Once again Germany knows better than the whole world. Or does it?

On 15 April 2023 Isar 2, Emsland and Neckarwestheim 2 went off the grid, Germany’s last three nuclear power stations.^[1] There may be no new ones. The atomic energy act says so expressly: “For the construction and operation of installations for the fission of nuclear fuels for the commercial generation of electricity … no licences shall be granted.”^[2]

By the end of 2038 at the latest the last coal-fired power station is to go off the grid too; that is what the coal phase-out act says.^[3] So Germany is leaving two sources of energy at the same time. The question is whether that is wiser than the path the others are taking. The answer begins on the electricity bill.

Electricity prices compared

In the second half of 2025 households in Germany paid on average 38.7 cents per kilowatt hour, with all taxes and levies included. In the EU electricity was more expensive only in Ireland. German households paid a good third more than the EU average of 29.0 cents.^[4]

Businesses consuming 20,000 to 70,000 megawatt hours a year, that is medium-sized industry, paid 16.0 cents excluding VAT: 19 per cent more than the EU average and almost twice as much as in France.^[5] Industry in the United States paid the equivalent of 7.6 cents in 2025, less than half the German price.^[6][7]

On industrial prices Germany is not top in the EU: Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria were higher in the same half-year.^[5] But the big competitors on the world market pay less, the United States above all.^[6]

In 2026 household electricity has become somewhat cheaper, above all because network charges have fallen by 1.7 cents. For this year the BDEW so far gives an average of 37.0 cents. Taxes, levies and surcharges still make up 12.6 cents of that, a good third of the price.^[8]

The world is building nuclear power stations

Worldwide 78 nuclear reactors are under construction, spread over 17 countries. In operation are 417 reactors in 31 countries. Almost half of the new builds are in China: 37 reactors.^[9]

Europe is turning too. In July 2025 the United Kingdom took the final investment decision for Sizewell C, a power station of 3.2 gigawatts.^[10] In December 2025 Poland obtained the EU Commission’s approval for state support for its first nuclear power station.^[11] In June 2025 the Czech Republic signed the contract for two new units at Dukovany.^[12] Sweden has supported new reactors by law since August 2025.^[13]

Even countries with a phase-out decision are turning back. In May 2025 Belgium amended its act: since June 2025 it is no longer called the act on the “gradual phase-out” of nuclear energy but the act on nuclear energy for electricity generation.^[14] In September 2026 Italy passed an act under which the government is to regulate a return.^[15] The Swiss parliament wants to lift the ban on new builds; Switzerland is expected to vote on this in 2027.^[16]

The United States wants to quadruple its nuclear capacity from around 100 gigawatts in 2024 to 400 gigawatts by 2050; at present, however, no reactor is being built there.^[9][17] Japan wants to raise nuclear power’s share of electricity to around 20 per cent by 2040; in 2023 it was 8.5 per cent.^[18]

At the 2023 climate conference 25 states declared that nuclear power would be tripled worldwide by 2050, among them the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, Sweden and Poland.^[19] By now there are 38, including China, Belgium and Italy since 2026.^[20] Germany is not among them.^[19][21]

Coal is being built above all in Asia

On coal the picture is different. At the beginning of 2026 coal-fired power stations with 243 gigawatts were under construction worldwide, 95 per cent of them in China and India. China alone is building 206 gigawatts, more than seven times all the German coal-fired power stations still in operation. In 2025 coal-fired power stations with around 97 gigawatts came onto the grid worldwide, 78 of them in China.^[22]

Anyone reading from this that China is relying on coal alone is reading only half the statistics. In 2025 China brought more than 430 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity onto the grid.^[23] Coal’s share of Chinese electricity has fallen from 70 per cent in 2015 to 54 per cent in 2025.^[24] In 2025 more electricity came from renewable sources than from coal worldwide for the first time.^[25]

So China is building everything that delivers electricity: coal, nuclear, wind and sun. Germany is relying on wind and sun and has ruled out nuclear power by law.

