Economy, Energy

German industrial development in the 19th century was fueled by coal. The use of coal declined in the 1970s and 1980s. However, East German brown coal remained important in the 1990s for electricity production and as fuel, despite being a major source of air pollution. Oil and natural gas and hydroelectric power were only a small source of electrical energy, but were major energy sources for heating and manufacturing.

German dependence on petroleum imports, the oil crisis of the 1970s, and an expanding appetite for more energy shifted attention to the potential of nuclear energy. By the mid-1980s, 19 nuclear plants were supplying 36 percent of the public electricity needs in West Germany, and more plants were in the planning stage. Following the Chernobyl’ nuclear disaster in 1986, however, massive environmental protests stiffened public resistance to nuclear energy. Further construction of nuclear power facilities was halted for fear of accidents and lawsuits and because of the difficulties of disposing of the radioactive waste. Instead, West Germany embarked on a program of energy savings, including increasing the efficiency of automobile engines and heating plants. Alternative and renewable sources of energy, such as wind, solar, and geothermal energy, have also been developed, but there is little hope that they could ever supply a major part of Germany’s huge needs.

Nuclear plants still provide 30.30 percent of the nation’s electricity. While many reactors in Germany were shut down, there were 19 plants that continued to function in 2001. The considerable uranium deposits in Saxony and Thuringen, which had been strip-mined and left open to the elements under the East German government, were sealed up. A government-owned company, Wismut GmbH, worked to complete the environmental cleanup. The Federal Ministry of Environmental Protection, along with other Western nations, has raised funds to assist Eastern European countries with measures to shut down or replace all Chernobyl’-type reactors.