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28 I Companies & Markets bne September 2022
this target and has urged the country to use less gas as part of a package of gas-saving measures. The European Union has agreed a plan to reduce gas consumption by 15%.
In July, the environment ministry, which oversees regulation, said it would look again at the possibility of keeping the reactors open after dismissing the idea in March shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine. It aims to carry out a stress test to see if the reactors would be needed.
Ministry spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said that any decision to keep the reactors open would be technical, rather than ideological.
Germany had planned to replace nuclear with renewables, imports and possibly fossil fuels.
However, the gas crisis has led to the possibility of coal making a return. The Mehrum power plant has moved from cold reserve to active generation and is now feeding power to the grid after the government on July 14 allowed the re-opening of the coal plant.
Any return of coal would have a significant effect on the country’s CO2 emissions, whose effects on climate change
have been vividly shown by the current record temperatures in Germany.
If coal is used in the short term to replace nuclear, this could discharge an extra 70mn tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2022 alone, warned Berlin University of Applied Sciences HTW Professor Volker Quaschning. For comparison: Germany’s total 2021 emissions were 762mn tonnes of CO2-equivalent.
Germany’s decision to restart coal plants and, perhaps, not shut down its nuclear plants, are politically painful, but might be needed in light of Europe’s gas and energy crisis. Living without Russian gas will still not be possible, however.
The Green Party, which runs the federal environment and economy ministries, emerged from the anti-nuclear power movement, and has a long-held opposition to atomic energy. However, the need to maintain the governing coalition means that the Greens have to examine the issue closely.
Making the issue a technical and scientific problem to be recommended by experts, rather than as a political choice, could take the edge of any decision to keep open the nuclear plants.
Europe must double wind and solar deployment Richard Lockhart in Edinburgh
EU countries need to double the rate of annual wind and solar capacity additions to reach the volumes required to meet the 1.5C aligned 2030 green capacities, think- tank Ember said in a recent report.
While the EU has raised its green targets through the REPowerEU programme, part of the wider Green Deal package, Ember warned that there was an implementation gap, whereby solar and wind projects are being held back by permitting delays and a lack of supportive legislation.
These slow rates of wind and solar deployment will only exacerbate the current cost and security crisis the EU’s energy sector is facing.
Need to double
Ember said its modelling showed that 76 GW of new wind and solar capacity per year needed to be built by 2026 if global warming is to be limited to 1.5C by 2050. This means that
the EU must double wind and solar deployment from 34 GW in 2021, and also rapidly increase annual additions from the forecast 2026 figure of 38 GW.
This warning comes as the EU has raised its green energy
targets as energy security has shot to the top of the its agenda in order to combat the global gas crisis and to deal with the impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine,
The European Commission’s REPowerEU proposal has raised the EU’s targets to 1,236 GW of renewable capacity by 2030, compared with a target of 1,067 GW under previous plans, and up from 513 GW of installed capacity in 2021.
Ember also said that many national governments have also committed to expanding renewables as a way to address spiking fossil gas prices and energy security concerns.
Ember warned that although the EU’s new targets are welcome, it is member state governments themselves that have to most to do if any of the targets are to be met.
Ember called for actual delivery of these targets through national legislation, the removal of administrative barriers, effective support schemes and increased investment.
Harriet Fox, energy & climate data analyst at Ember, said: "Europe no longer lacks renewables ambition, but it is now facing an implementation gap. Higher targets have not yet
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