Germany consumes huge amounts of energy to maintain its manufacturing power and energy-intensive sectors such as the automotive and chemical industries.
The country, Europe’s largest economy, still relies heavily on fossil fuels for its energy needs, even though the share of renewable sources such as wind and solar power has steadily increased over the past two decades.
Under the nuclear phase-out plan, Germany’s reactors have been decommissioned and are now gradually being destroyed. Image: Dwi Anoraganingrum/IMAGO
The German government is implementing an ambitious energy transition plan to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. It has completely phased out nuclear power in 2023 and plans to phase out coal by 2038.
To balance energy and environmental commitments, Berlin is also betting on new technologies such as green hydrogen and nuclear fusion.
A smart bet?
Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s cabinet this month unveiled an action plan to accelerate the development of nuclear fusion technology. It wants Germany to build the world’s first fusion reactor, earmarking €1.7bn ($ 1.98bn) to finance the project.
Berlin hopes the technology will provide abundant clean, safe and reliable energy in the future.
Sarah Klein, commissioner for fusion research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology in Aachen, Germany. Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology in Aachen, Germany, says investing in fusion technology is a “smart long-term strategic bet.”
“[It] keeps Germany at the forefront of the global technology race and – along with renewables – is crucial for energy sovereignty after the phase-out of fossil fuels,” she told DW.
Sibylle Günther, scientific director of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, said that the energy sector is a key factor in ensuring energy sovereignty after the phase-out of fossil fuels. Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, agreed, noting that German energy demand is “steadily increasing.”
“Nuclear fusion is a technology that can help us secure our energy supply without CO2 emissions in the long term and remain competitive as an industrial nation,” Günter tter old DW.
“A catalyst for innovation.”
Scientists have sought for decades to harness nuclear fusion for energy.
This involves two light atomic nuclei colliding at such high temperatures and pressures that they fuse and release energy. This is the same basic process that turns hydrogen in the sun into helium, generating sunlight and making life on Earth possible.
Fusion is the reverse of what happens in modern nuclear power plants – nuclear fission – where large atoms split in a chain reaction to release energy.
Unlike nuclear fission, nuclear fusion leaves no radioactive waste, thus promising to deliver abundant, climate-friendly energy without pollution or radioactive waste.
Germany is not alone in betting heavily on nuclear fusion.
Countries such as the US, China, Japan and the UK are investing billions to accelerate the technology’s development. In addition, dozens of private startups have joined the fray.
“The world’s most innovative economies are already making significant investments in fusion. above all, investment in fusion is a vital future strategy for Germany’s high-tech sector,” Klein said.
The Fraunhofer scholar emphasises that investments are crucial to maintain the country’s competitiveness on the world stage and to ensure technological sovereignty.
“Beyond science, fusion acts as a catalyst for innovation,” she said, pointing to other critical technologies such as superconducting magnets, high-energy systems, advanced materials, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).
“It is vital to engage industry stakeholders early to initiate and utilise spin-offs in other markets, ” she added.
A waste of money?
Critics, however, see spending huge sums on the pursuit of nuclear fusion as misguided and a waste of resources. Th they argue that the money could be better spent on expanding other renewable energy projects.
But Sibylle Günther is convinced that there should be “no conflict between renewable energy and fusion energy” because they can “complement each other”.
“Wind and solar energy cannot supply electricity all the time, but fusion energy can. F usion can also provide process heat for industry and energy to produce synthetic fuels such as hydrogen,” she said.
After decades of research, scientists were able to achieve net energy gain – meaning the energy delivered by the fusion reaction was higher than that used to fuse atomic nuclei – for the first time in late 2022.
The experiment used high-powered lasers to achieve the feat.
Other concepts use strong magnetic fields to confine super-hot plasma particles that combine and fuse to release energy.
When will fusion power plants become a reality?
The 2022 breakthrough and subsequent experiments have raised hopes of unlocking the full potential of fusion in the near future.
Daniel Kammen, professor of energy at the University of California, Berkeley, believes that the “old adage” that nuclear fusion is five decades away and five decades away for many decades is no longer true.
“Advances in the diversity of approaches, in the use of machine learning and AI to control problems such as magnetic (tokamak) confinement, and in system performance have radically changed the situation,” he told DW in an emailed statement.
“I predicted that fusion prototypes would be in the pilot phase on the grid within a decade, and possibly sooner.”
Achieving a fusion reaction is extremely difficult, requiring immense heat, pressure and precision
But other experts, including Sarah Klein, say it will take longer to realise commercially viable fusion power. “It is true that commercial fusion remains a long-term prospect with considerable technical and economic uncertainty. Thus, it cannot replace the urgent deployment of renewables and storage today.”
Klein’s view is echoed by Sybille Guenther, who expects the first fusion power plants to go on the grid “in about two decades”, but only if the necessary efforts are made now.
“The question is, are we willing to invest in the technology today to make it available when we need it to meet our growing energy needs?”
Edited by: Uwe Hessler