“Hasty nuclear phase-out: Germany’s experience as a warning for Switzerland“

Switzerland should be careful not to repeat the same mistakes as Germany when preparing for a nuclear phase-out, Christoph Eisenring writes in Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Swiss people voting on 27 November on whether to limit the operating time of the country’s nuclear power plants should bear in mind that Germany faces many difficulties and contradictions in its own phase-out, Eisenring writes. He stresses the fact that nuclear plants can play a very important role in keeping the country’s emissions down in the short-run without causing sizeable additional costs. Switching to more volatile renewables may lead to immense expenses due to “re-dispatch measures” that have become a common procedure for German grid operators. The author states that “the hasty German phase-out does not beg for imitation”.

Read the article in German here.

For more information on the end of German nuclear energy generation read the CLEW dossier The challenges of Germany’s nuclear phase-out.