
Unless European governments can reassure their citizens that they will not reach freezing temperatures with the onset of cold weather in just four months, they can expect public anger to be reflected in the next election.
Under these circumstances, it is imperative that short-term political interests transcend the long-term need to reduce the use of fossil fuels.
Germany, in particular, faces a double dilemma after it made the decision in June 2011 to phase out its nine nuclear plants following the accident at Fukushima, Japan, three months earlier, when a tsunami triggered the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
The United States also faces tough choices about its energy options at a time of high inflation that has driven up gas prices.
The demands of Republicans, as well as some Democrats, that the United States do more oil and gas exploration to meet its large needs, are in stark contrast to Biden ’ s policy of reducing domestic production of fossil fuels to achieve his goals of reducing carbon emissions.
As long as the Ukraine war continues, both the United States and Europe will have to slow down their plans to reduce the use of fossil fuels.
This, in turn, weakens leadership efforts in meeting climate change targets.
But any slowdown will contribute to the continuation of extreme weather events and long hot summers that are becoming more and more dangerous.
Quote from "The Union"
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The Fukushima nuclear accident occurred in 2011, leading to Germany's decision to phase out nuclear energy.

Title:

Content: How decades of complacency have left Germany facing a cold, dark winter

Betrayed by its own elite, the country is at risk of social unrest

Germany is facing its worst winter for 75 years. The impending catastrophe risks crippling its economy, sweeping away its government and bringing chaos to the heart of Europe.

In 1946-47, perhaps half a million Germans starved or froze to death in their ruined cities. Older Germans still shudder at the memory of the “Hunger Winter”. Some blamed the Nazis, others the Allied occupation. In fact, the British sent food, fuel and clothing they could ill afford to spare themselves.

Now Europe’s largest economy is heading for a winter of recession, rationing and possible blackouts. This time, though, there is nobody to blame except Germany’s complacent – and in some cases corrupt – political establishment.

As Vladimir Putin chokes off Russian gas supplies – already down to a fifth of their pre-war level – by closing the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for “maintenance” yet again next week, the lamps are going out for Olaf Scholz and his “traffic light” coalition of Social Democrats, Liberal and Greens.

'Autumn of rage'

The Bundesbank has been predicting a recession and the latest figures show that business activity is already contracting. Inflation, which hit 8.5 per cent last month, is expected to keep rising along with the rest of the eurozone, probably into double figures.

Yet for historical reasons Germans won’t just accept high inflation as a consequence of the war in Ukraine. The world remembers the hyperinflation that undermined the Weimar Republic a century ago; only older Germans recall the hyperinflation after the Second World War, which lasted longer. For three years Germany’s only stable currency was American cigarettes. No wonder Germans have been allergic to inflation ever since.

It is true that Germans are not yet demanding big pay rises or going on strike. But energy prices are already rising exponentially. The country's one-year ahead power price has skyrocketed to almost €1,000 per megawatt-hour, a jump of more than 720pc since the start of 2022. If Putin turns off the tap, bringing the mighty German economy to a juddering halt this winter, there is a real danger of civil unrest.

Intelligence officials are warning that extremist organisations, such as the neo-Nazis of Combat 18, are planning an “autumn of rage”. As a foretaste, in the old Prussian town of Neuruppin near Berlin, there were ugly scenes this month as Scholz was shouted down by far-Left and far-Right protesters.

But the panic and indignation now brewing go far beyond the ranks of the “unteachable” extremists.

Germans sense that unaccountable elites have ceded control of their country’s destiny to Putin. The more they are must pay him for Russian gas, the bigger his war chest with which to perpetrate genocide in Ukraine.

Forcing Germany to be complicit in a colossal crime against humanity is a diabolical twist in the vengeance that Putin is now exacting upon Europe for backing Ukraine. According to The Economist’s Christian Odendahl, at present prices Germany will need to spend 8.4 per cent of its GDP on gas. Hitherto it was just 1 per cent.

Already preparations are underway for central heating to be rationed or even switched off, forcing residents to seek shelter in schools or town halls.

The country is scrambling to reduce its reliance on gas with a campaign to make households cut back, and a massive national effort has brought gas storage levels up to 81 per cent full.

Food prices, meanwhile, rose at a rate of nearly 15 per cent in July. Those who fear being unable to afford to heat their homes or feed their families are prey to angst and anger.

Actions have consequences... or do they?

Few foresaw the Russian invasion of Ukraine, let alone its devastating consequences for Europe. But it is dawning on the German people that the seeds of the present crisis were sown over the quarter of a century from 1998 to 2022, under Angela Merkel and her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder.

These were the years of plenty for Germany, when Berlin dominated the European Union, ensuring that its export-led economy benefited from the single currency while loading the social costs on to its poorer neighbours. But Germany’s dirty secret was cheap Russian energy.

Under Schröder – who went on to become one of Putin’s “useful idiots” – German industry began to abandon its postwar reliance on coal and nuclear energy in favour of Russian gas and renewables.

In 2011, after the Fukushima accident, Mrs Merkel announced that all German nuclear power plants would be closed down. It was a pyrrhic victory for the Greens but backed by all the major parties. Public opinion had been turned against nuclear energy in the 1980s by the Soviet-funded “peace movement”. Now the Greens are the keystone of the Scholz coalition.

Even in the country’s present predicament, Robert Habeck, the Green Vice-Chancellor and Environment Minister, is refusing to reverse the exit from nuclear to alleviate the energy crisis, though it is still possible over time to reactivate a number of nuclear power stations.

Yet Berlin is demanding that 26 other EU member states make huge cuts in energy use this winter to help Germany – to the irritation of the Spanish and others, who don’t depend on Russian gas and recall lectures from Berlin during the eurozone crisis about actions having consequences.

For decades, the Kremlin acted as Germany’s geopolitical drug-dealer, tempting Berlin to become ever more addicted to the energy that fuelled its manufacturing, pharmaceutical and chemical factories. Now that the Germans are about to go cold turkey, they are discovering how cynically the national interest was betrayed by their politicians and captains of industry.

With Schröder as its salesman, a new Nord Stream 2 pipeline was built under the Baltic Sea — with the blessing of Mrs Merkel, who fended off Anglo-American pressure to cancel what was regarded as a threat to European energy security.

Last year, as Russian tanks massed on the Ukrainian border and Nato warned of imminent invasion, Gazprom redoubled its efforts to keep the flagship project on track.

The Russian energy giant poured €192 million (£163m) into an environmental foundation set up by Manuela Schwesig, the Social Democratic premier of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern — the state that hosted Nord Stream 2 and stood to gain most. She proceeded to denounce the US for opposing the pipeline, claiming that American sanctions were purely self-interested.

Putin’s stooges almost succeeded in persuading Scholz to defy his Nato allies. He dithered until the eve of February’s invasion before shelving Nord Stream 2.

Now, after six months of Europe’s worst war since 1945, some German politicians are once again calling for the pipeline to be opened “so that people do not have to freeze in winter and our industry does not suffer serious damage”, as Wolfgang Kubicki, Vice-President of the German Parliament, puts it.

Meanwhile Ms Schwesig has just been re-elected as leader of the Social Democrats in her state by a large majority. Schröder has yet to be expelled from the party, let alone sanctioned.

Germany’s Achilles’ heel

This is the measure of Germany’s abject reliance, not only on Russian energy, but on the Russian state. For Putin, gas and oil were only ever a means to an end. He has always wanted to reduce the Germans — towards whom Russians have traditionally had an inferiority complex — to a status of servility.

Stalin only succeeded in dividing Germany. Putin seeks to turn the entire Federal Republic into his client state — and thereby impose his will upon Europe.

With the unerring eye of the predator, Putin grasped that energy was Germany’s Achilles’ heel. A single plant of a single corporation, the headquarters of the chemical and pharmaceutical giant BASF at Ludwigshafen, uses as much energy as Denmark.

Over the last 25 years, Germany’s craving for cheap energy led it into an unequal relationship with Russia — what the philosopher Hegel called “the dialectic of master and slave”.

Putin saw that some German politicians could be bought (Schröder), others bamboozled (Merkel), and still others bullied (Scholz). Other EU countries followed the German example by relying heavily on Moscow for energy, influenced by the evasion and ambivalence that has characterised Berlin’s policy for decades.

Germany, whose economy is substantially larger than Britain’s, has given just £1 billion in military aid to Ukraine compared to the UK’s £3.5 billion. The United States has given ten times as much as the EU. Yet Ukraine is a European country under genocidal attack.

