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The expertise of carbuilders and machine-tool makers would drive the switch to renewables, Mr Röttgen said. Germany could become “a frontrunner” in the shift from fossil fuels – a move even the US and China saw as being one of the century’s key competitive challenges.

Röttgen sees rewards in non-nuclear policy, Ft,com By Gerrit Wiesmann and Quentin Peel in Berlin May 23 2011 Phasing out nuclear power in the next decade could boost competitiveness and “reap enormous pay-offs for the economy”, Germany’s environment minister has claimed in a powerful snub to critics…

“If we can manage this process intelligently, we will be able to increase Germany’s competitiveness enormously and reap enormous pay-offs for the economy,” Mr Röttgen told the Financial Times in an interview.

“We are going to see a new success story for German engineering,” he said. “Everything we have to invent will provide an opportunity for our engineers to live out their ingenuity – efficiency technologies, or renewable-energy technology itself.”

The expertise of carbuilders and machine-tool makers would drive the switch to renewables, Mr Röttgen said. Germany could become “a frontrunner” in the shift from fossil fuels – a move even the US and China saw as being one of the century’s key competitive challenges.

Success could also influence governments that still champion nuclear power, he added.

“If we succeed with this technological development and boost our competitiveness, the French might ask themselves: ‘Could we do the same thing? . . . What perspective do we have [with nuclear]?’”

………“The trend will be to cut electricity consumption by improving energy efficiency, and to replace nuclear with renewable energy and gas,” Mr Röttgen said. Wind power in particular could double the use of renewable electricity to 35 per cent over 10 years. …