Load-following capability of German nuclear power plants. Summary

How flexibly can nuclear power plants be operated? Is their operation compatible with high fluctuating feed-in from from renewable energies? These questions wer Against this background, TAB was commissioned in 2010 to review and concisely summarise the state of scientific knowledge and the current debate. The disaster in Fukushima in spring 2011 and the subsequent upheavals in the German energy system considerably reduced the priority of this study and made the original schedule obsolete. Nevertheless, the results are still interesting: On the one hand, the analyses presented here on the requirements that a dynamic expansion of fluctuating renewable energy generation places on the conventional power plant fleet are still highly relevant. On the other hand, the questions examined here arise with great urgency in other countries (e.g. France, England). e the subject of a controversial debate in politics, science and the public from 2010 onwards. The occasion was the energy concept of the then Federal Government, which envisaged an extension of the operating lives of German nuclear power plants.