The reluctance to provoke Putin that still prevails in wide circles of the Federal Republic is rooted in exaggerated notions of Russian military power, economic importance and cultural pre-eminence.

German fatalism about Russia’s ability to absorb casualties and yet win ultimate victory reflects folk memories of the Eastern Front. But Putin, unlike Stalin, does not have a vast conscript army at his disposal, he does not enjoy technical superiority and he cannot afford the war of attrition that he has unleashed. Nor are the Russian people united against an invading force in defence of their homeland. Only in Berlin do they think this is another Stalingrad.

This historical myopia has much to do with the long-standing German habit of subsuming the other nations that made up the Soviet Union into Russia. To this day most Germans have no awareness of the fact that the Nazis killed millions of Ukrainian civilians and devastated their country.

Ironically, many artists, writers and musicians who have fled Ukraine have found refuge in Germany. One example is the composer Valentin Silvestrov, who fled to Berlin aged 84 with one suitcase, full of his manuscripts. Once there, he discovered that Ukrainian music was unknown in Germany. Now that Silvestrov’s works are being performed, including at the Proms in London, the Germans are slowly waking up to the presence of a greater living composer than any of their own.

Many ordinary Germans, like the British, instinctively warm to the Ukrainian cause. The difference is in leadership – or lack of it. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, unlike Boris Johnson or Liz Truss, has shown only lukewarm support for Kyiv and has been implicitly rebuked by President Zelensky.

Hamburger grilled

Although there is no suggestion that Scholz has been bribed to go easy on Russia, he himself has become embroiled in a corruption scandal. He is accused of helping M.M. Warburg & Co, Germany’s oldest and largest private bank, to avoid a €47 million fine in 2016, during his time as Finance Minister in the Merkel coalition.

The Hamburg-based bank is alleged to have made up to €300 million in a capital gains tax scam which came to light while Scholz was also mayor of the city state. Just as he finds himself facing an unexpectedly grim present and a positively terrifying future, his provincial past has returned to haunt him.

Last week the Chancellor was grilled by a committee of inquiry in Hamburg. The normally meticulous Scholz claimed not to remember any details about his meetings with Warburg’s former chief, Christian Olearius, who has now been charged with tax evasion. Germany’s safe pair of hands, whom millions had entrusted with the nation’s finances, is now accused of being cosy with tax-dodging bankers and being an unimpressive, even unreliable, witness.

In other ways, too, Scholz is failing to live up to the moral example set by the two great Social Democratic Chancellors of post-war Germany, Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt. At a joint press conference with Mahmoud Abbas in Berlin earlier this month, Scholz remained tight-lipped while the Palestinian leader delivered an anti-Semitic tirade, accusing Israel of committing “many Holocausts” against his people.

Schmidt, who concealed the fact he had a Jewish grandfather from the Nazis but as Chancellor was an outspoken philosemite, would not have been impressed by his fellow Hamburger Scholz. Nor would Brandt, who famously fell to his knees at the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Not for decades has anti-Semitism been such a threat in Germany: in July, Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial was desecrated with swastikas. Now, as Putin’s myrmidons massacre and deport Ukrainians near the site of Nazi genocide, while a quarter of the Russian Jewish population has emigrated in anticipation of pogroms, Germany needs a leader who is not afraid to denounce anti-Semitism even at the cost of diplomatic niceties.

After less than a year in office, Scholz’s personal ratings are plumbing depths never seen during Mrs Merkel’s 16 years at the helm. As Germans brace themselves for unprecedented hardships in peacetime, they are led by a weak and indecisive Chancellor at the head of a fragile three-party coalition.

Post-heroic, post-patriotic

Wednesday’s visit to Kyiv by Boris Johnson – his third – to mark Ukraine’s Independence Day was hugely appreciated not only by Volodymyr Zelensky but by all Ukrainians. Yet it was a gesture of solidarity that did not occur – could not have occurred – to Olaf Scholz.

The German Chancellor’s only visit to the Ukrainian capital last June, accompanied by Emmanuel Macron and Mario Draghi, was an awkward, chilly affair that yielded little more than promises. This week, Scholz posted a short video message, concluding: “Our hearts are with you.” Ulrich Speck, a German foreign policy analyst, commented: “Hearts, yes. But not weapons.”

Johnson, by contrast, knows he is among friends in Kyiv – a friendship symbolised by Zelensky awarding him Ukraine’s highest honour, the Order of Liberty. It is impossible to imagine the lugubrious German Chancellor finding the Prime Minister’s pithy words: “While people [in the West] are paying energy bills, people in Ukraine are paying with blood.” Nor would Scholz echo him in declaring: “I believe Ukraine can and will win this war.”

For his part, Zelensky told his people that they had been “reborn” in the heat of war. “We used to say: ‘Peace’. Now we say: ‘Victory’,” he declared.

Highly educated Germans find it hard to empathise with such Churchillian sentiments. Jürgen Habermas, the eminence grise of German intellectuals, makes condescending comments about Ukraine as a primitive place, still captive to the nationalist illusions of the last century, unlike more sophisticated, “post-heroic” Germany. It doesn’t occur to the 93-year-old philosopher that without the heroism of its soldiers and civilians, Ukraine would by now have ceased to exist.

Prussian military prowess has long since given way to post-patriotic pusillanimity. Where Merkel and Scholz feared to tread and even Biden was hesitant, Johnson was the first to commit himself wholeheartedly to the cause and to visit war-torn Kyiv.

Many other nations – the Poles, the Baltic states, the Scandinavians and the Canadians among them – have been more supportive than the Germans, who owe Ukrainians the greatest moral debt.

Berlin boasts of handing out a handful of howitzers while dithering over clapped-out armoured vehicles. Meanwhile British arms and training, Turkish drones and American rocket artillery systems have proved decisive on the battlefield.

Sold down the Dnieper

Although the Scholz coalition officially sides with Ukraine, the unpalatable fact remains that Germany and its EU partners are financing Russian aggression by paying vast sums for Russian gas.

Will they stand up to Putin in Germany when the enormity of the ordeal ahead becomes clear to everybody? Will public opinion continue to back even the present feeble commitment, or will the voices calling for peace at the expense of Ukrainians prevail? It is all too believable that at some point, probably early next year when gas storage facilities are empty, Berlin – and Brussels – will open negotiations with the Kremlin, regardless of Kyiv’s wishes.

Yet it is then that the ghosts of the past may rise up to intervene in the present. The thought of Germans and Russians redrawing the map of Eastern Europe at the conference table sends shivers down the spines of every Pole, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian and, of course, Ukrainian. On August 23, 1940, exactly 82 years ago this week, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed, carving up Poland (which then included Lviv and other parts of present-day Ukraine) and the Baltic states between Russia and Germany. No German Chancellor wishes to be reminded of that precedent.

However, nor can Scholz risk presiding over an even deeper and more lasting recession than that caused by the Covid pandemic. Somehow he must steer a course between the Scylla of appeasing Putin and the Charybdis of economic ruin.

The tension between these positions is reflected in the tripartite coalition. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and the Greens are the hawks, Finance Minister Christian Lindner and his pro-business Free Democrats are the doves, while the Social Democrats are deeply divided. The party leadership leans towards Moscow, the rank and file towards Kyiv. This explains why Scholz never says that he wants Ukraine to win the war, merely that they must not lose it.

The opposition Christian Democrats are only slightly more united. They too have a large wing that privately favours a negotiated peace, represented by their pro-business leader Friedrich Merz, and a smaller but not insignificant group led by the foreign affairs expert Norbert Röntgen, who hope for a Ukrainian victory. Merz has papered over the cracks by focusing on a campaign to reverse his predecessor Mrs Merkel’s exit from nuclear energy.

Meanwhile, the “understanding Putin” lobby has the support of both the hard Left Die Linke and anti-immigration AfD parties. German public opinion has slowly tiptoed away from its initial admiration for Ukrainian resistance and towards a compromise peace.

That subtle shift could soon become an overwhelming tide, once Germans are required to make real sacrifices. Vladimir Putin, we may be sure, is counting on it.

From October, Scholz will impose a gas levy on consumers to compensate energy companies for the cost of replacing Russian gas supplies. Germany’s biggest energy company, Uniper, was bailed out in July to the tune of £12.5 billion; it is now claiming another £18.5 billion of levies.

This policy is bound to be unpopular, since it redistributes tens of billions from the poor to the rich — curious thinking for a government of the Left. But this is nothing compared to the prospect of protests sparked by a national shutdown caused, not by a deadly virus, but by Putin’s energy politics.

