For the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW) there is no way back to nuclear power even after the EU Commission’s proposal for a taxonomy regulation to promote climate-neutral energy generation. “For the energy industry in Germany it is clear: The German exit from nuclear power is final, nobody in the energy industry wants to go back to this risky and expensive technology,” says a message from the BDEW.
The proposal presented by the EU Commission at the turn of the year is intended to give investors orientation and direct capital into the restructuring of energy production and the economy towards climate neutrality. In addition to renewable energies, this also takes nuclear power and natural gas into account.
On the subject of natural gas, BDEW General Manager Kerstin Andreae said, “To ensure security of supply, we will still need natural gas for a while and permanent gas-fired power plants for secure, controllable output as a partner to renewable energies”. But the future lies with green hydrogen. In the medium and long term, gas-fired power plants could run on hydrogen and thus be climate-neutral. “So they have to be planned today so that they can use hydrogen as an energy source in the future,” said Andreae.
More capacities are necessary
With the current phase-out of coal by 2038, the Federal Ministry of Economics is assuming that 15 gigawatts of gas-based combined heat and power plants will have to be built in Germany by 2030 in order to guarantee security of supply for electricity and heat and to phase out coal. and balance atomic energy. Furthermore, additional gas-fired power plant capacities will be required by 2030 if the coal phase-out is brought forward in Germany, explains the BDEW.
Now it is absolutely necessary to expand renewable energies and thus the production of green and low-carbon hydrogen. Therefore, significant investments must now be made in hydrogen projects.
Green members of the German government in particular had already expressed criticism of the EU Commission’s plans. Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the FDP emphasized that Germany needed modern gas-fired power plants for the transition.
The Austrian Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler had already shortly after the proposals of the EU Commission became known announced on Twitterto examine the submission carefully and to commission a legal opinion. If the Commission’s plans are implemented, Austria wants to sue. The German Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) closes such a lawsuit, according to a report by world not from. But it is still too early for such mind games.
(anw)