Filling Germany's Nuclear Void
As Germany scrambles to identify energy alternatives resulting from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s shift away from nuclear power, gas supplied by Russian monopoly Gazprom may be the easiest way for Merkel to meet Germany’s climate goals and keep Europe’s largest economy running.
Germany imports 85 percent of its natural gas with about a third from Russia.
Russia is “re-emerging as this stable energy supplier for Europe,” said Will Pearson, a London-based energy analyst at Eurasia Group. “There’s so much energy capacity there and right now it looks like a safer alternative” to options such as North Africa.
Two pipeline projects backed by prominent German former politicians may also be beneficiaries - the Nord Stream pipeline chaired by former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the planned Nabucco pipeline project, championed by former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
Merkel will meet with state prime ministers on April 15 to discuss the future energy mix after last month calling a 90-day moratorium on a planned extension of the lifespan of Germany’s 17 atomic plants.
The result is “a nuclear witch-hunt” that may result in the closure more than the seven oldest reactors already idled pending industry wide safety checks. said Lueder Schumacher, an analyst at UniCredit SpA in London.
“So far the public debate in Germany has focused on the desire to exit nuclear energy with little thought being spared as to what is actually going to replace it.”
Growing gas demand plays into the hands of Schroeder and Fischer, who crafted Germany’s original pullout from nuclear power by about 2022 when in coalition government in 2002.
Schroeder lost little time in claiming that Merkel’s new-found skepticism about nuclear power vindicated him.
“It’s welcome social progress when others are capable of recognizing that we need to exit nuclear energy as quickly as possible,” he told the Die Zeit weekly in an interview.
The Nord Stream undersea pipeline to Germany is due to start delivering Russian gas to European consumers in October. Chances that Nabucco will also be built are increasing as Germany edges away from nuclear power, said Claudia Kemfert, an energy analyst at the Berlin-based DIW economic institute.
“This pipeline will be swept up in the boom,” she said. “It will be built to meet increased demand for gas.”
Read the Full Article from Bloomberg HERE Further Reading from the Wall Street Journal - Reliable Gazprom