BERLIN, June 30 (Reuters) – Germany’s lower house of
parliament overwhelmingly approved an exit from nuclear energy
by 2022, setting the seal on a policy U-turn by Chancellor
Angela Merkel driven by Japan’s Fukushima disaster.

Opposition deputies from the centre-left Social Democrats
(SPD) and Green Party joined lawmakers in Merkel’s centre-right
coalition in supporting the key measure in an energy reform bill
in its third and final reading.

BERLIN, June 30 (Reuters) – Germany’s parliament looked set
on Thursday to approve an exit from nuclear energy by 2022, a
U-turn by Chancellor Angela Merkel driven by Japan’s Fukushima
crisis and described by anti-nuclear opponents as a victory.

Calling it Merkel’s “Waterloo”, the centre-left Social
Democrats (SPD) and Greens said the nuclear phase-out vindicated
three decades of bitter opposition to nuclear power in Germany.

BERLIN (Reuters) – An uncontrolled renewable power expansion in Germany could threaten the stability of energy grids, the head of energy agency Dena told Reuters on Wednesday.

Failure to connect new capacity near demand centers or near transport grids or storage facilities would waste assets or put at risk the grids’ stability, said Dena’s director, Stephan Kohler, in an interview on the sidelines of a sector conference.

BERLIN, June 29 (Reuters) – European power futures prices
are too low to justify building the new gas-fired power plants
needed after Germany’s exit from nuclear energy, an RWE board
member said on Wednesday.

“The market does not warrant investments in gas-to-power
stations,” said RWE’s strategy chief Leonard Birnbaum to
reporters during the energy industry lobby BDEW’s annual
congress in Berlin.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Friday marked the point of no return for the permanent shutdown of a major slice of Germany’s nuclear energy, leaving a range of unresolved problems caused by the politically-driven reaction to the Fukushima crisis.

Germany’s biggest utility RWE, the last to fall in line, left it until the day before Friday’s deadline to pass on any chance to reopen its Biblis B reactor.

LONDON (Reuters) – Germany’s E.ON (EONGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Wednesday said it was making progress with gas contract pricing and sales to European markets, where margin squeezes at its flagship company E.ON Ruhrgas have hit the utility group’s earnings.

Board member Joergen Kildahl, speaking at the Reuters Global Energy and Climate Summit, also said the company would identify in the autumn what overseas markets it was considering to compensate for falling margins in Europe.

PARIS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Sun and wind in western Europe will be crucial this summer to ensure enough renewable electricity supplies to Germany and France, where nuclear power may fail to deliver, traders and analysts say.

Demand for power rises in the summer when homes and businesses turn on cooling devices but with a big chunk of Germany’s nuclear capacity out and a possible cut in French nuclear capacity due to a severe drought, things may get tight.

PARIS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Sun and wind in western Europe will be crucial this summer to ensure enough renewable electricity supplies to Germany and France, where nuclear power may fail to deliver, traders and analysts say.

Demand for power rises in the summer when homes and businesses turn on cooling devices but with a big chunk of Germany’s nuclear capacity out and a possible cut in French nuclear capacity due to a severe drought, things may get tight.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German power market experts on Monday said they are concerned about the lack of a longer-term power buffer as some 8,800 megawatts (MW) of nuclear capacity look set to stay shut for good.

The ruling coalition announced plans for Germany to exit nuclear power by 2022 in a significant reversal of policy in light of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear crisis.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Investment Bank (EIB) will support Germany’s move toward more green power with billions of euros in coming years, focusing on offshore wind and transport grids, an executive of the bank said on Friday.

Roughly 1.1 billion euros ($1.6 billion) of an overall 7 billion euro credit volume extended to Germany last year were devoted to energy, and that figure is due to rise by 2020, Vice President Matthias Kollatz-Ahnen told Reuters at an energy conference.