What that costs industry

The consequences show first where energy is the largest cost block. The Federal Statistical Office counts among the energy-intensive branches chemicals, metal production, paper, glass and ceramics as well as coking plants and mineral oil processing.^[26] In 2025 they produced around 18 per cent less than in 2021. The rest of industry lost 5 per cent over the same period.^[27]

From February 2022 to March 2026 production in chemicals fell by 18 per cent, and in glass, ceramics and cement by 25 per cent. In March 2026 around 53,300 fewer people were working in the energy-intensive branches than in February 2022.^[26] Across the whole of manufacturing, around 228,000 fewer people were in employment in 2025 than in 2023.^[28]

And businesses are planning further. In the DIHK’s energy transition barometer of July 2026, around 40 per cent of industrial businesses are considering moving production or investment abroad or are already doing so, and among large industrial companies 60 per cent. The question asked was about energy and climate policy conditions as a whole.^[29]

In 2025 ArcelorMittal abandoned its plans for climate-friendly steel in Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt, despite promised support of 1.3 billion euros. Electricity prices in Germany are high, in international comparison as well as against neighbouring countries, the group writes. It intends to build its next electric furnace in Dunkirk in France.^[30] Since 2023 BASF has been closing several plants in Ludwigshafen, among them one of two ammonia plants, and named high energy prices as a burden.^[31]

That hits prosperity. In 2025 real gross domestic product per inhabitant was 0.8 per cent below the 2019 level.^[32] The economy shrank by 1.0 per cent in 2023, stood still in 2024 and grew by 0.2 per cent in 2025.^[33]

Or does it?

An honest commentary also shows the other side. Germany is not alone: Spain wants to switch off all its nuclear power stations by 2035, but has just extended the life of Almaraz to 2030.^[34] Taiwan switched off its last reactor in May 2025; in March 2026 the operator submitted a plan to restart it.^[9][35]

New nuclear power stations are no quick solution. Poland wants to pour the first nuclear concrete at the end of 2028, with electricity flowing from 2036.^[36] France’s six new reactors are to run from 2038 and, according to plan, to cost 72.8 billion euros at 2020 prices; the final investment decision is still outstanding.^[37] Some projects have been listed as “under construction” for decades.^[9]

Not every decline in industry has to do with energy. For the export economy the Federal Statistical Office names for 2025 higher US tariffs, the appreciation of the euro and stronger competition from China.^[38]

And the federal government has taken counter-measures. Since January 2026 manufacturing industry has paid only the EU minimum rate of electricity tax.^[39] In 2026 the federal government subsidised transmission network charges with 6.5 billion euros.^[40] The gas storage levy has been abolished.^[41] An industrial electricity price for the years 2026 to 2028 with a target price of 5 cents per kilowatt hour was approved by the EU Commission in April 2026; applications and payments start in 2027, retroactively for 2026.^[42]

On top of that comes a new price push from outside in 2026. In producer prices, energy was 8.3 per cent more expensive in August 2026 than a year earlier; mineral oil products cost 40.5 per cent more because of the fighting in Iran and the Middle East.^[43]

My conclusion: the world is not more stupid than Germany

The counter-arguments are correct. They do not change the result. German households pay the second-highest electricity prices in the EU, industry pays around twice as much as in the United States, and the energy-intensive businesses are shrinking faster than the rest of the economy. At the same time Germany is holding on to a statutory ban on building new nuclear power stations, while Belgium strikes its phase-out out of the law, Italy prepares a return and the Swiss parliament wants to lift its ban.

I am not demanding that Germany build reactors tomorrow. I am demanding that it stop feeling cleverer than the rest of the world. Three things would be a start.

First: electricity prices are a question of location. The subsidy for network charges and the industrial electricity price are time-limited. Anyone deciding today about a factory for twenty years needs prices they can count on.

Second: the ban on new builds in the atomic energy act belongs struck out. Whether a power station pays should be decided by investors, not by a sentence in a statute. The ban deters engineers, manufacturers and financiers of new, smaller reactor types before they even start calculating.

Third: the coal phase-out for 2038 is in the law. The act provides for a review in 2026, 2029 and 2032 of whether it is already possible in 2035.^[44] It should be brought forward only if affordable and secure replacement capacity is on the grid.

Does Germany know better than the whole world? The figures say: no. The world is building what makes electricity affordable and secure. Germany should belong to it again.

Andreas W. HerbCEO MBG Group, Paderborn