Decreasing stock market price for German electricity at the European Power Exchange (EPEX/EEX) EEX. Market data from 12th March 2012.
More information: www.eex.com
Cost explosion due to delay in use of renewable energies
How quick it is to pull out of nuclear energy - in Japan! There, 52 of 54 commercial reactors are no longer in the grid. The last two are due to go offline in April. Before the nuclear accident a year ago, the country generated around a third of its electricity from nuclear power and planned to increase the share to over 50 percent by 2030. The price for this energy policy is now being paid in the form of a record trade deficit. The costs of energy imports are almost 30 percent higher than those of the previous year. This cost explosion results from the earlier failure to invest in renewable energies.
In contrast, the share of renewables in the energy mix in Germany was around 20 percent last year. After the shutdown of eight nuclear power plants in early 2011, renewables exceeded nuclear power (Federal Government, 02/2012). "In Germany in the first two months of this year, wind and solar energy plants alone generated more electricity than all eight closed down nuclear power plants in Germany could theoretically have generated in this period" says Norbert Allnoch of the IWR (an institute of the renewable energy industry) in Münster.
Despite the pullout from nuclear, the stock market price for German electricity is significantly lower than it was a year ago. Specifically, the price for German base-load electricity on the electricity exchange dropped to an average of 4.74 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) in the first two months of 2012. As the IWR announced after the release of the February figures by the European Power Exchange (EPEX/EEX), the electricity price is therefore 6.1 percent lower than in the comparison period of the previous year. At the beginning of 2011, when the decommissioned nuclear power stations were still in production, the price was 5.05 cents per kWh.
In January 2012, the high generation of wind power meant that the price for German electricity on the spot market fell to as low as 3.99 cents per kWh, the lowest rate since August 2010. Despite this, prices for energy increased in January 2012 by 1.9 percent compared to December 2011 (Federal Statistical Office, 02/2012). "Unfortunately, in 2011 industrial and large customers were protected at the expense of private electricity customers. This is why utilities have announced electricity price increases for 2012", says Ubbo de Witt, Chairman of Oldenburger Energie AG (EAG). Against this background, the company is committed to working toward 100 percent renewable energy, regional value creation as well as stable and transparent costs. The German government subsidises more than 1,500 energy-intensive companies and large consumers by exempting them to a large extent from the Renewable Energy Levy and from network charges to the tune of one billion euros in total.
The latest news from Japan that planning will start in March on an offshore farm - located off the coast of Fukushima - that will supply 100,000 households with clean energy is a further sign of the rejection of nuclear folly and its costs.