Germany Is Running Out of Energy Options

Germany, Europe’s largest energy consumer—and the world’s seventh-largest—seems to be running out of politically feasible sources of power.

 

At a summit last week, EU leaders pledged to reduce their reliance on Russia for energy supplies. This isn’t an immediate crisis: No matter how tense things get, Russia isn’t likely to eliminate 14 percent of its export earnings by cutting off Europe’s energy supply. If Moscow decides to punish Ukraine by withholding gas supplies or raising prices, there are now alternate supply routes for getting the gas to Western Europe. And thanks to a milder-than-normal winter, gas reserves are currently high.

But in the long term, countries like Germany would likely feel in a better position to deal with Russia if they weren’t dependent on it for one-third of their oil and natural gas. Unfortunately, none of the country’s other options looks that great either.

Germany is one of the few countries in the world that seems to be sticking with its post-Fukushima pledge to wean itself off of nuclear energy. It plans to have all of its nine remaining nuclear plants offline by 2022.

READ MORE:  http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2014/03/24/no_nukes_no_russian_gas_no_fossils_no_solar_no_fracking_how_exactly_does.html