It all started in 2009 with the policy of "Energiewende" energy independence as they called it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energiewende
After she won the election in 2009 she got the support for this policy in Bundestag in 2010. Germany was betting heavily on renewables. Solar plants to the south and east of the country. And wind turbines to the west and north of the country. They had the biggest solar manufacturing plant in the small eastern city of Freiberg. They also had a branch in US state of Oregon. Chinese wanted to dominate the solar sector so they unleashed their hackers on this company. They stole every bit of their technology, research and development.
SolarWorld, a solar panel manufacturer with its U.S. operation in Hillsboro, Oregon, is among the companies listed as victims in an alleged cyberspying campaign carried out by the Chinese government, intended to steal trade secrets.
www.opb.org
After this Chinese started dumping solar modules into European market. So much so EU had to introduce anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese solar panels.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_13_501
Yes, Germany has a party whose poll plank is environment. They are called the "Greens". Presently they are in the coalition government with SPD and FDP. German Foreign minister Annalena Baerbock is from the Green party. I think Merkel took the decision to close down Nuclear power plants after Fukushima as she wanted to deny Greens using that as a strong issue in 2013 elections. And it worked. Her party got the best results slightly short of majority in 2013. That coupled with strong bet on renewables, eventual retirement of old Nuclear power plants, cheap natural gas which was flowing from Russia might have prompted her to close down Nuclear power plants in Germany. 2022 was the year they targeted to close down the plants. Now they can't do that without having black outs.