A change in the air?

Modern Germany has a volatile history of popular protest. It began with the revolution that toppled the Kaiser in 1918. The Nazis mobilised the masses to carry out their “national revolution” in 1933. A workers’ uprising in East Germany was crushed by Soviet tanks in 1953. Student protests brought about a cultural revolution in 1968. Uniquely bloodless and benign was the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This was Germany’s finest hour.

The defiance that breached the Wall and sent the Soviet army home was a blessing, but the despair that Putin’s revenge may induce this winter will surely be a curse. Gas has given the Russian dictator coercive control over the German political class, which willingly acquiesced in its fate.

In Kyiv, Boris Johnson said: “I can tell you that we in the UK will not for one second give in to Putin’s blackmail.” Olaf Scholz is incapable of speaking like this — because he does not believe it. He has failed to frame the coming ordeal as a battle in which Germans must make sacrifices for their own liberty, not just Ukraine’s. People don’t mind his lack of charisma; they do mind facing a nightmarish winter with spineless hypocrisy at the helm.

Will it become so obvious by next spring that Scholz is unequal to the task that either he or his coalition are replaced? Can the centre of German politics hold — or are we about to see a terrible revolt of the masses against a discredited political establishment? It has happened before. It can happen again.

Daniel Johnson was the Telegraph’s correspondent in Germany and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s. He is now the editor of TheArticle.

The Fukushima nuclear accident occurred in 2011, prompting Germany to speed up its nuclear phase-out.

The Fukushima nuclear accident occurred in 2011, which led to Germany's decision to phase out nuclear energy.

Title:

Content: Nuclear energy...
Carbon neutrality and stable supply
T + T - normal size
Japan ’ s announcement of the start of the construction of new generation nuclear reactors is symbolic of the return of nuclear energy to the forefront around the world, especially since this step, accompanied by the operation of decommissioned plants, came about 11 years after the famous Fukushima disaster on March 11, 2011, after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which caused cooling problems in the nuclear reactor.
Tokyo ’ s latest move reflects a radical change in policies for a country that used to derive less than 4 percent of its electricity from nuclear power (according to last year ’ s statistics), after relying on more than 10 times that rate in 2011 before the disaster.
This coincides with similar changes in the positions of several European countries that are bringing nuclear power back to the forefront, including Germany, although the main objectives are different: Tokyo, according to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, stated that the trend towards building modern reactors with different safety and protection means is in line with the goals of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
On the other hand, the European backlash towards nuclear energy is mainly justified by the question of securing a stable energy supply to fill the shortfall in Russian gas and oil supplies after the military operation in Ukraine.
This is in contrast to previous global trends to end nuclear power, starting with Sweden, Italy, Belgium and Germany, to reduce the risks surrounding it, which are mainly associated with safety rates and harmful waste.
Among the countries moving towards a return to nuclear power was Belgium (which began its phase-out in 1999), where Brussels announced its intention to extend the operation of two reactors for an additional 10 years.
France (which has the largest number of nuclear plants on the old continent with 56), as well as Britain, have also emerged to increase reliance on this route.
In the United States, President Joe Biden is encouraging investment in nuclear power, and his administration has allocated up to $6 billion to rescue plants threatened with shutdown.
China is also seeking to develop its nuclear facilities.
Poland, the Czech Republic and India are added to the list in efforts to get rid of coal dependence.
Although many countries are moving towards a return to nuclear energy, forced as protectionist measures to secure energy resources after the war in Ukraine showed widespread risks, especially for Europe, this trend affects another goal of environmental commitments and achieving carbon neutrality, given that nuclear energy is environmentally friendly, despite its risks.
Environment and climate
In this context, the consultant of environment, energy and climate change, Maher Azazi, in statements to Al-Bayan from Cairo, pointing out that nuclear energy is one of the most important means friendly to the environment and climate, as it is in the record of major accidents of power plants is the lowest at all compared to the accidents of gas stations and accidents that occurred to huge hydro plants.
He pointed out that nuclear power plants are environmentally friendly because they do not emit any emissions or pollutants such as sulfur oxides or nitrogen oxides or solid particles.
It is also climate friendly because it emits no greenhouse gas emissions.
Nuclear waste is also “handled at the highest level of safety, ” despite some risks.
The environmental consultant points to the rapid developments in safety technologies, pointing out that nuclear waste is buried in chambers 100 to 150 meters underground hollow with walls of armored concrete, and with scientific and technological development is redeveloped.
He says that the risks he perceives to be related to nuclear waste are almost non-existent in the light of this development in safety systems.
As for nuclear radiation, he pointed out that the wall of the nuclear reactor is up to three meters thick reinforced concrete, and from the inside there is a very thick container of nuclear fuel, so the chances of radiation leakage are weak, considering at the same time that the dramatic transformation in the context of climate protection brings back to the forefront nuclear energy, and the world is highly qualified to replace oil and gas plants in electricity generation.
In light of these environmental impacts, more than 100 nuclear communities have called on world leaders to double electricity production from nuclear power in 2050 to achieve carbon neutrality.
According to statistics from energy research firm Rystad Energy, the projected investment in nuclear energy in 2023 is $46 billion.
The European Union estimates that the investment required in the new generation of nuclear power plants by 2050 will be around 500 billion euros in the old continent.
Clean energy
For his part, Dr. Sabri, climate change consultant in Cairo, told Al-Bayan that there is a huge difference between thermal, chemical and nuclear energy, the latter of clean energies, and returning to them again means moving towards carbon neutrality and addressing climate change, as they do not emit any harmful emissions to the environment and climate, instead of using fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gas emissions.
Nuclear energy is the result of fission or fusion reactions of the nuclei of the atom, while thermal is the product of a chemical reaction between the atoms, the latter emits harmful emissions to the environment and climate, while nuclear energy is a clean energy that does not pose a threat to the climate, such as fossil fuels and unclean energy sources exporting greenhouse gases.
Data from the world
32 countries use “nuclear power plants ” to generate electricity 10% of the world ’ s electricity using nuclear power 400 GW Total installed nuclear power capacity last year 52 reactors under construction in 19 countries around the world 100 nuclear communities World leaders have called for doubling electricity production from nuclear power in 2050 to achieve carbon neutrality. EU investment in next-generation nuclear power plants by 2050 is expected to total €500 billion; 150 new nuclear reactors China plans to build over the next 15 years (with $440 billion investment); 25% of electricity from nuclear power by 2050 in Britain (according to targets announced by the British Prime Minister), compared to 16% currently.
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"Germany's move away from nuclear energy has led to an increased dependence on coal due to the complications caused by the Russo-Ukrainian War and the country's goal to achieve 100% green power by 2035."

Title:

Content: Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war on February 24, the US sanctions on Russia have become wider and stronger.
European countries have responded differently to near-“ unlimited ” economic and financial sanctions.
However, there are dissenting expressions of resistance to Russian oil and gas, Germany and the former Soviet Union ’ s Middle Eastern and European countries.
In August 2021, the United Nations Committee on Climate Change released a report by 234 scientists, revealing that the inescapable and increasingly serious climate crisis is a common historical undertaking that humanity must face together.
This is an important warning to EU authorities who proposed the “European Green Agreement ” in 2019, which aims to reduce carbon emissions by 55% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, based on 1990 carbon emissions.
As a result, the European Commission proposed on December 31 last year and hoped to list nuclear power as a so-called "green energy".
However, EU member states are clearly aligned on the ultimate goal of carbon neutrality based on their respective energy mix and sources of supply, but they are quite divided on how to achieve it within the EU ’ s planned timeline.
As this proposal creates a conflict between nuclear France and anti-nuclear Germany, the European Union ’ s rotating presidency (January to June this year), French President Emmanuel Macron ’ s assertion that “nuclear energy = green energy ” has exacerbated the differences between the two countries.
For the German government, "nuclear energy is not a clean green energy, let alone renewable energy", this view directly collides with President Macron's "to reduce carbon emissions, but also reduce natural gas imports, we must take the road to nuclear energy".
"Carbon emission reduction" and "carbon neutrality", two different paths of thinking, originally just the EU "storm in the teapot", after the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine, US President Joe Biden publicly asked European allies to boycott Russian imports of oil and gas, the EU's energy policy has become an important issue for economic development after the epidemic.
After the Russian-Ukrainian war, the United States hopes that the world will jointly sanction Russia's oil and gas exports. This call, in addition to the United Kingdom's decision to no longer import Russian oil and gas by the end of this year, the European Union and NATO's European countries "excluding energy sanctions" show three meanings: First, the war may affect the safety of nuclear power plants.
Second, the different energy supplies and ratios of various countries directly affect the ability to cooperate with the United States to sanction Russia.
Third, the nuclear abolition of Germany and nuclear France, after the Russian-Ukrainian war, will make the European Union's energy policy, into a new stage.
First of all, there are many nuclear power plants in Europe; before the war, no one thought that the incident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 could happen again.
4 nuclear power plants with 15 nuclear reactors supplying half of all electricity in Ukraine.
Whether the escalation of war affects the safety of nuclear power plants is of great concern to European countries.
The situation is different in Switzerland and Belgium; five nuclear power plants have been decommissioned in Switzerland after the 2017 nuclear referendum, and one has been decommissioned in 2019.
However, in Belgium, where half of its electricity comes from nuclear power, the government of Belgium decided on March 18 to retain some of its power generation units and extend them until 2035 after the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Second, 30% of Europe ’ s crude oil and 40% of its natural gas come from Russia, and it will be difficult for renewable energy to replace it in a short period of one year, or even three or five years.
In Germany, for example, 35% of oil and 40% of natural gas come from Russia. Even if it comes from the United States (Texas) on the other side of the Atlantic, it also involves the construction of LNG (liquefied natural gas) receiving stations and the arrival of ships, and even a large number of super tankers above 320,000 tons, it is bound to not be the current Rotterdam (Netherlands), Hamburg (Germany), Anteppt (Belgium, etc. All major ports in Europe can handle the load.
And thousands of miles away from the oil tankers and LNG fleet, itself requires a large amount of fuel costs, the arrival of the transmission line of the laying, also can not be completed overnight.
After the completion of the price of oil and gas, the cost of fuel transportation must be added, and for Germany, which is the first high electricity price in Europe, the burden of the people and the operation of enterprises will be seriously affected.
Finally, Germany, which insists on eliminating nuclear weapons this year and hopes to achieve 100% green power by 2035, is a complicated situation.
After the Russo-Ukrainian War, Germany stopped reviewing Nord Stream II, which had already been built.
However, there is no political feasibility without Russia ’ s “Eastern Gas Delivery ”, as the Green Party has a joint government with the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, forced to re-use the policy option of coal burning.
Compared with the energy policy of France with nuclear energy as the main body, for Germany with a GDP of 3.8 trillion US dollars, even natural gas is only a part of the energy transformation, the pursuit of 100% renewable energy policy goals, in the year of total nuclear abolition, if it also boycotts Russian oil and gas, it will be unbearable for the economy.
The delay of the Russian-Ukrainian war, on the one hand, some countries began to think about the safety of nuclear power plants at the same time, on the other hand, due to the boycott of Russian oil and gas, will hinder the achievement of the EU's energy transformation policy goals.
And for Germany, which pursues "100% renewable energy (green power)" in 2035 and is Europe's largest economy, it is a short-term solution and may not be able to do so in the medium term, and the achievement of long-term goals still has a long way to go.
# Nuclear # Energy # Natural Gas # Russo-Ukrainian War # EU

"Germany's energy transition and reduction of nuclear energy have led to an increased dependence on natural gas and possibly other fossil fuels, making it challenging for the country to achieve its renewable energy goals, especially in the face of external pressures such as the Russian-Ukrainian war."

Germany's energy transition and reduction of nuclear energy have led to increased dependence on coal and gas.

Germany has become more dependent on coal as an energy source due to its energy transition and reduction of nuclear energy, with the lost nuclear electricity production being replaced primarily by coal-fired production and net electricity imports.

Germany has become more dependent on liquefied natural gas (LNG) due to its energy transition and reduction of nuclear energy, as evidenced by the inauguration of its first LNG terminal.

Title:

