German experts call for expansion of solar energy and wind power

Germany announced its plan to quit nuclear power completely by 2022 soon after the Fukushima nuclear accident last year, entailing an energy transition period and gap in terms of capacity.

Briefing a press conference in Berlin, a specialist panel with VDE stressed that only through the expansion of alternative energy could compensate both the short and longer term capacity deficiencies.

"Taking the imbalanced geographic distribution of wind energy and seasonal disparity of solar energy into consideration, we have to face squarely the potential shortage and structural deficiency in the supply of renewable energy in different time and different areas," Markus John, vice president of Power System Generation of ABB, a German engineering company, told Xinhua.

Noting that the current power storage capacity and transmission network still fall short of the actual needs, the panel urged Germany to install a parallel system to cover both the fluctuating renewable energy sources as well as the conventional hydropower supply.

Though the energy transition may present unexpected risks to the energy supply and economy, it would also provide the country a competitive edge in research and development of energy technology, said the panel.

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