Germany To Compensate Energy Firms 2.4 Bn Euros For Nuclear Exit

Berlin, March 5 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Mar, 2021 ) :Germany will pay top energy companies a total of 2.4 billion Euros ($2.9 billion) in compensation for its decision to exit nuclear energy in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, Berlin said Friday.

By the end of 2022, Germany will have achieved its goal of completely phasing out nuclear power, set by Chancellor Angela Merkel after a deadly earthquake and tsunami caused a devastating meltdown at Japan's Fukushima plant.

"The government has reached an agreement with EnBW, E.ON/PreussenElektra, RWE and Vattenfall," Germany's environment, finance and economy ministries said in a joint statement.

They said Berlin would pay 2.

43 billion euros compensation to the four companies, all of which operate nuclear power plants in Germany.

The companies welcomed the agreement on Friday, with RWE saying it was "a step towards legal certainty for all parties".

The payments, agreed after a long legal battle with the government, will cover both the cost of electricity the companies would otherwise have produced and investments they had made before Germany decided on its nuclear departure in 2011.

"The agreement has no impact on the exit from nuclear power. It is still the case that the last German nuclear plant will be shut down by the end of 2022 at the latest," the statement added.