Wonder what they are going to replace nuclear power with. I...

Wonder what they are going to replace nuclear power with. I understand that Germany has 17,000 windmills at present supplying around 4% of its power - without nuclear the place will be one big windmill field.

This type of decision doesn't ring true in my mind - it is a political decision to calm the lobbiests. They know that once other countries are on board, the safety issues have been dealt with, and Germany looks like it will fall behind (or has to start buying power from France or the Eastern block) the political landscape will reshape itself to embrace nuclear.

Germany is already beholden to Russian gas, I doubt that they will want to sacrifice more of their energy independence to the East. Will be interesting to see how this pans out, but I seriously doubt that Germany will let itself slip economically for the sake of ideology. It will remain leading edge but not bleeding edge.