Friday January 14, 2022
EnBW boss Frank Mastiaux
“We submit 18,000 pages for a wind farm”
Robert Habeck wants to significantly increase the pace of climate protection. EnBW boss Frank Mastiaux echoes the same sentiments: The conversion of the energy supply is ambitious, but necessary and solvable – but everything has to be done three to four times as quickly.
We have to be three times faster – Economics Minister Robert Habeck sent the core message this week when he presented his immediate climate protection program and spoke of a “gigantic task”. Much more electricity is needed just to electrify millions of cars, heating systems and industry.
But can we also meet this need? EnBW boss Frank Mastiuax considers the climate targets of the new government to be ambitious, but doable. “Yes, we can do that,” he said in the podcast “The Zero Hour” about the increasing demand for electricity. But you shouldn’t put everything on one card. “For example, it is not enough to just expand renewable energies or keep the grids stable. The overall concept must be properly developed.”
This includes, for example, the construction of gas-fired power plants. “We need a relatively large fleet of gas-fired power plants for the transition phase.” You need their power “at the push of a button” in times of calm wind and darkness, “in order to be able to provide the required amount of energy safely and reliably around the clock.” The EnBW boss assumes at least 20 gigawatts, which would be around 40 systems.
Mastiaux, who has been at the head of Germany’s third-largest electricity company since 2012, calculated the electricity requirements using the example of e-cars: “One million electric cars change the electricity requirement by half a percent. That sounds like little. With 15 million electric cars that are now being used for are planned for 2030, we already have an additional requirement of between five and ten percent. That is ambitious, but doable.”
From the point of view of the EnBW boss, this requires a far-reaching cultural change. “It’s about a significant change in the way we manage projects in Germany,” he said. Above all, the administration is not prepared for the size of this transformation. “We have enough space, we have the experts, and we as an industry can implement these projects.” Everything just has to go “three to four times as fast”. For an onshore wind project, for example, it takes an average of 70 months, and 18,000 pages of paper have to be submitted. At sea, “a large offshore wind farm has to be put into operation every four months on average.”
Listen in the new episode of “Zero Hour”:
Whether the risk of blackouts is increasing in Germany
How EnBW organizes the dismantling of a nuclear power plant
Why Mastiaux left EnBW-Spitz in the fall after ten years
All episodes can be found directly at AudioNow, AudioNow or AudioNow or via Google.