Germany's cabinet approved Tuesday a broad slate of
new energy proposals, including extending the lifespan of the
country's nuclear plants and billions in levies the operating
utilities will be obliged to pay in return.
The government's
energy strategy also includes targets for drawing more power from
renewable energy, renovating power grids, and improving efficiency by
2050.
"I admit, our targets are ambitious,"
Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
Four decades from now, the
government wants greenhouse gas emissions to be 80% lower and for
some 60% of the country's power to come from renewable sources--up
from about 16% today. To make that goal more realistic, the lifespan
of the country's 17 nuclear reactors will be extended, allowing them
to serve as a "bridge technology," as Merkel and her
ministers have often said.
"Nuclear energy has a
bridging role, not a future role," Environment Minister Norbert
Roettgen told reporters in Berlin after the policies were approved.
Overturning a previous government's agreement to shutter the
last plant by 2022 was the most controversial aspect of Merkel's new
energy policies, dividing ministers in her cabinet and drawing large
anti-nuclear protests outside her Berlin offices and around the
country.
The Social Democrats, who championed the shutdown
under a previous government and now lead the opposition, condemned
the government's proposals Tuesday and said they would fight to bring
them before the upper house of parliament, where Merkel's government
lost its majority earlier this year. Merkel has said the energy
policies will only need approval in the lower house, where she
maintains a majority, to become law.
Under the proposal
ministers signed off Tuesday, plants built before 1980 can operate
eight years longer than planned, and newer plants up to 14 years
longer, which would put Germany's last nuclear reactor offline
sometime in the 2030s.
To compensate for the longer
lifespans, the four utilities that operate nuclear reactors--E.ON AG
(EOAN.XE), RWE AG (RWE.XE), EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG
(EBK.XE) and Vattenfall Europe AG--will be obliged to invest in
heightened security systems at their plants.
In return for
the unanticipated profits the utilities stand to reap from the
extended lifespans, they will be required to return more than half
the revenues to the government.
The first payments will come
as a levy on nuclear fuel rods that the government projects will
generate EUR2.3 billion annually through 2016, funds it has pledged
toward deficit reduction. On top of that, utilities will contribute
to a fund for renewable energy technology research: EUR1.4 billion
through 2016--while the nuclear fuel tax is in effect--and an
additional EUR16 billion thereafter.
The BDI Federation of
German Industries greeted the government's plans, but cautioned that
the cost of the nuclear levies and other new investments to utilities
and other countries may be higher than anticipated.
"Some
assumptions in the energy plan go beyond what companies can currently
afford as justifiable expenses," BDI President Hans-Peter Keitel
said.
One such example is the upgrade of the grid system,
which Germany needs to carry out to supply customers in a reliable
way with renewable energy, he said, adding that "huge
investments are needed for such networks."