Germany’s highest court ruled on November 6 that energy firms E.ON, RWE, and Vattenfall have a right to seek compensation as a result of the 2011 decision to prematurely shut down the country’s nuclear fleet.

The Merkel government’s order in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, in which three Japanese reactors melted down as a result of damage from a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami, was deeply controversial and continues to reverberate across Germany’s energy landscape. Eight of the nation’s oldest 17 nuclear reactors were shut down immediately, with the others slated for retirement by 2022 (Figure).

E.ON’s Grohnde nuclear plant in Lower Saxony is one of the best-performing units in Germany’s fleet. It is slated to retire by 2022. Courtesy: Heinz-Josef Lücking/Wikimedia

Abrupt Turnaround

The German Constitutional Court said the order itself was legal, but because it impacted the companies’ property rights in their plants, the government was obligated to pay compensation. Part of the decision was based on agreements the government had reached with the firms a few months earlier to extend lifetimes for the reactors well beyond 2021.…

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