Content: Alert
The secret identity of Hu Ge 's wife is revealed, "spend 3.5 million to learn makeup to attract him"
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How did the German model achieve an unbearable energy transition war across the sea?
【 By Fu Guanqi 】
Environmental awareness, green energy production has always been regarded as the world's superior Germany, but because of a Ukrainian-Russian war, let the bright achievements behind the unfinished business, exposed to the world.
Is this general review of energy security, ignited by war, a crisis or a turning point for Germany, which rose from the ashes of World War II? Can Germany break through the status quo and turn into a new model for a sustainable economy in the future?
Or is it a death on the road to transformation? How can Taiwan find its future direction from this “energy transition war ”?
Just after Christmas, for many Dodd families, the most wanted Christmas gift may be a heat pump to make the whole family better through the winter.
Unlike the tens of millions of domestic heating systems in Germany that still use natural gas or oil as fuel, heat pumps are powered by electricity, which can be seen as "reverse air conditioning", which has a higher thermal conversion efficiency and symbolizes energy access at a lower price.
The energy crisis caused by the Russo-Ukrainian War has become a watershed in the price of energy in Germany.
The past dependence on Russia to import a large amount of cheap energy can not be returned, and the international carbon pricing mechanism is increasingly complete, which has led Germany to realize that only green energy is the way to reduce energy prices again.
The "Vision" team traveled to Germany, in-depth interviews and observed that the consensus that permeates German society today is: "There is not much time for the energy transition, and we must accelerate progress."
German Green Party MP Till Steffen, who visited Taiwan in 2022, told Visionary that "this' energy crisis' has accelerated the 'energy transition' and become a priority for the government."
German Economy Accelerates Greening, Renewable Energy Becomes National Security Foundation
This is not just a matter of paper. At the end of 2022, Germany inaugurated the country ’ s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.
Germany decided last spring to build it, and it could be completed in a few months. “This is super fast for Germany, ” Steffen said.“ We need to scale up renewable energy at the same rate. ”
If you make decisions at the slow pace of your past habits, you won ’ t be able to achieve the goals you set. ”
In the past, far less ambitious than the Green Party ’ s liberal finance minister, Christian Lindner, has also designated renewable energy as “free energy ”, emphasizing its function to enhance Germany ’ s energy security and economic independence.
In this context, the two pillars of the energy transition, "switching to renewable energy" and "improving energy efficiency", have also become the top priorities of enterprises in the country.
Even the German machine tool manufacturer MAG, a pioneer of Industry 4.0, has re-examined energy conservation and is preparing to install solar panels on its plant.
“Many investment plans are being reevaluated because of higher energy prices, ” explains Sebastian Schoning, MAG ’ s head of Europe & Americas.“ Many investments that were previously unprofitable are now justified. ”
Solar panels that can be used for their own use and can be sold for electricity have been greatly shortened, and with tax incentives, large and small businesses and families have been selling out; installation technicians are so hot that waiting in line has become a new normal in the last few months.
Yen Chien-ho, general manager of the German branch of FSP, which has been operating solar energy storage business for more than six years from Taiwan, revealed that the green energy product line is already the main revenue of the company, and it is estimated that by 2023, solar related products can grow by 50%.
Quanhan also saw the business opportunities of green energy vehicles in Europe and decided to set up a new R & D center in Germany to attack customized charging devices.
Another Taiwanese company that has been working in Germany for ten years, Servo Press Co., Ltd. is also favored by European customers due to the fact that the product consumes about 50% less power than traditional presses, and is expected to double its business performance in 2023.
Germany has been driving the energy transition for decades. The driving force of this energy crisis is mainly reflected in the change of mentality and the re-calculation of business interests.
First, in terms of mentality, Germany used to import about 60% of its energy, and is more heavily dependent on cheap fossil fuels from Russia.
However, when energy is no longer so readily available, it has also greatly changed the German society's view of energy: in the past, everyone saw renewable energy as a threat to the stability of electricity supply, and now it is an important basis for protecting national security.
Second, in the eyes of enterprises, green energy has become the only energy source that can maintain long-term competitiveness.
"We all know that there is no future for fossil fuels," said Markus Rosenthal, director of government relations at the German Association for Energy Storage Systems. He cited the withdrawal of Allianz, Germany 's largest insurance company, and the active investment of major banks in decarbonization technology as examples. The effect of greening the German economy is greater than anyone else. "
Many may have heard of Germany ’ s Energiewende vision after the Fukushima disaster.
But such a concept has taken root in Germany ’ s anti-nuclear movement since the 1970s.
Since then, the Green Party movement has developed with the greatest political influence in the world.
GREEN ENERGY GREEN ENERGY CHALLENGE 1: Lack of work, insufficient capacity of Northern Power South
The Renewable Energy Act (EEG), which came into force in 2000, made Germany the first major economy to promote renewable energy.
Over the next 20 years, the proportion of renewable energy supply has grown significantly from 6% to 46%, and this remarkable achievement has become an international model case for promoting energy transformation.
However, the model of the period of peace seems to be unable to withstand the test of war, and Germany still fell into the dilemma of energy crisis in the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Russia ’ s invasion of Ukraine and the weaponization of energy are certainly uncontrollable factors.
But the German society's caution against nuclear energy has also made Germany more dependent on relatively clean natural gas during the period of phasing out coal.
“We are over-reliant on fossil fuels and the development of renewable energy over the past few years has been too slow, ” said Malte Kuper, energy and climate policy researcher at the German Institute for Economic Research (IW).“ We must accelerate the correction of the structural errors of energy policy over the past decade. ”
Wilhelm Kiewitt, Director of Energy Economics at 50Hertz, a German power grid company, said: “We are vigorously promoting the construction of renewable energy, but we have not updated the grid infrastructure and have not ensured that the design of the electricity market is compatible.
As a result, the energy transition is not doing well. ”
Wind power located on the northern coast of Germany has so far been difficult to reach the industrial heartland of the south because the government has spent too much time coordinating with the residents of the south to accept high-voltage cables cutting through their beautiful landscapes.
The lack of capacity of Northern Power South has become a key missing piece in the German energy puzzle.
In addition, the political lobbying power of fossil fuel companies and strict regulations on onshore wind power have also slowed down the pace of transformation in Germany.
A few months ago, there was a demolition of nearby windmills to expand coal mines in North Wales. Although the efficiency of these windmills was low and they were expected to be rebuilt and upgraded, environmentalists criticized this as a retrograde policy in the midst of the energy crisis.
But the lack of urgency may be the key factor in Germany ’ s gradual deviation from its goal.
According to the German government ’ s 2021 forecast, all sectors, from energy, industry and agriculture, will not be able to meet the 2030 climate goals on the basis of current carbon reduction actions.
In terms of new technology, even if Germany began hydrogen energy research more than 30 years ago, it has not been able to enter the expansion.
Thomas Hilig, founder of THEnergy in Germany and a hydrogen energy consultant, pointed out that “we have studied hydrogen energy thoroughly and want to know everything. ”
But it may be possible to start expanding sooner.
Indeed, now is the time to launch the app. ”
The impact of high energy prices and increasingly extreme weather have become a reality in Germany, forcing the country, accustomed to sound and prudent action, to admit its mistakes and shortcomings and accelerate the progress of the energy transition.
The question is, is it in time?
Opening a recent German newspaper will find that a crisis is not necessarily a turning point.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which account for 99% of the total number of German enterprises, are struggling, and many companies may not be able to survive.
A survey of companies released by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) in the summer of 2022 shows that due to high energy prices, 1 / 4 of enterprises have completed the deployment of production reduction, 1 / 4 have reduced the scale of operations, and the remaining half have not yet begun to act, and are still thinking about the corresponding steps.
At present, the German government has finalized a nearly 100 billion euro energy bill subsidy plan, but Asha Maria Sharma, deputy director of digital services at the Foreign Trade and Investment Agency, believes that financial subsidies are only part of the solution, companies must think about how to use AI, data analysis and other technologies to save energy, in order to remain competitive in the future when energy prices are higher.
However, the resources and financial power of SMEs are not as good as those of multinational enterprises, and it is not easy to face inflation, interest rate hikes, the impact on the dollar exchange rate and energy prices, and to devote more efforts to long-term investment layout.
For example, when the Covid-19 pandemic spread, Alexander Krug, the public relations manager in charge of the Berlin Digital Center for SMEs, observed that about a third of SMEs were suspending or even cancelling strategic digital investments that would bear fruit in the medium to long term.
Moreover, in the global semiconductor shortage, many small and medium-sized enterprises are competing for similar chips with the government-supported renewable energy industry, as well as Germany ’ s powerful automotive industry.
In terms of money and resources, it is difficult to win.
Cooper said that in the long term, the energy crisis can be an accelerator of the energy transition.
But for an industrial powerhouse like Germany, which has a high proportion of energy-intensive industries, there is also a risk that “industry may decline before the green energy transition is complete. ”
Many homes waiting for solar panel technicians to install their doors also reveal another risk: lack of work.
“If you ask a business, what ’ s the biggest question about operations? Almost every time the answer is, ‘ We need people. ’ ”
Especially in the areas of green energy and digital technology, which are crucial to driving transformation, there is a particular lack of technical talent.
Many countries in Europe have a shortage of jobs.
However, in the manufacturing sector, more than 40% of enterprises in Germany are understaffed.
In comparison, France is less than 25%, and Italy and Spain are less than 10%.
Even the director of the German public broadcaster said recently: "We have to recruit people from all over the world... even the German level of the candidates is not so important."
As long as I work hard, I don ’ t worry too much that they can only speak a few words of German. ”
GREEN ENERGY GREEN ENERGY CHALLENGE 2: Higher energy costs, the United States proposed a bill to reduce inflation and siphon off international investment
The evolution of the international situation has also made the adverse situation worse.
The European war is still raging, the epidemic is still hazy, and the tensions between the United States and China have caused Germany, formerly the beneficiary of free trade and international supply chains, to reverse the situation and increase the pressure.
In particular, in August 2022, the United States passed the $369 billion Inflation Reduction Act, proposing a simpler and more attractive subsidy specification than the European Union, which is likely to siphon off more international investment at a time when Germany urgently needs to accelerate the expansion of renewable energy.
Some scholars wonder whether Germany will be able to complete the energy transition that it failed to achieve during a period of relative stability in the face of many challenges.
Only recently did Germany significantly expand public spending to help society weather the epidemic. To date, it has allocated more than 260 billion euros in response to the energy crisis.
This is almost 7% of national GDP, well above the EU average of 83 billion euros.
Meanwhile, Germany is still trying to boost its defense budget to 2% of GDP.
Even if the money is relatively abundant, it is also pressure.
Reinhard Biedermann, a professor in the Department of Global Political Economy at Tamkang University, pointed out that to develop enough renewable energy to replace traditional energy sources requires a lot of investment, manpower and even land, which Germany cannot do at the same time.
“The energy crisis is really an opportunity to expand renewable energy.
But turning the crisis into a turning point is not so simple.
Germany depends not only on imports of fossil fuels, but also on imports of renewable energy.
After the decline of the German solar industry, about 95% of the domestic solar cells are manufactured in China.
Nordex shut down Germany ’ s last wind turbine turnstile plant in June 2022, taking into account costs, causing observers to worry that the wind energy industry may be heading toward a fate similar to that of the solar industry.
Steffen said that due to competition from China, the German solar industry has lost a lot of intellectual and political power, and now is the time to reinvigorate the domestic solar value chain.
“We still have capacity in wind energy, but we can ’ t find a market in our country because Chinese products are cheaper, ” Steffen said.
In some ways, the energy crisis is just beginning.
As the Visionary team rode a high-speed rail at a speed of nearly 300 kilometers across the edge of Germany ’ s beloved forest, they were greeted by rotating fans, solar panels laid on the roof of the building, and high-voltage power towers that transmit electricity over a long distance.
This has gradually become a familiar daily scene in German society.
At this point, it may be seen as an important milestone in the final completion of Germany ’ s energy transition, but it may also be the starting point for the decline of German industry.
Looking back at the challenges of the pandemic, companies in Dodd all agree that agility, flexibility and flexibility are essential skills to survive in the current changing environment.
In particular, German industry contributes more than a quarter of the country ’ s GDP, which is higher than developed countries such as France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
But strengthening the high-priced “Made in Germany ” brand with performance, quality and stability is threatened by higher energy costs.
Steffen acknowledged that many Dodd companies use cheap Russian energy to produce and then sell their products at high prices to the U.S. and mid-market.
This is similar to the common pattern in Taiwan.
Taiwan 's green energy students > risk assessment first, transformation needs to think about the overall order
Sucheta Govil, chief commercial officer of Covestro, observed that energy is already a global issue and resource constraints are becoming the foreseeable future. “Even if you are in Asia, energy prices are still cheap, but price increases are reflected in the supply chain. ”
This advantage is diluted by rising raw material costs, even if Germany considers itself to be of excellent mechanical engineering quality. ”
Even if Germany has only recently begun to cope with the energy crisis, the effectiveness of the policy measures will have to wait for time to prove, and there are still lessons for Taiwan.
First, understand your energy security and independence and conduct a risk assessment.
Leonard believes that encouraging energy conservation by raising energy prices and using this income to invest more in renewable energy is worth considering.
“Explaining to people the higher energy costs they pay will help develop renewable energy and improve energy security. ”
Second, think about the sequence of measures for the energy transition as a whole, and put limited resources in the right place at the right time.
Hans-Joachim Ziesing, a former energy transition consultant for Germany ’ s Future Energy Plan, shared that one of Germany ’ s mistakes was to set a good goal and vision before developing policies to be achieved.
A better approach might be to take a practical approach, clarify the quantitative benefits that each policy can bring, and determine that cross-party consensus can be reached to move forward together.
It is also important to continuously monitor the performance of data and to be accountable to all departments.
Hiliger observed that Germany ’ s national hydrogen energy strategy in 2020 shows that officials have learned from the siting of renewable energy and energy transportation.
“Many projects take production and consumption into account as a whole, for example, by making good use of existing construction, refurbishing natural gas pipelines to become hydrogen pipelines, rather than placing electrolytic tanks next to wind power plants. ”
Preparing businesses and citizens to move away from fossil fuels
Finally, it is the continuation of the momentum of social change.
In the past, Germany saw natural gas as a “bridging energy ” to connect fossil fuels with renewable energy; now, losing its main source of natural gas imports, it has had to restart coal plants and lease liquid-gas receiving stations.
After doing so, it may be harder to get rid of them in the future.
Ideally, when the hydrogen energy market matures, Germany can renovate this batch of liquid natural gas receiving stations into hydrogen energy receiving stations.
But the two are different energy sources after all, and the renovation will be another expense.
Whether it can be developed according to the plan is still uncertain.
After the government finalizes the energy subsidy policy, from the beginning of 2023 to April 2024, 80% of the bill will be protected by the price cap, and users will only pay 20% of the current price.
This will change people ’ s interest.
How to make good use of the incentive mechanism to encourage society to continue to promote energy conservation and transformation at the household, business and infrastructure levels is also a big test.
Although Taiwan, which has a higher industrial share than Germany, has yet to personally feel the waves of the European energy crisis, it will be crucial to be as prepared and adapted as possible to the future of higher fossil fuel prices before the price protection umbrella for long-term contracts ends.
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How did the German model achieve an unbearable energy transition war across the sea?
Environmental awareness, green energy production has always been regarded as the world's superior Germany, but because of a Ukrainian-Russian war, let the bright achievements behind the unfinished business, exposed to the world.
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Or is it a death on the road to transformation? How can Taiwan find its future direction from this “energy transition war ”?
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"Germany is considering delaying the decommissioning of its last three nuclear power plants due to the potential energy crisis in Europe, but the exact number of operational plants is not specified."

