To protect Germany’s green transition, accept coal and nuclear power
Russia's attack on Ukraine has forced Germany to rethink its energy policy. Until February, the plan was to ambitiously expand the use of renewables while phasing out nuclear energy by the end of 2022, and then coal-fired power by 2038. Natural gas was to be used as a bridging technology—both in industry and in the power sector, so that gas-fired power plants could complement intermittent renewables. In the short term, that is now difficult to imagine. But in the medium term there is no alternative.
Gas prices, which used to be on a ten-year-average €20 ($20) per megawatt hour before the crisis, leapt to more than €200 in March, and are not projected to fall below €100 until 2025, according to Ember, an energy think-tank.… Seguir leyendo »