Energy policy shift marks coal as growth product

摘要

Germany's energy sector is facing an uncertain future after its announcement earlier this year that it will phase out all of its nuclear power plants by 2022 following Japan's nuclear disaster at Fukushima in March. With 41% of its nuclear power plants already closed, concerns that the country will risk power shortages, particularly in the high-demand winter months, have been dismissed by its energy regulator with the assurance that coal-fired plants could provide additional capacity if necessary. Although any reserve plants will operate only up to March 2013, it is expected that enough renewable power capacity will have been added by that time to make additional reserves beyond that date unnecessary.