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Germans Support Nuclear Phase Out Even with (Unfairly) Rising Electric Bills, New Poll Shows
The vast majority of Germans are continuing to support their government’s decision to phase out the use of nuclear power and transition to renewable energies within the decade, regardless of increased electricity costs, according to a new poll.
The poll for was taken by the German news magazine Focus, and published on Sunday. It found that 72 percent of those polled continue to be behind the country’s nuclear phaseout, only 24 percent were opposed to the policy.
“Germany’s grid operators announced earlier this month that a surcharge on households’ electricity prices financing the expansion of renewable energies will increase by 47 percent starting in January,” Yahoo! notes. “A typical family of four will then have to pay about €250 ($325) per year on top of their bill.”
The polling agency Forsa conducted the survey this week, with 1,000 people polled.
Notably, retail electricity prices are going up in Germany while wholesale electricity prices are going down. Abundant solar power has shaved off normally expensive peak power prices to a large degree, and merit order pricing has been driving electricity costs down. However, it seems utilities are simply taking in more profits instead of passing those savings on to residents.
Source: Yahoo!
Image Credits: German Solar via Wikimedia Commons; Thomas/CleanTechnica; Fraunhofer
2012-10-23 16:21:50
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