The genie is out of the bottle and it won't be easy to catch it again: Extending the life of the three nuclear power plants that are still online is no longer taboo.
It will not have been easy for Robert Habeck to believe the unthinkable to be possible.
The fact that it is a green climate protection minister who speaks out against "bans on thinking" indicates how great the need is.
If Germany wants to stick to the coal phase-out, but now also wants to phase out Russian gas, the dreams of the energy transition will come true, but so will the nightmares of security of supply.
Wind turbines and solar power may be "freedom energies" (Christian Lindner).
But not even the FDP can ensure that Germany can also free itself from the weather.
Better to change course radically
This remains the Achilles' heel of a future tailored entirely to renewable energies, in which there must be a substitute for "dark doldrums".
The fossil substitute for the fossil phase-out was the latest caprice of the German energy transition, which could only be concealed by the hope of rapid mass production of "green" hydrogen.
The Russian war in Ukraine thwarted that prospect.
It would be good if the federal government took a radical turn here too.
To paraphrase Robert Habeck: There is a bit of ecological patriotism in that.