Viewpoint: Why the rise in lignite use in Germany does not prove the Energiewende is failing

By Daniel Mittler, political director of Greenpeace International

Perceptions of the German energy transition (Energiewende) often lack a critical level of nuance in the UK. Every time I visit, I get asked “whether I still think the nuclear phase out is a good idea - as emissions are rising as a result”. And every time I point out that there is no connection, that saying that there is an overly simplistic interpretation, and well, not true.

And here we go again. In what it is indeed bad and appalling news reported last week, Germany´s use of lignite reached a 20-year high in 2013. The Financial Times covered these figures, but wrongly or misguidedly stated that “Ms Merkel's decision to phase out nuclear power has left a gap that only fossil fuels could fill quickly.”

It seems to be not only missing the point, but many points:

• Renewables in Germany also continue to rise and play an ever more important role; 11.8% of primary energy or 25% of electricity consumption come from renewables.
• Coal use as a whole is not increasing and rising efficiency means there is more energy generated per ton of coal – so the emissions of the power sector as a whole may even be declining (sadly, we don't have official numbers yet).
• As no nuclear capacity was decommissioned in 2012 or 2013, the nuclear phase out clearly has nothing to do with the increased use of lignite (by the way, nor is any planned to be taken off the grid in 2014).
• Germany has exported more electricity in 2013, so to claim that there was an energy “gap” that needed filling by fossil fuels is a fantasy

All of this does not make the rise of lignite any less bad. But to blame the Energiewende or the nuclear phase out for this rise is plain wrong. The real reasons are to be found in markets failures and close relationships between energy companies and politicians.

A significant factor is the failure of the European Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the resulting ridiculously low price of carbon, which is about 5 Euros a metric ton.

Also, lignite is being burnt in old plants. The investment costs of these plants have been recouped long ago and they can, as a result, make huge profits easily.

In an equally classic market failure, externalities are not reflected in energy prices, which means that the huge health costs of lignite, for example, are borne by society and the taxpayer, not the energy producers.

At a political level, the rise of lignite - and Germany´s continued reliance on coal overall - is a result of the fact that in Germany (much like the UK) a small number of huge energy firms control too much of the energy market and hold excessive power over politicians.

And it's that power dynamic across Europe that has resulted in an ETS that fails to make lignite - the most carbon intensive of all energy sources – uneconomic, as any policy instrument trying to limit carbon emissions surely should. Too many German politicians are in cahoots with the coal industry, which makes them shy away from the action needed to fix market failures or take additional regulatory measures - such as a law to phase out coal.

So Germany´s Energiewende is neither Nirvana nor to blame for everything that goes wrong. What it is is a contested and nuanced policy area. 

So instead of saying: “Look, the Energiewende is failing”, let's demand - in the UK as well as Germany - an end to the excessive power of the energy giants. Let's step up our efforts to fix the ETS, and work together to advance European-wide ways to speed up the uptake of renewables - a no brainer, given how fast installation costs are coming down. Are you in?

Daniel Mittler is the Political Director of Greenpeace International. He is German and lived in Edinburgh and London for most of the 1990s. He now lives in Berlin.

Volunteers Crowdsource Radiation Monitoring to Map Potential Risk on Every Street in Japan

As reported by Democracy Now! on the Pacifica Radio Network:

Safecast is a network of volunteers who came together to map radiation levels throughout Japan after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in 2011. They soon realized radiation readings varied widely, with some areas close to the disaster facing light contamination, depending on wind and geography, while others much further away showed higher readings. Safecast volunteers use Geiger counters and open-source software to measure the radiation, and then post the data online for anyone to access. Broadcasting from Tokyo, we are joined by Pieter Franken, co-founder of Safecast. "The first trip we made into Fukushima, it was an eye-opener. First of all, the radiation levels we encountered were way higher than what we had seen on television," Franken says. "We decided to focus on measuring every single street as our goal in Safecast, so for the last three years we have been doing that, and this month we are passing the 15 millionth location we have measured, and basically every street in Japan has been at least measured once, if not many, many more times."

The atomic reactors that melted down and exploded at Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 were General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors. The U.S. has 23 still-operating Mark Is, as well as 8 more very similarly designed Mark IIs.

Mayor of Town That Hosted Fukushima Nuclear Plant Says He Was Told: “No Accident Could Ever Happen”

Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of the town of FutabaAmy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! on Pacifica Radio, reports from Tokyo:

'We speak with Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of the town of Futaba where part of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is located. The entire town was rendered uninhabitable by the nuclear disaster. We ask him what went through his mind after the earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11, 2011. "It was a huge surprise, and at the time I was just hoping nothing that had happened at the nuclear power plant. However, unfortunately there was in fact an accident there," Idogawa recalls. He made a decision to evacuate his town before the Japanese government told people to leave. "If I had made that decision even three hours earlier, I would have been able to prevent so many people from being exposed to radiation." For years he encouraged nuclear power development in the area; now he has become a vocal critic. He explains that the government and the plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company, always told him, "’Don’t worry, Mayor. No accident could ever happen.’ Because this promise was betrayed, this is why I became anti-nuclear." '

On Hiroshima Day, 2010, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps visited Futaba and Okuma, the host towns of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. As part of a nation-wide speaking tour organized by Green Action of Japan, Kevin met with the vice mayor of Futaba, and the mayor of Okuma. Kevin also spoke to a community meeting of citizens concerned about the risks at the nearby six atomic reactors. They wanted to learn about leaks of radioactivity from high-level radioactive waste storage pools in the U.S. The meetings, event, and speaking tour were part of a last gasp effort to prevent the loading of "Pluthermal" (mixed oxide plutonium, or MOX) nuclear fuel into reactors across Japan. However, just the next month, in September 2010, pluthermal was loaded by Tokyo Electric Power Company into Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3. It was just six months before the nuclear catastrophe began. Unit 3 suffered the largest exlosion of all, after its reactor melted down.