Germany shuts three of its last six nuclear plants (over 4 GW)

As agreed in 2011 in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, three of the remaining six nuclear power plants in Germany were shut down on 31 December 2021, namely PreussenElektra's 1,410 MW Brokdorf in Schleswig-Holstein and 1,360 MW Grohnde in Lower Saxony and RWE's 1,288 MW Unit C at Gundremmingen in Bavaria. The decommissioning process is expected to last two decades and to cost €1.1bn per plant. The last three nuclear power plants, namely PreussenElektra's 1,410 MW Isar 2 in Bavaria, RWE's 1,336 MW Emsland in Lower Saxony, and EnBW's 1,310 MW Neckarwestheim II in Baden-Württemberg, will be shut down by the end of 2022.

In addition, RWE has shut down three lignite-fired units rated around 300 MW each, namely Neurath B, Niederaussem C und Weisweiler E in the Rhenish lignite mining region, raising the retired capacity to a total of 2,200 MW. The group plans to stop another 300 MW lignite-fired unit at Neurath in April 2022, along with two 600 MW lignite-fired units at Neurath and the Emsland nuclear power plant by the end of 2022. Overall, RWE will decommission over 8 GW of power plants between 2020 and 2022 (including two 800 MW coal-fired power plants in Westfalen and Ibbenbüren stopped in December 2020).