Pielke Jr: Keeping the Lights On in Germany

Drawing on my doctoral work in political science, I will go out on a limb and suggest that elected officials will not let the lights go out. This then means that there are only a few possible options — future demand will be reduced (hard to do in ultra-efficient Germany), nuclear power plants will see their lives extended (not politically popular) wind will continue to expand (but building new grid infrastructure is not politically popular), coal plants will be built (not politically popular), or Germany will further increase it reliance on natural gas (increasing reliance on Russia, not politically popular). How Germany’s energy policies play out will be yet another important case study in what happens when efforts to decarbonize run up against political and economic realities. The one thing I am pretty sure of is that the lights will stay on.