Germany's May Electricity Prices Surge to Four Times that of France.

[NNadir]

Germany's May Power Prices Surge to Four Times French Levels.

Published in:Bloomberg.com, 3/31/2026,Business Source Premier

By: Brendel, Eva

This represents forward pricing. The Germans may reopen some of there closed coal plants, another victory for antinuke contempt for the environment, and their barely disguised support for fossil fuels.

The article itself is behind a paywall, but I have access to the text. An excerpt:

(Bloomberg) -- German power prices for May are now trading at roughly four times the level in France, a record multiple as the disruption to natural gas supplies from the Iran war amplifies longstanding differences between the two markets.

France's electricity comes mostly from nuclear and some renewables, ensuring relatively stable, low-cost supply. Germany gets a greater share of its power from renewables, but shut its reactors in 2023, making it more dependent on fossil fuels.

On evenings in Germany when wind or solar output is low, coal- or gas-fired power must fill the supply gap, pushing up the country's power prices.

The structural divergence began years ago, but the war in the Middle East has taken it to a new level, said Yiannis Papamikrouleas, head of trading at DEPA Commercial SA. "The trend was already in place. The current geopolitical premium is accelerating and amplifying it."

Utilities in Germany have sought to limit the impact of the war on energy costs by shifting generation from imported gas to coal as gas prices surged. However, the scope for such changes is limited, as a significant number of coal plants have already been closed under the country's phase-out policy.

The government is considering bringing some coal plants back from its reserve or even reactivating decommissioned units to mitigate the problem...

Coal plants kill people whenever they operate normally by increasing air pollution and climate related deaths.

I'd offer congrats to the antinuke community for their success in supporting of fossil fuels, but I oppose fossil fuels. Their victory for fossil fuels is a defeat for me and for all serious environmentalists.

I'm sure an antinuke fossil fuel supporter greenwashing them as "hydrogen" can come with a gaslighting "study" that "proves" that reality is not reality, but actually, the destruction of the planetary atmosphere is independent of propaganda.

Have a nice afternoon.

[thought crime]

1. Germany is on it; making a bigger commitment to renewable energy.

And France is also making a bigger commitment to renewable energy; especially offshore wind. The legendary storm-tossed Bay of Biscay has its uses.

[NNadir]

3. I'm sure that there are people who believe that the Germans love to pay extra money to burn coal and trash...

...the environment, but I'm not among them.

I think rational people recognize that the German decision to switch from nuclear to fossil fuels was a disaster.

Certainly the German government recognizes that their decision to turn to fossil fuels with so called "renewable energy" lipstick on the coal pig was a mistake.

Chancellor Merz:

March 17, 2026
Germany's Chancellor Merz says the nuclear phaseout was a "huge mistake"

Speaking to the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Dessau on 15 January, Merz said: “It was a serious strategic mistake to phase out nuclear energy… we simply don’t have enough energy generation capacity.”

According to press reports, Germany’s energy system now requires state intervention to keep prices under control.

“To have acceptable market prices for energy production again, we would have to permanently subsidise energy prices from the federal budget,” Merz said. “We can’t do this in the long run.”

He added that the nuclear exit has had long-term “strategic consequences” for the country.

Reducing Europe's nuclear energy sector was 'strategic mistake', EU chief says

When she was in the German Parliament, the "EU chief" President Ursula von der Leyen, who now confesses her "mistake" which killed people, since coal plants kill people whenever they operate normally, was one of the assholes who voted to displace nuclear with coal by claiming coal was "transitional."

The head of the International Energy Agency recognizes that the decision by coal burning hellhole, Germany, to quit nuclear power was a disaster for all humanity:

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s admission that Germany’s nuclear phase-out was a “serious strategic mistake” has won an emphatic endorsement from Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency. In an interview with Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, of which POLITICO is part, Birol said he was “very pleased” to hear Merz’s words. To him, the chancellor's self-critique is a signal that German energy policy may be heading in “a safer and more sensible direction.”

Read the full interview below.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently described Germany’s nuclear phase-out as a “serious strategic mistake.” What do you say?