There are three nuclear power plants still operational in Germany, accounting for about 6% of the country's electricity generation.

"There are three nuclear power plants still operational in Germany, accounting for 5% of the country's electricity production."

Title:

Content: Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
EXPRESS: Germany ’ s exit from atomic energy sector affects Europe ’ s largest economy
Germany ’ s closure of the country ’ s last three nuclear reactors and its eventual exit from the atomic energy sector raises concerns about the impact of the decision on the European Union ’ s largest economy.
Germany ’ s action could deal a blow to the technology they see as a clean and reliable alternative to fossil fuels.
Berlin is implementing its plan to limit electricity generation to renewable sources by 2035.
Earlier this week, Germany shut down its last three nuclear power plants as part of Berlin's plan to limit power generation to renewables by 2035, ending a six-decade programme that has sparked one of Europe's most powerful protest movements.
Other industrialized countries, such as the United States, Japan, China, France and Britain, rely on nuclear power to replace the fossil fuels that are warming the planet, and Germany ’ s decision to stop using both has been met with some skepticism, as well as unsuccessful last-minute calls to halt the shutdown, the report said.
Nuclear energy advocates around the world have criticized the German shutdown, realizing that the action taken by Europe ’ s largest economy could deal a blow to technology they see as a clean and reliable alternative to fossil fuels.
The German government has acknowledged that in the short term, the country will have to rely more on polluting coal and natural gas to meet its energy needs, even as steps are taken to dramatically increase electricity production from solar and wind power, and Germany aims to be carbon neutral by 2045.
But officials like German Environment Minister Stevie Lemke say the idea of a nuclear renaissance is a myth, citing data showing that the share of atomic energy in global electricity production is shrinking.
The construction of new nuclear plants in Europe has faced significant delays and cost overruns.
Limki noted that the construction of new nuclear plants in Europe has faced significant delays and cost overruns, and said the money spent on maintaining old reactors or building new ones would be better spent on installing cheap renewables.
Experts such as Claudia Kemfert of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin say the 5% share of German electricity currently coming from its three remaining reactors can be easily replaced without risking power outages.

"Germany is postponing the closure of its last three nuclear power plants due to potential energy shortages, marking a shift in their policy to abandon nuclear energy."

"There are three nuclear reactors still operational in Germany, and there is consideration to keep them online due to the country's looming energy crisis."

The nuclear accident that led to Germany's decision to close nuclear power plants was the Fukushima accident in Japan.

The 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster led to Germany's decision to close its nuclear power plants, as part of an effort to move away from nuclear energy.

The Fukushima accident in 2011 led to Germany's decision to close its nuclear power plants, as announced by Mrs Merkel.

The 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan led to Germany's decision to close its nuclear power plants, with former Chancellor Angela Merkel speeding up the phaseout.

The Fukushima accident in 2011 led to Germany's decision to phase out its 17 nuclear reactors, which provided 25% of the country's electricity, resulting in increased coal and gas usage due to insufficient renewable energy sources.

The last nuclear power plants in Germany were closed on April 15, 2023, as part of the country's energy policy.

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Content: Pseudo-green policy of Germany isolates the country, says the expert - RIA Novosti, 15.04.2023
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Germany ’ s pseudo-green policy isolates the country, says expert
Expert Damien Ernst: pseudo-green policy deprives Germany of leadership in the EU
© RIA Novosti / Igor Zarembo | Go to the media bankView of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin
View of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
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BRUSSELS, April 15 – RIA Novosti.
The radical energy policy of Germany and its attempt to impose its vision on partners will only lead to the isolation of Germany from other countries of the European Union, Damien Ernst, a European expert, a lecturer at the University of Liege in Belgium and the Polytechnic Institute in Paris, told RIA Novosti.
Germany will stop on April 15, 2023, the operation of the last three operating German nuclear power plants “Isar-2 ”,“ Neckarwesteim-2 ” and “Emsland ”.
It was originally planned that Germany would abandon nuclear power in 2022, but later plans were changed.
Three of the country ’ s last six nuclear power plants have already been shut down.
Earlier it was reported that the majority of the population did not agree with this decision, while other countries announced their intention to continue or expand the use of nuclear energy.
No guarantees.
The Americans decided to leave Europe without gas
“Today ’ s coalition in Berlin is clearly at the mercy of the Greens, and Germany is making its energy stance more radical, isolating itself from most other EU countries.
Germany is making the wrong decisions and losing leadership in Europe.
Germany will press its partners to impose its costly energy vision.
Many will not support it, ” the expert said.
In his opinion, the energy issue has already become a stumbling block in relations between Germany and France.
“
The "special relationship" between Germany and France is dead.
Chancellor Scholz is going to Beijing without inviting Macron to join him, but the main disagreement is about nuclear energy, "Ernst said.
Against the background of the energy crisis in Europe, Germany ’ s decision will only aggravate the situation.
“Pressure on gas prices will rise again next winter, if you add to this the decision of Germany to end nuclear energy, it will lead to higher prices for all European citizens, ” the expert said.
Russians, out!
Germany wants a nuclear rematch
In addition, according to him, the supposedly green policy of the country will only lead to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, as Germany will have to open new coal and gas power plants instead of closed nuclear power plants.
“
“Renewable sources cannot (produce so much energy – ed.), they are terribly expensive for the sake of very small and unreliable production (energy – ed.) ”, – concludes the expert.
The energy crisis in the European Union worsened in early July 2022, when there were the first interruptions in the supply of gas from Russia to a number of EU countries, including problems with the maintenance of turbines for Nord Stream due to sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation.
The West has increased sanctions pressure on Russia over Ukraine, which has led to higher prices for electricity, fuel and food in Europe and the United States.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said that the policy of containing and weakening Russia is a long-term strategy of the West, and sanctions have dealt a serious blow to the entire world economy.
According to him, the main goal of the West is to worsen the lives of millions of people.
Russia has repeatedly stated that Russia will solve all the problems that the West creates for it.
Repeat the fate of the USSR.
Destroying the European Union from the inside
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Germany has decided to keep two nuclear power plants on standby until April 2023, reversing its initial plan to shut down all nuclear power plants by the end of 2022.

