German environment ministers push for nuclear phase-out
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel came under pressure from state and national government officials on Friday to legislate an end to nuclear power in the country, sending power prices higher.
Merkel's center-right coalition of Christian Democrats (CDU), Free Democrats (FDP) and Christian Social Union (CSU) are due on Sunday to discuss when the very last megawatt-hour of electricity is generated in Germany from nuclear fission.
State environmental ministers unanimously called for all seven suspended reactors to be permanently shut down, while the federal environment ministry argued in a position paper that nuclear power could be phased out entirely by 2017 without causing small blackouts or large price hikes.
"On the basis of the reports from both the reactor safety commission and the ethics commission, the states ask the federal government to create a legal foundation on which the power plants affected by the moratorium can remain off the grid permanently and legally," they said in a joint statement.
Meeting in the eastern German city of Wernigerode, the 16 state environmental ministers demanded "the legally earliest possible exit from nuclear energy" while raising the mix of power from renewable energy to 40 percent by at least 2020.
"If the 7 gigawatts of older reactors were indeed to be shut permanently already this year, with the younger reactors then phased out completely by 2021, then we estimate that de-rated capacity margins would reach 11 percent by 2014/15," analysts at Deutsche Bank wrote on Friday.
"Under such a scenario, we would see potential upside for baseload power prices from current levels of 5-6 euros per megawatt-hours (MWh) per year across the curve over 2012-15," it said.
An independent ethics commission set up by the government to debate the future of atomic energy will officially publish its conclusions on Monday, and Spiegel Online reported it will recommend an exit by 2021 at the latest.
COLD STAND-BY
Separately, German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler said he wants at least one of the seven to serve as a type of emergency power generator.
"That would mean that one to two power plants remain in a status of cold stand-by and not immediately dismantled," he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Roesler is the head of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), which is considered to be the staunchest supporter of nuclear energy.
The price of German electricity for around the clock delivery in 2012 was up about 1.36 percent at 59.50 euros/MWh at 1440 GMT, or about 1 euro higher than the opening level on Friday.
In March, Merkel reversed a 2010 decision to extend the lifespan of the country's nuclear power plants -- run by RWE, E.ON, Vattenfall and EnBW -- in response to the nuclear disaster in Japan.
"Energy supply is and remains safe," said a position paper from the federal environment obtained by Reuters.
"The level of electricity prices will only increase slightly," it said. "The stability of the grid will remain secure with a phasing-out of nuclear power in 2017-2020."
Merkel's u-turn on nuclear policy follows a series of regional election upsets which have largely favored the anti-atomic energy Greens. She is now backing proposals to shut down all 17 German plants within about a decade.
Merkel's own Christian Democrats (CDU) are scheduled to hold talks on the nuclear exit policy on Sunday and discuss it with their conservative sister party, the Bavarian CSU, on Monday, after the ethics commission submits its report.
The environment ministry declined to comment on the paper.
(Additional reporting by Sam Cage in Berlin and Daniel Fineren in London; editing by Jason Neely)