"Power Hungry: Will Angela Merkel Complete Germany's Energy Revolution?"

In this September 26, 2013 article by Paul Hockenos posted at the Foreign Affairs website,

the history of and prospects for Germany's energiewende -- energy transformation, from fossil fuels and nuclear power to efficiency and renewables -- is explored.

The fourth largest econonmy in the world will completely phase out nuclear power by 2022. It will get 80% of its energy from green sources by 2050, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 95%. Germany is doing this through a dramatic expansion of renewable energy production and installation, which has generated hundreds of thousands of jobs. Germany's renewable energy industry is now half as big as its auto industry.

Germany joins elusive search for radioactive waste repository

NucNet:

The German parliament has passed a law which begins the formal procedure for a site to be found for a national repository for the country’s high-level radioactive waste.

After approval by the Bundestag, the law also passed the Bundesrat, which represents Germany’s 16 federal states at national level.

The law creates a 33-member commission to develop “basic principles” for site selection such as safety and economic requirements as well as selection criteria for rock formations.

The commission will consist of a chairperson, eight representatives from the Bundestag, eight from the Bundesrat, eight from academia, as well as two representatives each from civil society organisations of religious communities, industry, the environment and the trade unions. 

To ensure maximum transparency, their meetings will be open to the public.

The commission will recommend possible locations for a new high-level radioactive waste disposal site to the Bundestag, which will decide by 2031.

In order to conform to EU rules on the separation of operators and regulatory authorities, a new regulator – the Federal Office for Nuclear Waste Disposal – will be established next year. 

Germany’s government has decided to shut down all of the country’s 17 nuclear reactor units by 2022. Eight of those units remain offline following the March 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident. Nine are still in commercial operation.

Germany's energy revolution in the hands of ordinary citizens

51% of the renewable energy on the German grid is put there by individuals (like us) and farmers. Individuals and private investors are contributing the equivalent generation capacity in renewables of20 nuclear power plants. None of it is state owned. More than one million Germans are involved as energy producers or investors in renewable energy production. According to Germany's environment ministry, "New ownership models such as citizens’ wind parks and energy cooperatives show that the Energiewende cannot only bring about environmental protection and economic growth, but also decentralized production structures in the hands of local initiatives.

Angst or Arithmetic? Why Germans are so skeptical about nuclear energy

The first in a six-part series from the HeinrichBöll Foundation, deals with the roots of nuclear energy's unpopularity in Germany. It begins:

"The fact that Germany, in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, redoubled its efforts to phase out nuclear energy has nothing to do with hysteria or postwar angst. on the contrary, a majority of Germans, including much of the political class, has been unconvinced of its merits since the early 1980s; the source of this anti- atom consensus lies not in emotional populism but rather in the persuasive, fact- based arguments of a powerful, grassroots social movement that has long included nuclear physicists and other bona fide experts." By Paul Hockenos. Read the full report here.

This paper is part one of a six-part series on the German Energy Transition. The authors are experts on different issues such as renewable energies, rural communities, social movements, and nuclear power.  

Two major German firms pull out of UK nuclear programs

Two giant German firms, E.On and RWE, are to pull out of building new nuclear power stations in the UK. It's the first fallout from the Japanese Fukushima disaster to hit Britain's nuclear industry, reports Channel 4 news. The joint venture run by the two firms, Horizon, was planning to build new nuclear plants at Wylfa on Anglesey, and Oldbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire. The companies blamed the scarcity of capital in an economic crisis, the ‘significant ongoing costs’, and the fact that their home country has turned its back on nuclear power.