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Content: To support the power supply in winter.
Germany to restart three coal plants next month
The German power company said on Monday it was preparing to restart three brown coal production units in early October to generate power under a law linked to subsidising winter electricity supplies, a government spokesman said.
The spokesman explained that the German power generation company (RWE) has completed the processing of the plants (Neurath C) and (Nedrasem E and F), and is finalizing the re-operation.
Germany is facing a major energy crisis due to record-high prices following Russia ’ s war on Ukraine on February 24 and Western sanctions on Moscow, which supplied more than 50 percent of its gas needs.
The three coal plants, which Germany plans to restart early next month, have a capacity of 292 MW, 295 MW and 299 MW, bringing the total electricity generated to about 900 MW (0.9 GW).
Berlin needs a maximum of 80GW in the middle of next winter to meet demand.
In July, German Chancellor Olaf Schulz said his country had to restart 16 fossil-fuel power plants, including coal plants, temporarily for a short period of time.
Although the German chancellor agreed to extend the work of 11 more stations, he stressed that his country remains committed to achieving carbon neutrality and fighting climate change.
Since the beginning of this month, Germany has announced that it will abandon its plan to completely abandon nuclear power plants by the end of this year (2022), as it plans to extend the operation of two reactors until April 2023.
Germany, Europe ’ s largest economy, began implementing a plan to phase out nuclear plants in 2011, when, after Japan ’ s Fukushima disaster, former Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to dismantle all plants by the end of 2022.
Source: Al Jazeera Mubasher + Reuters

The last three nuclear power plants shut down in Germany were Isar-2, Neckarwesteim-2, and Emsland, which ceased operation on April 15, 2023.

The last three nuclear power plants shut down in Germany are likely Isar 2, Neckarwestheim 2, and Emsland, operated by E.On SE, EnBW AG, and RWE AG, respectively.

"Germany primarily uses wind turbines and solar panels as its main renewable energy sources, with these sources covering 54 percent of power consumption in January and February."

Germany primarily uses solar and wind energy as part of its renewable energy sources.

Germany primarily uses solar and wind power as its renewable energy sources.

"Germany's primary renewable energy sources are expected to be wind and solar energy as the country aims to go carbon neutral in the next 25 years."

Germany primarily uses wind and solar power as its renewable energy sources, with these sources accounting for nearly 40% of the country's electricity generation.

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Content: The energy crisis is in front of us, Germany is opening up new sources of energy, cutting subsidies and moving forward.
Central News Agency
Germany is facing the coldest season of the year. In October, Prime Minister Olaf Scholz ordered three nuclear power plants to be shut down by the end of the year to be extended for four months, reflecting the urgency of the energy crisis.
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Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany is eager to get rid of its dependence on Russian energy and adopt a three-way strategy of opening up sources, cutting costs and subsidizing.
At present, as long as the cold does not take too long, Germany is expected to survive this winter safely, and not fall into the dilemma of energy supply shortage.
First of all, in the part of the open source, because the Russian natural gas transported by natural gas pipes may be interrupted at any time, and can no longer be trusted, Germany switched to Norway, Qatar, and the United States to buy liquefied natural gas, and on the eve of winter, natural gas reserves have reached 100% of the target.
Germany originally did not have its own LNG receiving station and could only import it from neighboring countries.
A month after Russia invaded Ukraine, Germany rushed to build a receiving station at a rare rate, and is expected to open early next year, which is expected to significantly increase natural gas imports.
Due to the shortage of natural gas, Germany switched to coal-fired power generation and temporarily accepted an increase in carbon emissions.
According to the Federal Bureau of Statistics, the share of thermal power in total power generation increased to 31% in the first half of this year, an increase of 4% over the same period last year.
At the end of the day, renewable energy is the fundamental way to get rid of the dependence on fossil energy, which is recognized by all countries in Europe.
According to a report by environmental think tank Ember, in the six months since the outbreak of the war, the European Union's renewable energy generation has reached a new high, and France, Italy, Poland and other countries have recorded historical records.
Wind and solar power together account for nearly 40% of Germany ’ s electricity generation, compared to 12% from 18% in the same period last year.
As for curtailment, since July, the spotlight on the historic facade of the capital Berlin has been completely shut down at night. Since September, the heating of the national public authorities can only be turned on to 19 degrees, and the corridors are not even open, and people may have to wear coats to do things.
The government raised its voice and the private sector responded, the office heating will be completely cooled this winter, and people working indoors are best dressed in coats.
In the media, you can read about small steps that teach people to save energy, such as not setting the heating temperature too high, switching to water-saving lilies, washing hands with cold water, turning off electronics and not standing by.
In order to reduce the energy burden of the people, the German government has also introduced a subsidy called "firewall", with a total amount of up to 200 billion euros (about NT $6 trillion), which is expected to be implemented in the next two years.
The policy content is all-encompassing, including one-time energy subsidies, as well as the ceiling regulations on electricity prices and gas costs, and the public can profit as long as the amount of use does not exceed a certain amount.
Subsidies make people feel. In his October 20 address to Congress, Mr. Scholz expressed gratitude for the nation ’ s efforts to save energy: “We prepare early without fear of threats ” and“ liberate ourselves from dependence. ”
He stressed that the state will protect consumers and businesses from the impact of soaring energy prices, and there is no need for people to fear that they will not be able to pay their electricity and gas bills.
Thanks to automatic energy saving by the public and the industry, as well as a slightly higher average temperature this fall, Germany ’ s natural gas use in the past few weeks has been reduced by 30% compared to the same period in previous years, and it seems that the savings are working.
According to the official energy regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency), as long as the three LNG receiving stations are completed on schedule, the use of natural gas will be reduced by at least 20%, and there should be no shortage of supply in Germany this winter.
(Editor: Gao Zhaofen) 1111130
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Germany's energy transition aims to achieve carbon neutrality by accelerating the transition to renewable energy sources, driven by the need to address climate change and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Germany's energy transition aims to replace traditional energy sources with renewable energy, requiring significant investment and resources.

"Germany's long-term goal is to transition to renewable energy and achieve carbon neutrality, with a plan to promote renewable energy at three times the current rate and move away from fossil fuels."

Title:

Content: Freedom Square, "Nuclear Power Extension" News
◎ Chen Bingheng
Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that in response to the problem of natural gas supply caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war, Germany decided to extend the service of the only three nuclear power plants, and the Chinese media also quoted this report, but is it really true?
In fact, after the Wall Street Journal reported, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action issued a press release saying: The Wall Street Journal report is not true; how Germany 's nuclear power policy is still undergoing stress tests in response to the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Emergency situation.
Nuclear power plants that have entered the decommissioning stage, whether they can be extended in terms of plant operations, finance and peripheral decommissioning work, Germany has not yet reached an official conclusion, and the assessment is Germany's emergency response to the Russo-Ukrainian war, and the general ten years of calculation, the real nuclear power extension plan is not the same.
On the contrary, another press release from the ministry is more worthy of reference: Germany has decided to promote a larger renewable energy plan, promoting renewable energy at three times the current rate, and gradually moving away from dependence on fossil fuels.
The situation in the Taiwan Strait is tense, and some people advocate that nuclear power should be extended.
In the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Ukrainian nuclear power plant was affected by artillery fire, and the risk of nuclear disaster is of great concern. If the Chinese military "stay on the island without leaving people", which has been popular in the past, the nuclear power plant will be a hidden worry for our country if there is a war.
Some people also advocate that if there is a conflict between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and the Taiwan Strait is blocked, it must rely on nuclear power supply, and forget that in the past, it is only the case that the power tower has collapsed due to a typhoon, and the nuclear power plant will be shut down to protect itself.
If the power grid is affected in the war, even if there is nuclear power, it will not be able to generate electricity.
In the face of the situation in the Taiwan Strait, instead of waiting for the old nuclear power plants to be extended, it is better to actively develop renewable energy, smart grid and energy storage equipment to cope with various extreme weather and potential military crises.
Moreover, the introduction of a large amount of international investment will make countries pay more attention to the situation of Taiwan, or may form the effect of a second mountain of national protection.
Finally, in addition to energy security and carbon reduction efforts, we should also find ways to allow rural areas and ordinary families of indigenous tribes to benefit from green energy, and at the same time promote local creativity in our country.
(The author is the former vice president of the Renewable Energy Alliance)
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Germany's energy transition aims to achieve carbon neutrality in 25 years by increasing renewables and decreasing fossil fuel reliance, with the current government driving this effort.

