German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said a decision to phase out nuclear power by 2022 can make her country a trailblazer in renewable energy.
Ms Merkel said Germany would reap economic benefits from the move.
Germany is the biggest industrial power to renounce nuclear energy, in a policy reversal for the governing centre-right coalition.
Mrs Merkel set up a panel to review nuclear power following the crisis at Fukushima in Japan.
The crisis, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami in March, led to mass anti-nuclear protests across Germany.
The anti-nuclear drive boosted Germany’s Green party, which took control of the Christian Democrat stronghold of Baden-Wuerttemberg, in late March.