This winter is a turning point. Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, the drastically increased energy prices triggered a change of course in German energy policy.
After the dramatic events in Ukraine, Economics and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has now presented a paper with specific measures to strengthen crisis preparedness in the short and medium term.
The goal: to overcome the high dependency on Russian imports of fossil fuels. The motto: energy policy is also security policy. It’s about gas, oil and coal. A debate has broken out about the planned phase-out of nuclear power and coal.
Building a gas reserve
In Germany there is a strategic oil reserve, which, according to the paper, holds petroleum and petroleum products equivalent to the quantities imported into Germany in a 90-day period. With petrol, diesel fuel, heating oil and jet turbine fuel, the most important petroleum products used for energy are therefore immediately available. There is no such reserve for gas, but that should change – against the background of this winter: According to the paper, Russia has only served long-term contracts since November, which has led to about 30 percent fewer gas imports from Russia. The result was high gas prices.
The gas storage tanks were comparatively low at times this winter. The background was, among other things, that Russia’s state-owned company Gazprom no longer fills up its gas storage facilities in Germany. The Ministry of Economics intervened via so-called long-term options: This enabled additional capacities to be procured on the market in order to stabilize storage levels.
This shouldn’t be repeated. Habeck wants to oblige the owners of the gas storage facilities to comply with certain filling levels in order to strengthen the security of supply. The paper states that this is in fact a gas reserve that must be secured by market players.
Building a coal reserve
The proportion of coal from Russia is around 50 percent, this is used to generate electricity in the hard coal-fired power plants. According to Habeck’s plans, coal supplies should also be diversified and dependency on imports reduced. Together with the power plant operators, the procurement and reserve formation of coal is now to be promoted.
Construction of an LNG terminal
There are many terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the EU, which come from the USA or Qatar, for example. However, Habeck wants to push ahead with the construction of its own German terminal. The gas industry criticizes that the investment framework has been difficult so far. The ministry’s paper states that financial state support should be examined. The plant, which stores LNG in liquefied form and converts it into gaseous natural gas if necessary, must be built in such a way that it is “hydrogen-ready”. This means that the plant can also be used in the future to handle climate-friendly hydrogen. However: LNG is more expensive than Russian natural gas.
Expansion of green electricity
It is the central task – and the most difficult one: the linchpin in the efforts to become less dependent on Russian imports is the expansion of green electricity from wind and sun. But that takes years and there are many obstacles that Habeck now wants to break down. Claudia Kemfert, energy expert at the German Institute for Economic Research, said: “We are currently paying the price for the delayed energy transition.” Germany could be much further in the expansion of renewable energies, which had a price-lowering effect.
Debate on nuclear and coal phase-out
Three nuclear power plants in Germany will continue to supply electricity until the end of 2022, when they will be taken off the grid and the phase-out of nuclear power will be completed. The phase-out of climate-damaging coal-fired power generation has also begun with the decommissioning of coal-fired power plants – so far it is planned to be phased in by 2038 at the latest. The traffic light coalition wants to “ideally” bring it forward to 2030. But that also depends on whether a faster expansion of green electricity and the planned construction of new gas-fired power plants succeed.
An earlier phase-out of coal is controversial, especially in eastern German countries with lignite mining areas. Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) told the RBB against the background of the Ukraine war that one had to think about whether the timeline for the coal phase-out in 2030 was real. It’s about achieving the greatest possible independence in energy supply and reasonable energy prices. Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) told the “Sächsische Zeitung” that the decisions to phase out coal or nuclear power would have to be discussed again. Former EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger (CDU) called for the shutdown of the last nuclear power plants to be postponed.
So far, however, there have been no signals from the Habeck Ministry to give up the goal of an earlier phase-out of coal. The paper states that the best medium-term answer to Russia’s import dependency is to phase out coal gradually by 2030. There are no signals from the federal government to change the timetable for the nuclear phase-out either.
From Greenpeace’s point of view, it would also make no sense to let nuclear and coal-fired power plants run longer. “Natural gas is mainly burned in private boilers, nuclear or coal power are not a substitute here,” explained Gerald Neubauer, an energy expert at the environmental organization. Instead, an offensive for renewable thermal energy and better insulation of houses is needed. (dpa)