Although German power demand peaks at only around 80 GW, the country reliably had more than 100 GW of dispatchable capacity (excluding solar and wind) until the nuclear phaseout of 2011 – a reserve margin of around 25 percent. The additional plants added since 2011 bring the country back up to that level. Grid experts estimate that closer to 10-15 percent backup reserve capacity is needed. From 1973 to 1982, the authors found that there was roughly a 40 percent reserve. Source: Fraunhofer ISE (energy-charts.de)