Coal phase-out in Germany will be economic net gain, study finds

The end of coal-fired power production will benefit Germany economically, a joint study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the Wuppertal Institute and the Ecologic Institute has found. “The benefits of phasing out coal exceed the costs and open up new economic opportunities,” the researchers say in a press release (in English). They argue that the coal exit will stimulate investments in demand management, storage, power-to-x applications, and efficiency technologies, and might also reduce grid management costs. Moreover, the study says that a managed coal phase-out with fixed decommissioning dates for individual plants is a much more effective and predictable way to reduce emissions than relying on a market solution through the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS).
In its final report tabled earlier this year, Germany’s coal exit commission proposes to gradually phase out the fossil fuel by 2038. The proposals made by the commission have yet to be adopted by parliament and the government but the body’s composition, including representatives of the energy industry as well as of environmental NGOs, was intended to ensure that its proposals enjoy a high degree of public support and that lawmakers therefore have little reason to oppose it.