The sharp rise in electricity prices is reigniting the debate about the controversial technology. Even Green Party politicians admit that nuclear energy has a price-dampening effect.
Green Party member Patrick Graichen says that continued operation of the last three German nuclear power plants in 2023 would have reduced electricity prices.
According to calculations by the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in Halle, wholesale prices for electricity in Germany would be up to eight percent lower if nuclear power plants continued to operate.
The International Energy Agency criticized Germany's nuclear phase-out and its dependence on Russian gas as a mistake.
Nuclear energy expert Anna Veronika Wendland calls for a dismantling moratorium and new construction of nuclear power plants in order to create a cheaper and safer electricity system.
Berlin. Of all people, Patrick Graichen, a Green Party member and State Secretary under Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) from the end of 2021 to 2023, has reignited the debate about the benefits of nuclear power. At the beginning of November, he said at a panel discussion at the R21 think tank with a view to the shutdown of the last three nuclear power plants in Germany: "If we had kept the things running in 2023, we would have had more electricity at relatively low marginal costs." Translated, this means: the electricity price level would have fallen.
Graichen has thus provided the proponents of nuclear power with a clear template. They have long argued that nuclear power plants could dampen electricity prices. Christoph Schult, economist at the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research Halle (IWH), has already calculated in 2024 what the continued operation of the last three reactors would have brought. Wholesale prices in Germany would have been up to eight percent lower by the end of 2023, he writes.
Graichen sounds very different today than it did in the debate in 2022. At that time, the question was whether the last three nuclear power plants in Germany should continue to operate beyond the turn of the year 2022/23 because of the energy crisis triggered by the Ukraine war. Green politicians emphasized at the time that electricity prices could not be significantly reduced by continuing to operate the reactors. The Greens wanted to shut down the systems as planned at the end of 2022. This was stipulated in the Atomic Energy Act.
FDP politicians, then part of the traffic light coalition together with the Greens and SPD, demanded that the systems be allowed to continue running. Finally, Chancellor Olaf Scholz made use of his directive authority. He ordered that the systems could continue to operate until April 15, 2023. However, only in so-called stretch operation: no new fuel elements were purchased; the reactors gradually produced less and less electricity with the existing fuel elements. Today they are being dismantled.
There was no shortage of warnings
There had already been a lack of warnings in 2022: the economist Veronika Grimm had said that given price developments on the electricity market, everything must be done to mobilize generation capacities that could be made available at short notice. “This includes coal-fired power plants, but also nuclear power plants,” said Grimm. At that time, Grimm recommended planning beyond a straight line operation. “For the three nuclear power plants that are still running, you should think about extending the service life of five years.”
Grimm would have liked to reactivate the three nuclear power plants that had already been shut down at the end of 2021 (Grohnde, Gundremmingen C and Brokdorf). This can help ensure that prices remain within reasonable limits and supplies are always guaranteed, she said.
The decision to phase out nuclear power in the middle of the profound energy supply crisis in 2022/2023 is still being criticized today. The fact that the issue is currently coming up again has to do with price developments: the currently high gas price level is driving up electricity prices.
Whenever electricity from renewable sources is not sufficient to cover demand, coal and gas power plants have to step in. Given high gas prices, gas power plants produce electricity at high costs.
The prices for electricity are formed on the electricity exchange in short-term trading every quarter of an hour. If a gas power plant has to be started up to meet demand, the price for all electricity traded in this phase is based on the price quoted by the gas power plant operator. The operators of wind or photovoltaic parks also benefit. The electricity price level is rising. Electricity consumers are the ones who suffer.
Reprimand from the IEA boss
When old, long-depreciated nuclear power plants offer electricity at low prices, the expensive gas power plants are used less often and the price of electricity falls.
There is still a lack of understanding abroad about Germany's decision to shut down the last three plants in a crisis situation. Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), became very clear at the beginning of the year: "Germany is the country of Kant and Leibniz, a country of reason. That's why I would have expected Germany to act particularly rationally in energy policy," he said in February. Instead, the country made two historic mistakes: excessive dependence on a single supplier, Russia, and phasing out nuclear energy. “Both have undermined competitiveness and energy security,” Birol said.
Proponents of the German approach counter this criticism by saying that the nuclear phase-out is based on a broad social consensus. They point to the unresolved issue of the final disposal of nuclear waste and high security risks. They also argue that continuing to operate the old reactors would not have solved the acute problem of gas supply for the heating and industrial sectors.
Behind the question of whether the reactivation of old or even the construction of new reactors would have a positive effect on the electricity price level is a question of much more fundamental importance: Shouldn't one completely rethink and also consider building new nuclear power plants in Germany?
The operators themselves have no interest
The scientist Anna Veronika Wendland, a proven nuclear energy expert, is driving exactly this debate forward. She advocates a “renewable-nuclear electricity system”. This would significantly reduce the system costs of the energy transition, she says.
It recommends two things: a dismantling moratorium and a modernization of the recently decommissioned reactors as well as a new construction program for modern nuclear power plants. Their argument: A high proportion of nuclear energy in the German electricity mix would make the entire system significantly cheaper, more climate-friendly and more secure than continuing the current energy transition. This applies even if high costs are set for the construction of new nuclear power plants, she argues.
"A power supply based exclusively on weather-dependent renewables and battery storage is suboptimal for the German climatic and economic geographical conditions. The infrastructure required to secure solar and wind power generates system costs that are no longer sustainable," writes Wendland. Germany is one of the countries in the EU with the highest electricity costs, while the decarbonization successes of the electricity industry lagged far behind those of countries that used nuclear energy in combination with renewables.
It is difficult to estimate whether the economic pressure resulting from high electricity prices is great enough to bring Wendland's theses into the focus of the energy policy debate. In any case, no decision can be expected from the incumbent coalition on this issue. Whenever Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) promotes nuclear energy, criticism immediately follows from the ranks of the SPD. In addition, the former nuclear power plant operators in Germany show no interest in dealing with the issue.
