Energy in Germany
The policy includes nuclear phaseout (completed in 2023) and progressive replacement of fossil fuels by renewables.
[21] After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany announced that it wanted to build an LNG terminal at the North Sea port of Brunsbüttel to improve energy security.
[23] Domestic hard coal mining has been completely phased out in 2018, as it could not compete with cheaper sources elsewhere and had survived only through subsidies.
After ending domestic production in 2018, Germany imported all 31.8 million tonnes of the hard coal it consumed in 2020.
Lignite is extracted in the extreme western and eastern parts of the country, mainly in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Sachsen and Brandenburg.
New coal-fired power plants have a minimum load capability of approximately 40%, with further potential to reduce this to 20–25%.
The reason is that the output of the coal boiler is controlled via direct fuel combustion and not, as is the case with a gas combined-cycle power plant, via a heat recovery steam generator with an upstream gas turbine.
[31] By 2015, the growing share of renewable energy in the national electricity market (26% in 2014, up from 4% in 1990) and the government's mandated CO2 emission reduction targets (40% below 1990 levels by 2020; 80% below 1990 levels by 2050) have increasingly curtailed previous plans for new, expanded coal power capacity.
[32][33] On 26 January 2019, a group of federal and state leaders as well as industry representatives, environmentalists, and scientists made an agreement to close all 84 coal plants in the country by 2038.
Coal was used to generate almost 40% of the country's electricity in 2018 and is expected to be replaced by renewable energy and natural gas.
[41] Although Germany does not have a very sunny climate, solar photovoltaic power made up 4% of annual electricity consumption.
[47][48] Nuclear power has been a topical political issue in recent decades, with continuing debates about when the technology should be phased out.
A coalition government of Gerhard Schröder took the decision in 2002 to phase out all nuclear power by 2022.
[49][50] The topic received renewed attention at the start of 2007 due to the political impact of the Russia-Belarus energy dispute and in 2011 after the Fukushima I nuclear accidents in Japan.
[51] Within days of the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, large anti-nuclear protests occurred in Germany.
Protests continued and, on 29 May 2011, Merkel's government announced that it would close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022.
[56] By 2030 the German Federal Ministry of the Economy projects an increase in electricity consumption to 658 TWh.
[60] In September 2010, Merkel's government reached a late-night deal which would see the country's 17 nuclear plants run, on average, 12 years longer than planned, with some remaining in production until well into the 2030s.
[63] Government policy emphasises conservation and the development of renewable sources, such as solar, wind, biomass, water, and geothermal power.
Speaking at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in December 2023, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for a phase-out of fossil fuels, including coal, oil and natural gas, and reiterated Germany's commitment to be climate neutral by 2045, saying, "The technologies are there: wind power, photovoltaics, electric motors, green hydrogen.
"[64] In September 2010, the German government announced a new aggressive energy policy with the following targets:[65] Forbes ranked German Aloys Wobben ($3B), founder of Enercon, as the richest person in the energy business (wind power) in Germany in 2013.
In December 2019, the German Government agreed on a carbon tax of 25 Euros per tonne of CO2 on oil and gas companies.
