At the end of 2019, the nuclear power plant in Philippsburg, Baden, went offline as planned.
The lack of nuclear power should also be replaced by wind power from the coast, which will be brought in via a new, "smart" high-voltage line called Ultranet.
This is how it was explained to citizens in the Untertaunus eight years ago.
Four years later, the commissioning was postponed to 2023, and today the talk is of 2027.
By then, as of today, the German nuclear power plants should have been shut down for five years.
Network operator Amprion would no longer bet on the year 2027.
Although the energy turnaround is considered an urgent necessity, politicians are not succeeding in tightening German planning and approval law and trimming it for efficiency and speed.
This is an indictment for which nobody feels responsible.
Lay people are at a loss
Ultranet should be particularly quick because, to put it briefly, new lines are simply laid on existing power poles.
Amprion hoped for low costs, little resistance and little time.
An absurd misjudgment.
For non-experts, the dispute over Ultranet, which has become bitter in the meantime, is difficult to understand.
Is it just an upgrade for the power grid, a boost because the health effects of electric and magnetic fields from DC and AC power lines are well studied?
Or does the transport of both types of electricity on just one pylon, which has been tested for the first time, mean an unexplored risk over the heads of local residents, as citizens' groups and local politicians argue?
Ultranet turns out to be a major project which, once again, failed to dispel doubts early on, allay concerns and get citizens on the road to planning and approval.
This will be avenged in lawsuits that may further delay the project.
Every new wind turbine is only as valuable as the cable that brings the green electricity to where it is needed.