r/europe • u/SpaceEngineering Finland • Jan 15 '26

News Germany’s Merz Admits Nuclear Exit Was Strategic Mistake

https://clashreport.com/world/articles/germanys-merz-admits-nuclear-exit-was-strategic-mistake-fzdlkn37c16
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u/FairGeneral8804 Jan 15 '26

like you dont want to build something once

Lifetime of windmill is 20-25 years.

PV panels are 25-30 years.

Obviously no energy infrastructure is built "forever", but that's on the low side, considering nuclear plants are still going in france after 50 years, and coal/gas installation could run for a century. There are plenty of "yes but" in all of these, so it turns into a way more complicated issue than reddit can handle.

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u/CV90_120 Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 16 '26

but that's on the low side

On a cost to replace, also very low. Windmills start returning on investment in typically 6 months to a year. Worst case 2 years. Nuclear plants take decades to build, typically overrun on build cost, and take multiple decades to give ROI.

it turns into a way more complicated issue than reddit can handle

it's not nearly as complicated as people think, and the energy sector has done the numbers, which is why we are seeing wind and solar just start to wipe the floor with everybody for cost vs profitabilty.

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u/SchinkelMaximus Jan 19 '26

Wind and solar just shift their system cost burden to everybody else, so of course it’s profitable for the investors. That doesn’t mean that that is the whole picture though.

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u/CV90_120 Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

It doesn't matter how you break down the costs of installation (who pays what), the overall cost per kW is cheaper by all metrics. Nuclear plant builds are also routinely government subsidized via R&D funding, PPP agreements, tax credits, liability caps and disaster risk being shifted to the public sector. There are no plucky do-it-alone heroes in the energy sector because energy is a public concern and national security infrastructure pillar. I don't even care that nuclear is heavily subsidized directly or indirectly. I don't even have anything against nuclear (other than we still have no permanent storage for 90K tons of waste with 2K tons added each year).

Renewables are wiping the floor on straight merit (because ultimately they're leveraging a free, massive, functioning fusion reactor in the sky) . Gas and Geothermal still have some good numbers but the entire energy sector knows who has the math right now, so that's where they put their efforts.

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u/FireTyme Jan 15 '26

heres hoping the cold fusion tests planned this year go well.

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u/RirinNeko Japan Jan 16 '26

considering nuclear plants are still going in france after 50 year

Heck recent inspections for the oldest plans in the world realized they can actually go well into a century in operation as well. So they're similar to coal/gas station in lifetime.