Nuclear Phase-out: It is not painless

By Shahab Sabahi
Energy and Environment - Policy analysis research group
Fukushima nuclear disaster was a wake up call for the international community to review the safety issues of the nuclear power technology. People, all around the world, turned out and stage against nuclear power. Germany was the first who pressed its government to ultimate. The German government responded to the public wills with a positive move and planned for phasing out nuclear power by 2020.  
So far this move has not pushed up the electricity price. However key challenges lay ahead and Germany should well prepare to address the consequences of its move which are not painless.
Greenhouse Gas moves High
Nicholas Apergis in his analysis “On the causal dynamics between emission, nuclear energy, renewable energy and economic growth” July 2010, Ecological Economics argues a causal relationship between CO2 emissions, nuclear energy consumption, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth for a group of 19 developed and developing countries for the period 1984–2007. His analysis suggests in the short-run nuclear energy consumption plays an important role in reducing CO2 emissions whereas renewable energy consumption does not contribute to reductions in emissions. Renewable energy is not available all the times, so it makes hard to overcome intermittent supply issues. So it requires power producers who employ renewable energy keep standby and using other sort of energy sources, like fossil energy, to avoid any disruptions droning peak load demand
Therefore an exit before 2020 will push up emissions of the greenhouse gas in the short term
Energy Security
Energy security can only be guaranteed if renewable energies and fossil power generation along with power grids are scaled up. Deploying power plants run by gas at an equal price to coal one, could ease emissions pressure and more competition

Energy Price
To set up a sustainable, efficient and practical energy system for society, many efforts should be made. Phasing out nuclear power in ten years would cost an average consumer’s household 90 cents per month (PIK study reads). An earlier exit would increase electricity costs for an average household by only an additional amount of 2 Euros per month. While the spot price for electricity o would rise 5 cents, in the case of a nuclear phase out date of 2020, to 5.9 cents in 2015 (PIK study reads). If energy efficiency and renewables development are amplified the price may decrease to 5 cents.
However, fuel price and emission permits value increase which might bear consumers higher costs.