1) Cutting waste in demand is a huge huge factor-- migrating to light bulbs from incandescent heaters was a BIG DEAL no matter the power sources; which do not get cheaper over time. You waste power because it was cheap; it is going up overall and for most, incomes have been in decline. Population rise = more demand; cheap fuels are running out, expensive coal and oil are plentiful; ignoring the high indirect costs of their continued over use. Fixating on old tech is ignoring the underlying problems. Even with cheap fusion power, if 7 billion people used the power of an American we'd have global warming just from the heat loss all that energy use produces. In the USA, we had to have a big fight just to kill the stupid light bulbs and raise car millage; hell just getting seat belts was a huge fight and even involved espionage.
2) Next Generation grid - no, not the "smart grid"; but a modern smartly designed grid which Germany has also been working on. Wind and sun happen somewhere in the nation. You can't route power around the earth cheaply enough (yet) but you can run it 100s of miles and have been for a century - it can be done smarter, cheaper, and more distributed.
3) Power storage. Germany just started a huge initiative that will move storage technology forward in a huge way just like their Solar policies did. From household to local to regional power storage, Germany is going to be leading on it.
4) Solar power surpassed nuclear power in cost. It doesn't need heavy regulation to keep it safe and risk the neglect and corruption nuclear power always brings (government run plants have significantly less risks.)
5) Initial Costs; aka long term investment. Without somebody jump starting it, we'd never be "ready" -- see Tesla. Germany can afford to be early adopters and smart enough to have an economic boom at the same time instead of taking a loss.
6) German power is more democratic, more distributed. It seems to be getting more so with time. A different kind of market is forming. They may even get to having their backup baseload being actual public utilities where the gov runs them at a loss for energy emergencies. It's not going to be profitable to run a conventional power company in the climate they are creating. WHY SHOULD THEY DEFEND AN OUT OF DATE INDUSTRY?