Written By : William Teach

And they seem extremely excited about wanting to heavily reduce their available power and have nothing to replace it with

Germany’s coalition government agreed early Monday to shut down all the country’s nuclear power plants by 2022, the environment minister said, making it the first major industrialized nation in the last quarter century to announce plans to go nuclear-free.

The country’s seven oldest reactors already taken off the grid pending safety inspections following the catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant in March will remain offline permanently, Norbert Roettgen added. The country has 17 reactors total.

Roettgen praised the coalition agreement after negotiations through the night between the governing parties.

“This is coherent. It is clear,” he told reporters in Berlin. “That’s why it is a good result.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed through measures in 2010 to extend the lifespan of the country’s 17 reactors, with the last one scheduled to go offline in 2036, but she reversed her policy in the wake of the Japanese disaster.

“We want the electricity of the future to be safe, reliable and economically viable,” Merkel told reporters on Monday.

Germany’s energy supply chain “needs a new architecture,” necessitating huge efforts in boosting renewable energies, efficiency gains and overhauling the electricity grid, she added.

“We have to follow a new path,” Merkel said.

So, what else do they have? Coal is obviously a big no no, sending the extreme enviroweenies and climate morons into apoplexy. They are looking at natural gas, but, will actually have to obtain those supplies and overhaul their energy infrastructure first. If they want to increase solar, they would have to clear cut large swathes of forest, or place solar receptors all over the country, and, as we have seen, people don’t like looking at those panels. NIMBY sets in. Wind is available, until it gets cold and they freeze into worthlessness. Hydroelectric? Oh, brother, don’t even go there. The enviros will file lawsuit after lawsuit, along with demonstrations, to stop a dam from being built, cause it could hurt a fish or tree. Maybe they will finally be able to turn the unicorns farts into energy by 2022. Personally, I’m betting on rolling brownouts/blackouts, with energy rationing in 2022.

Elsewhere, the Swiss are following a similar path. Days after a large demonstration, the Swiss government decided to stop all new nuclear plants.

And, apparently, the anti-coal movement has “gone global.” All these anti-coal and nuclear power protesters will also be the first to whine like a 4 year old denied a cookie when they are sitting in the dark, huddled together for warmth, since there is not enough power to go around, and, of course, it will be illegal to cut down a tree to make a fire.

Again, I’m not against cleaner (not referring to CO2, of course), safer, cheaper alternative energy sources. But, before we do away with existing energy sources, we have to actually have something viable to replace it with.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

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