As Germany decommissions its nuclear plants, the country’s power alternatives could come with staggering costs, according to an estimate by a Siemens board member who runs the company’s energy sector.German abandonment of nuclear energy in response to the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan could cost 1.7 trillion euros ($2.15 trillion) by 2030 if renewables replace much of the power, Michael Suess told Reuters Tuesday. That amounts to about two thirds of Germany’s 2011 GDP. If natural gas plants replaced much of the lost electrical generation, he said the estimate would be considerably lower, at 1.4 billion euros.German legislators voted in May to eventually decommission all 17 of the Siemens-built reactors that once provided nearly a quarter of the country’s electricity. In response, Siemens announced in September that it would withdraw from the nuclear power industry. At the consumer level, the German Energy Agency (Dena) recently estimated the nuclear withdrawld could hike electric bills 20 percent by 2020.In the renewable-favored scenario, Suess said much of the estimated cost comes from feed-in tariffs paid by utilities to renewable power generators, as well as costs from new investments in transmission, power storage and carbon dioxide storage. He was also critical of current pricing incentives by the German government for renewable energy, which he said offered generators no incentive to improve their systems.
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No mention in the media about radiation releases prior to the tsunami. There is a lot of evidence that the earthquake damaged the reactors.
Anyone else tired of being told that we cant afford to live without these things? How much land was lost the Chernobyl abd Fukushima accidents. Will your paper money replace these assets?
Not sure why a tidal wave in Japan would have Germany abandoning nuclear power all together. I doubt they would see a sunami in the middle of Europe any time in the next 10,000 years. Counties and the people in Europe are wriggling now. Increase their electric bill by 20%. I know most of the rest of the world could not take that.
Let's just burn more and more fossil fuels instead of the cleaner and cheaper fuel that nuclear power allows us. That way in another 100 years maybe we'll have a new global coast line from polar ice caps melting. :-)