After years of assurances about the rightness of ‘Energywende’, Berlin officially changes the narrative. Chancellor Friedrich Merz, speaking in the Chamber of manufacture and Commerce in Dessau, did not leave a dry thread on the decision to completely expire German atomic power plants.
In the opinion of the head of government of our western neighbours, this movement has stripped the economy of unchangeable power sources and has driven the country into a spiral of costs that will be hard to come out of.
The most costly transformation of the world
In his speech, Merz described the departure from the atom as a "serious strategical error". In his opinion, Germany is presently performing the "most costly energy transformation in the world", making the marketplace highly hard and costly. The current energy strategy requires continuous state intervention to keep prices acceptable. However, the Chancellor warned explicitly: permanent subsidization of energy prices from the national budget is impossible in the long term, and the German economy is suffocated by insufficient manufacturing capacity.
Atomic drop after Merkel
Decision to leave rapidly Nuclear fell after the Fukushima disaster in 2011, during Angela Merkel's time. This process was finalized in April 2023, excluding the last 3 reactors: Isar 2, Emsland and Neckarwestheim 2.
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This happened in the midst of an energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. According to Merz, it was then necessary, despite political resistance, to keep these units online at least 3 years longer, which would supply the essential safety buffer which Berlin lacks today.
There's no coming back.
Despite the harsh criticism of the predecessors, the Chancellor bitterly acknowledged that he had "inherited a situation he must now correct", but the return to the atom is in fact unrealistic. Power stations have been decommissioned and the dismantling and degradation processes of key systems are besides advanced.
Resumption of their work would require billions of investments, the re-transition of complex licensing procedures and staff reconstruction, which is considered technically impracticable under current political and economical conditions.
The neighbors chose differently.
The German "mistake" contrasts brightly with the policy of France, which draws around 70% of its energy from atomic reactors, enjoying lower CO2 emissions and greater independency from imports of fossil fuels.
Paris plans to build further blocks, while Berlin needs to save itself by importing electricity and expanding RES, which without stableness in the form of an atom (or coal and gas) proves insufficient for a powerful industry. Merza's words are a uncommon minute in German politics of specified open admission that the energy strategy of fresh decades has failed at the foundation level.
Wind in sails for Polish atom
The sincerity of Chancellor Merza is crucial for Poland, which implements its strategical plan to build atomic power plants (including in Pomerania). Over the years, the opponents of the Polish atom pointed to Germany as a model of modern transformation, suggesting that atomic energy is simply a descending technology.
Merza's words are a powerful argument confirming the rightness of the Polish road. Admitting that the strategy based solely on RES without a atomic stabilizer is simply a "gigantic economical error", yet legitimizes Polish plans in the eyes of the European public and shows that our energy mix is built on a more solid foundation than the German experiment. This is simply a perfect example of learning that it is better to learn from another people’s mistakes than your own.
An costly Lesson for Europe
The Chancellor's speech is simply a signal not only for German business but besides for Europe as a whole. It shows that an ideological approach to energy in a collision with hard economical realities ends in painful verification. Germany remains with the problem of powerlessness and advanced prices, and the only thing that remains of the current government is an effort to minimize losses after decisions which, as Merz himself acknowledged, should never fall in this form and pace.
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