"Germany's energy transition aims to achieve carbon neutrality, with the country committed to reducing reliance on fossil fuels and transitioning to cleaner energy sources, despite temporary setbacks and adjustments to its nuclear power plant operations."

The remaining three nuclear power plants in Germany generate about 6% of the country's electricity.

The Russian-Ukrainian war has caused a temporary delay in Germany's plan to close its nuclear power plants, as the country grapples with energy security concerns and the impact of the war on the EU's energy transformation goals.

The Russian-Ukrainian war led to a temporary delay in closing Germany's nuclear power plants due to concerns about securing a stable energy supply.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused Germany to reconsider its plan to shut down nuclear power plants, citing potential natural gas shortages and energy security concerns.

The temporary delay in closing Germany's nuclear power plants is due to the maintenance shutdown of nearly half of its nuclear power plants, as well as the crisis with Russia and the war in Ukraine, which has led to a shortage of Russian gas and a need to extend the use of nuclear reactors.

Title:

Content: The energy crisis in Europe.
Winter is approaching, prices are rising and the number of poor is doubling.
Thursday 01 September-September 2022 at 02 am / Marib Press - Agencies
Number of views 272
The shortage of Russian gas supplies to Europe as a result of the war in Ukraine, which came in the wake of the re-awakening of the continent from the closures of the Corona epidemic and increased demand for energy resources, triggered gas and electricity prices in many European countries that began to fear the arrival of a cold winter. Be able to overcome it without serious damage.
Russian gas supplies to the German market are due to stop on Wednesday for three days, and Moscow notified Berlin days ago of this measure, under the pretext of maintenance.This unscheduled maintenance on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline is the second in several weeks, while maintenance in the first half of July was scheduled.
Data from energy market information platform Cyberger showed that Russian gas giant Gazprom will halt gas flows in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany for maintenance for three days.
German Chancellor Olaf Schulz said on Tuesday that government measures to ensure gas supplies during the winter had made Germany ready to deal with a new cut in Russian shipments, a day before Moscow cut gas supplies for three days via Nord. Rim. ”
Schulz said in a statement that the preparations meant Germany was “in a much better position in terms of security of supplies than expected two months ago, and that we can deal well with the threats we face from Russia, which uses gas as part of its strategy in the war against Ukraine. ”
Germany relies heavily on Russian gas, especially for heating homes and operating factories, and its government seems puzzled about how best to ease the burden on its citizens without bankrupting companies and shutting down plants.The government has approved a first aid package that expires at the end of August and is replaced by a new gas tax that the government has allowed energy companies to pass on to consumers.
But this tax has met with widespread objections, especially as it will cancel the exemptions that the government had previously approved to help the population.
Under pressure and fears of demonstrations that Germans are preparing for, the government has promised to review the tax, as well as pledging to approve a second aid package soon.
Although Germany relies on Russian gas for nearly 40 percent of its gas needs, it seems confident that it can survive the winter without major damage, given that Russia has significantly reduced gas imports.
According to the German government, the Russian gas that reaches Germany directly through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline is operating at 20% of the maximum capacity.
At the end of this month, Russia will close the line for three days for repairs, but Germany fears the line will remain closed under technical pretexts fabricated by Russia to increase pressure on Germany and Europe as winter approaches.
The government says these reservoirs are enough for Germany to survive the winter without having to make drastic decisions, even if Russia stops pumping laurel entirely.
So far, the government has taken a decision to turn off the lights in public figures at night as well as the lights of restaurants in order to save energy, in addition to reducing the heating inside public buildings except schools and hospitals, and to stop heating water in the bathrooms of public buildings.
In the worst case, the German government is preparing gas rationing plans from factories to homes. [1] Since the beginning of the crisis with Russia, Germany has turned to Norway and the Netherlands to a second degree to compensate for Russian gas.
It has also backed away from plans to close coal mines despite serious environmental damage, in a bid to make up for the near-term shortage of Russian gas.
Germany no longer rejects the idea of extending its nuclear reactors, which it wants to shut down in a decision made by former chancellor Angela Merkel after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.
But not just because of the war in Ukraine, but because nearly half of its nuclear power plants have been shut down for maintenance.
Some of these plants will remain closed for two months, even after the onset of winter, limiting the country ’ s capacity to produce energy.
These “nuclear ” problems in France have caused it to shift from an electricity exporter to an importer, and so far the government has put a ceiling on raising prices by 4% on energy suppliers, meaning that companies bear the losses caused by rising prices in the global market without passing them all on to customers.
But the cap expires at the end of the year, and the government will have to decide within two weeks whether to extend it, although it has hinted that it cannot, meaning prices could rise significantly for consumers early next year.
Most European countries find themselves in the midst of an energy price crisis, from Italy to Spain, Greece and even the Baltic countries.Britain Although Britain, which is now outside the European Union, does not import gas from Russia, it appears to be one of the European countries most affected by the rise in energy prices, which have risen in the global market.
A few days ago, Britain ’ s energy regulator issued a decision allowing suppliers to raise the cap on prices passed to consumers by 80% from the beginning of October.
The rate of annual bills for heating and electricity will rise from £1,917 to £3,549.
Many organisations have warned that the number of “energy poor ” in Britain will double, a sign of the number of people who will no longer be able to heat their homes because of rising prices.
The country is now waiting for a new government to decide on additional aid, taking office after the election of a new Conservative leader on Sept. 5 to replace outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
By raising the price cap, the agency is trying to avoid the bankruptcy of additional energy companies, especially since large numbers of them have closed in recent months after energy prices began to rise even before the war in Ukraine due to increased transportation costs after Brexit, and also after increased demand for energy resources following the reopening of the Corona shutters.
Even before the arrival of winter, the government approved the use of air conditioners to a minimum of 27 degrees Celsius and imposed on public departments, shops, offices and theatres, excluding private homes.
Temperatures in some areas of Spain can reach 40 ° C in the summer.
The government also approved the adoption of a temperature of no more than 19 degrees Celsius in winter to warm offices, shops and public facilities.
She also called for shutting down shop lights at night and not lighting public buildings.
Although Spain imports very little Russian gas, it suffers from high energy prices on the global market in general.

The Ukraine War in February 2022 led to a temporary delay in closing Germany's nuclear power plants as Europe faced a dilemma due to its dependence on Russian natural gas and oil supplies.

Germany is reconsidering its nuclear exit plan due to the need for a stable energy supply following the shortfall in Russian gas and oil supplies after the military operation in Ukraine.

Germany is reconsidering its nuclear exit plan due to the Russian-Ukrainian war's impact on natural gas supply, but the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action denies reports of extending nuclear power plant service.

Germany is reconsidering its nuclear exit plan due to the energy crisis in Europe caused by the war in Ukraine and the resulting shortage of Russian gas supplies.

Germany is reconsidering its nuclear exit plan due to the reduction in Russian gas supply, which may lead to energy shortages during winter.

"Germany's nuclear exit plan is being reconsidered due to the reduction of Russian gas supplies, which has led to economic and energy security concerns."

Germany's decision to extend nuclear power plant operations was influenced by the Russian-Ukrainian war, which affected the country's ability to achieve its energy transformation goals due to the boycott of Russian oil and gas.

The Russian-Ukrainian War, particularly Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the use of energy as a weapon, is an external factor that influenced Germany's decision regarding nuclear power plant operations.

Germany's decision to extend nuclear power plant operations was influenced by the need to secure a stable energy supply due to the shortfall in Russian gas and oil supplies after the military operation in Ukraine.

Germany considered extending nuclear power plant operations due to natural gas supply issues caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war, but the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action denied the reports, stating that nuclear power policy is still under review.

Germany's decision to extend nuclear power plant operations may be influenced by the changed perception of Gazprom as a reliable gas supplier, following their deliberate withholding of supplies to the European spot market.

Germany is moving away from nuclear energy and does not consider it a clean, green, or renewable energy source, implying a focus on other forms of renewable energy to achieve carbon neutrality.

"Germany is shifting its focus from nuclear energy to green power, aiming for 100% green power by 2035, but faces challenges due to the Russo-Ukrainian War and its impact on the country's energy supply."