Kernenergie unterstützt den sinnvollen Einstieg in die Elektromobilität

The German federal government established the environmental goal of reducing carbon emissions from 1,033 million t in 1990 by 40 % to 620 million t/a by 2020. The Federal Environmental Office reports a reduction by 26 % for the past economic crisis year of 2009 over the reference year. Consequently, further efforts are needed along these lines if the objective is to be reached in 2020. Towards this end, the German government and industry founded the National Electric Mobility Platform on May 3, 2010 in an effort to make Germany a lead market for electric mobility and have one million electric vehicles operate on German roads by 2020. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel in addition demands mobility in future to be "more independent of resources, less pollutant to the environment, and more sustainable." These target criteria basically are met in the power supply sector when nuclear power is used to generate electricity. Against this backdrop, perspectives of electric mobility are outlined in terms of their environmental characteristics, and various approaches to achieving adequate electricity supply are explained. In view of the boundary conditions in power technology and power economy, the agreement reached by the present coalition government on September 6, 2010 about extending the plant life of the 17 German nuclear power plants supports the objective referred to above. This compromise of coalition politics exercises a bridge function in providing for an average plant life extension of 12 years over the current plant life limitations. The federal government considers this plant life extension a key feature of its new overall energy concept, which is to be more independent of resources, less polluting to the environment, and more sustainable than the current status quo.