Germany May Replace 17 Nuclear Power Reactors With Wind Power Farms

Germany could produce 65% of its electricity with onshore wind if wind farms were erected on 2% of its total land, industry group Bundesverband WindEnergie, or BEW, said Tuesday, but it conceded wind power alone couldn’t meet baseload power demand.

Citing a commissioned study, BEW President Hermann Albers said onshore wind power could replace all of Germany’s nuclear power plants, and that combined renewable energies can replace nuclear power and some coal-fired power plants.

He conceded, however, that wind power output fluctuates heavily, which means it isn’t suitable on its own to meet baseload power demand.

“No-one in our industry refutes that wind energy is intermittent,” Albers said, adding that onshore wind would have to be combined with offshore wind and other renewable energies such as solar.

His comments come after Japan’s nuclear accident prompted the German government to review the safety of its 17 reactors and Chancellor Angela Merkel to pledge to accelerate the phase out of atomic energy. Seven of Germany’s oldest atomic power plants have been shut down and it is doubtful that they will resume power generation after the three-month assessment period.

Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of an industry fair here, Albers said that more than 22% of Germany’s land is technically suitable for onshore wind power generation, although when protected areas such as woodlands and sanctuaries are taken into account, that falls to around 8%.

Full utilization of Germany’s onshore wind power potential would result in installed wind turbine capacity of 198 gigawatts, which could produce around 390 terawatt-hours, Albers said. Germany’s nuclear industry produced 140 terawatt hours in 2010.

At the end of 2010 Germany’s installed wind power capacity was around 27 gigawatts.

Albers also said that southern German states such as Bavaria have most potential to harvest increased wind power. So far Bavaria has only around 500 MW of installed wind power capacity.

“Our study shows that Bavaria could have around 41,000 MW of wind power capacity” if it was to build on 2% of its land, Albers said.

Southern German states like Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg presently rely heavily on nuclear energy. The two would be among the worst hit in an accelerated exit of nuclear energy.

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