From Reuters – June 20, 2011

by Peter Dinkloh and Christopher Seitz

(Reuters) – Germany
is set to turn back to coal, gas and imports to fill the energy chasm
left by its fast-track exit of nuclear power, refusing to boost green
power and threatening its efforts to lower emissions.

The government permanently shut eight nuclear power plants immediately after the Fukushima crisis in Japan, and is closing the remaining nine in stages up to 2022.

However,
Europe’s largest economy is shying away from pushing for renewable
energy to replace those plants, even though opinion polls show people
are willing to accept higher bills to support green power.

In
2006, Germany envisaged producing 35 percent of its power through
renewable energy by 2020, and has retained this target even though it is
shutting 13 percent of its generation capacity.

Analysts
and industry experts see a return of conventional power and imports as a
stopgap, endangering the country’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions by 40 percent by 2020, compared with 1990 levels.

“It
seems Germany will replace lost nuclear generation by coal and gas, and
imports, rather than adding new renewable capacities,” Societe Generale
analyst Didier Laurens said.

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