BERLIN, GERMANY (BNO NEWS) — The German Parliament on Thursday voted to close all of its nuclear power plants and to end its entire nuclear power industry by 2022, DPA news agency reported,
The Parliament voted 513-79 to approve the bill that set 2022 as the deadline for closing all 17 nuclear plants. The landslide victory in the key voting was a result of the support by two opposition parties to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right coalition.
“This is a great day in Germany. After more than 30 years of controversy and unbridgeable divisions, the parliament voted on a consensus position on energy,” said Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen.
In addition, the Parliament passed a series of legislations to authorize vast subsidies to encourage renewable energy and reduce power usage. Germany plans to gradually replace nuclear power with other sources of energy including wind turbines and natural gas plants.
Currently, renewable sources generate about 17 percent of the country’s energy while nuclear plants provide 22 percent. With the closure of the nuclear industry, Germany expects to double the amount of energy generated by renewable sources over the next decade.
The opposition Social Democrats and the Green Party demanded renewable sources to generate 40 percent of the country’s energy needs but the ruling government set a 35 percent target only.
Last year, Merkel intended to extend the lifespan of the 17 nuclear plants but her plans were rejected following the crisis caused by the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant last March.
In March, Merkel announced a three-month moratorium that put on hold the plans of extending the lifespan of the German nuclear reactors in order to conduct safety inspections at the nuclear facilities.
Germany’s seven nuclear reactors constructed before 1980 were turned off and after Thursday’s vote they will be kept offline permanently. Six nuclear power plants would be closed in 2021 and the remaining three in 2022 to ensure the supply necessary energy.
(Copyright 2011 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: [email protected].)