Energy in Germany

Since arriving here on the 8^th, my time in Bonn so far has been packed full of experiences that have challenged me to confront my long-standing American lifestyle and its differences in comparison to its German/Non-American counterpart. One of the most prevalent things I’ve constantly noticed is their seemingly cultural commitment to constantly saving energy and reducing emissions. Coming here, I had already somewhat understood that Europeans in general – especially the Germans – generally seem to make more of an effort to be ‘green’ than Americans do, but as I’ve been here, I’ve grown curious about how this ‘green push’ actually came to be. If you ask a German about why the inside of every building is just as cold as it is outside or why they would rather take the train than drive to work, there are generally two common answers – protecting the environment and cost to operate. These are both valid reasons to opt for public resources rather than private, but if price weren’t a factor, would the environmental motivator be strong enough to have the same effect?

The typical price for energy in Bonn is about 30-40 cents/kWh¹ depending on your desired ‘eco-score’ which more than doubles the highest projected summer rate of 14 cents/kWh² supplied in Atlanta by GA Power (projected prices fluctuate from 8-14 cents/kWh depending on season and usage) – the EEG (translates to Renewable Energy Act) also applies a tax on German grid-supplied power, which raises the true price even higher. A late 2024 survey conducted by the German AAE (Renewable Energies Agency) indicates that ~80% of Germans³ find the country’s ongoing push to transition to renewable energy sources to be ‘important’ or ‘very important’ – even amidst constant political distractions, though active support has largely waned to other political issues.

This figure however, in comparison to a US survey indicating that 67% of Americans⁴ support a national push toward renewable energy and 74% support joining international efforts⁴, does not seem very actionable – although much of the American East tends to be equivalent or less pollutive than Germany as a whole regardless of often lackluster action. National support has, however, provided a basis on which green legislation has been able to thrive and gather true support, allowing Germany to set (and sometimes meet) goals for decreasing high-carbon solutions⁵. Given the necessity of new infrastructure to produce such amounts of renewable energy, the cost of energy rises, and the reality of public support is tested as the effects of meeting targets are truly realized. This answers the question of whether Germans would be so green if it weren’t for massively elevated costs – yes. Public surveys consistently claim that the people incurring the cost of becoming green are the same people pressuring the government to go green and keep these costs high.

Although this motivation would indicate that Germany should be an inspiration for countries attempting to go green, the reality is that the country has been continuously shooting itself in the foot for decades by attempting to completely phase out nuclear energy. Starting in 1973⁶, German protesters began mass activism against nuclear energy and its development across Germany. It didn’t take long for these protests to influence government action with the formation (and strengthening of) of the Green Party⁶ (1948) and shutdowns of German nuclear power plants in the 1990s. This push was largely a result of safety concerns regarding dangers in production and excess radioactive material, stemming for many from nuclear disasters and mishandling of waste⁷. Although these are both scary concepts with scary examples to go with them, nuclear waste control is heavily researched and relatively simple to control – waste can often even be reused for further energy although this process is expensive – and nuclear power ranks second safest of all major energy sources by unit of ‘deaths per unit of electricity’ being beat only by solar (.02 deaths/TWh) at .03 deaths/TWh⁸.

Nuclear power has also proven to be one of the ‘greenest’ power sources currently available by metric of lifetime emissions per unit of power (an average of total energy and emissions produced including construction of facility and fuel gathering, e.g. the coal mining process for coal power or the panel production process for solar power) at a high of 6.3g CO₂/kWh – this can be put in reference to solar at 35-40g CO₂/kWh (when gathering in ideal conditions), hydro at 11 or 147g CO₂/kWh (depending on facility type), or coal at 912-1095g CO₂/kWh (depending on facility type, all numbers reference the highest country averages but true average scale remains the same)⁹. France, a prime example of a nuclear state which uses nuclear energy to their advantage in terms of both sustainability and grid supply, has been able to cut their average emissions to ~41g CO₂/kWh using nuclear to supply ~70% of their total power – although Germany’s conversion to renewability is not complete, this is about 1/8^th their figure of 372 g CO₂/kWh¹⁰.

It seems as though Germany’s difference in energy consumption and production comes from a true desire to build a country which is able to sustain itself with a minimal impact on the environment which most Germans truly embrace and believe in. Their ability to attack the problem of pollution from both ends, reducing both consumption and the effects of production have allowed them to greatly decrease their environmental impact and their motivation to do better for the world is something that other countries should look up to. Western Europe in general has been able to greatly decrease their emissions via reduced use and low-carbon energy production, and Germany is a great example of how change can be made.

Sean McLoughlin

1. https://www.stadtwerke-bonn.de/fuer-zuhause/produkte/produktberater/?tx_ppwenwproducts_search%5Baction%5D=resultList&tx_ppwenwproducts_search%5Bcontroller%5D=Search&cHash=7fb4fdf99ba8ad802971381b295caf92?tx_ppwenwproducts_search[searchType]=0&tx_ppwenwproducts_search[zipCode]=53111&tx_ppwenwproducts_search[consumption]=1500&tx_ppwenwproducts_search[people]=1&tx_ppwenwproducts_search[climeFactor]=1&tx_ppwenwproducts_search[newCustomerBonus]=1
2. https://www.georgiapower.com/residential/billing-and-rate-plans/pricing-and-rate-plans/residential-service.html
3. https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/vast-majority-germans-continue-support-renewables-roll-out-survey
4. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2023/06/28/majorities-of-americans-prioritize-renewable-energy-back-steps-to-address-climate-change/
5. https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-climate-action-law-begins-take-shape
6. https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/very-brief-timeline-germanys-energiewende
7. https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/nuclear-power-wouldnt-have-stood-chance-even-without-chernobyl
8. https://www.statista.com/statistics/494425/death-rate-worldwide-by-energy-source/
9. https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2022-04/LCA_3_FINAL%20March%202022.pdf
10. https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/DE/72h/hourly