Fatih Birol: I was very pleased to hear these words from the chancellor. For two reasons: First, I have been saying for years that the German nuclear phase-out was a mistake — and I have had to take a lot of bruises for it. That is why it is important that the error is openly acknowledged...

Second, I now have confidence that German energy policy is moving back in a safer and more sensible direction..

The only positive to come out of the German nuclear phase out was to demonstrate in deadly terms in an environmental disaster that all antinukes don't give a fuck about the collapse of the planetary atmosphere and they have no problem fossil fuels.

The Germans didn't phase out fossil fuels, they embraced them. They phased out clean energy, a crime against humanity in my view.

They didn't abandon coal; they embraced it, and their fig leaf to replace coal with gas, also a fossil fuel, collapsed after the German embrace of gas that funded the attack on Ukraine by Putin was called into question. (The ex-Chancellor of Germany, Schroeder is employed and paid by Putin.)

People who are real environmentalists certainly understand what this is all about.

As for the absurd claim that Germans are happy as horseshit with this state of affairs, that they just love high prices and air pollution, it appears from recent polling that the Germans themselves want to return to nuclear energy:

German poll: Majority for return to nuclear energy

Jon Shelton with AFP, dpa
04/04/2025April 4, 2025

Some 55% of Germans favor a reversal of nuclear policy according to a marketing poll. The issue has been a point of contention between parties seeking to form a coalition government.

None of this sounds like happy horseshit to me, but I'm not here to chant nonsense and deny reality with blank assertions.

When I hear antinukes claim that Germans are fine paying the highest prices in Europe for electricity, it demonstrates for me not only do they have contempt for the environment, coupled with contempt for poor people, but it is immediately clear how weakly informed they are on the news.

They're as clueless as the Orange Pedophile who keeps claiming he won the Iran war.

It is already clear to me that antinukes know next to zero about science, particularly nuclear science, and nothing at all about environmental issues.

All antinukes, there are no exceptions in my view, here or elsewhere, are disinterested in the most serious environmental issue in our times, perhaps in human history, the collapse of the planetary atmosphere. That they cheer for the destruction of unspoiled wilderness on land and sea to build industrial parks for junk that doesn't last two or three decades, their contempt for the environment becomes even clearer. That they're fine with Germany reopening coal plants but not nuclear plants is a clear demonstration of what they're all about.

Have a nice evening.

[thought crime]

4. Over-reaching on the motives of those who are critical of nuclear energy

Last edited Sun Apr 19, 2026, 10:50 PM - Edit history (3)

Merz declared the nuclear phase-out a mistake (duh), but he also committed to a greater effort on renewable energy.

Your repeated claim that “anti-nukes” are not interested in the problem of climate change is merely an opinion and there is no basis for claiming “that they're fine with Germany reopening coal plants”. You are mis-characterizing their motives and dismissing some very valid concerns about nuclear energy.

If you think it’s okay to assign motives to those people, perhaps you don’t have a problem being associated with the Trump administration’s push to boost and expand the nuclear industry. Using your approach to understanding motivation, we can assume that the sole reason for this increase in commercial reactors is to develop a stronger industrial base for military nuclear reactors and weapons. And the nuke-bros are celebrating it, so they must be tight with Trump & Co. and only care about producing and operating more military reactors and weapons. Yeah, okay, I'm starting to see how this works. It's all clear now, thank you so much.

I’ll repeat the point that you seem to have missed: France is also increasing their commitment to renewable energy; especially Offshore Wind. Does that make them "anti-nukes"? In any case, I guess they know which way the wind is blowing.

[John ONeill]

5. Offshore wind

France apparently intends to spend ten billion Euros on floating wind. The first UK floating wind outfit was just sold for one pound, so this may be an unwise investment. Reminds me of when France's then Energy Minister, Segolene Royale, after setting in motion the destruction of two gigawatt's worth of nuclear power at Fessenheim (24/7, 96.8% energy availability), celebrated her intention in 2016 to build "a thousand kilometres of 'solar roads!' ". About one kilometre was built, and within a year, it was electronic junk. Meanwhile, Germany generates less power than before it built most of its wind and solar, and makes up for it by importing an average 2 GW from France.