Germany is currently arguing about whether the planned shutdown of the last three nuclear reactors at the end of the year should not be postponed in view of the energy crisis. The debate is already going beyond national borders. Loud protest comes mainly from Poland. A small left-wing party there made an unusual suggestion that Poland should simply lease the piles.
Germany’s power generation draws pretty curves: around six o’clock in the morning, both the load and the generation shoot up sharply, then peak at midday between 70,000 and 80,000 megawatts before it starts falling again. The good news is that at peak times, around half of the energy actually required comes from solar power.
At other times of the day, the share of solar power is – how could it be otherwise – at zero. Wind power also fluctuates more than other energy sources. However, some types of generation do not follow typical curves – and can therefore carry the base load. One of them: nuclear power. In July, the output was almost continuously at 4000 megawatts.
In 2021, nuclear output was twice as high – before three of the then six reactors were shut down at the end of the year. The three remaining nuclear power plants in Neckarwestheim, Emsland and Isar are to follow this December. The big question now is whether the piles really shut down. Because of the Ukraine war and the energy crisis in Europe, politicians are insisting on using nuclear power plants for longer.
The debate has already left national borders. The French EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, for example, advocates longer maturities. It was “in the general interest of Europe,” Breton told the “Handelsblatt”. “In this time when we need solidarity, everyone must do everything in their power.”
Another neighbor of Germany has now got involved: Poland. One of the most critical voices from there belongs to Adrian Zandberg. At the “Welt” Zandberg called the exit a “bad and extremely irresponsible decision”. According to the Polish politician, shutting down the other reactors only serves “Gazprom and the Kremlin regime”.
Zandberg’s small left-wing party, Lewica Razem, supports nuclear power and also advocates the construction of new reactors. In general, almost all parties in Poland favor nuclear power generation – unlike in Germany, where the Left Party is uncompromisingly opposed to nuclear energy, and the calls for an extension of the service life are mainly heard from the more conservative ranks.
The reason: Poland (still) relies heavily on coal power. In 2021, 72 percent of the electricity there was generated in coal-fired power plants. Without German nuclear power, Polish politicians fear that Germany will have to import more electricity from Poland. The result: more air pollution and higher coal prices.
That would put a further strain on Polish consumers, who often still heat with coal themselves. As in Germany, inflation is galloping in our neighboring country. The last reading for the month of June hit a 25-year high at 15.6 percent. In particular, fuels (plus 46.7 percent over the year) and energy (plus 35.3 percent) became significantly more expensive there last month.
That is why Poland relies on nuclear power. There are already concrete plans for this: Two power plants with a capacity of nine gigawatts are to be built. Unfortunately, the reactors will not go online until 2033 at the earliest.
What’s more: Poland, which has long been an energy exporter, has been a net electricity importer since 2014, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Although electricity imports fell to a five-year low in 2021, they had been rising for years before that, reaching a record 13.3 terawatt hours in 2020. If your own production is not sufficient, Poland could also be forced to import. In turn, most of these have come from Germany in recent years – which could become more expensive if the shutdown of the three reactors at the end of the year further reduces the supply.
Criticism from Poland is correspondingly harsh, and not just from politicians. “Simply taking four gigawatts off the grid during the biggest energy crisis in Europe for decades is madness,” said nuclear energy expert Jakub Wiech. For Wiech, the discontinuation of the reactors is nothing less than “a danger for the EU”.
Given the 13.3 terawatt hours that Poland had to import in 2020, those four gigawatts don’t seem like much. However, the performance of the nuclear power plants adds up over time. The electricity generated in the course of the year so far amounts to almost 287 terawatt hours – and at least 18.35 terawatt hours of this came from the three reactors. In 2021, with twice the number of reactors, it was even more than 64 terawatt hours.
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That’s why the Polish politicians want to prevent the end of the German nuclear power plants. Zandberg’s Lewica Razem proposed in the Polish parliament to simply lease Germany’s remaining reactors and continue to operate them for the rest of the European market. “Rejecting nuclear energy and relying more on gas from Russia was perhaps an option from a German perspective – but that’s no longer an option,” Zandberg’s party colleague Paulina Matysiak told the “Welt”.
The member of parliament sensed “political-ideological reasons” behind the decision and pointed out that continued operation is quite possible. In the case of the Isar nuclear power plant, the owner, the Eon subsidiary Preussen Elektra, has also confirmed this. However, Matysiak also knows that the legal hurdles for the initiative are probably too high and that the chances of the Polish government continuing to operate the piles are therefore microscopically small.
Nevertheless, Zandberg, Matysiak and their comrades-in-arms want to stay tuned. “Regardless of whether it can be implemented, we are putting pressure on Berlin with our debate in Parliament to perhaps leave the power plants on the grid longer,” explained Matysiak.
