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Berlin’s proposal to phase out coal-fired power plants ahead of schedule is likely to fail, according to Siegfried Russwurm, chairman of the German industrial group BDI. He claimed that the federal government lacks a strategy for convincing private enterprises to build new gas-fired power plants within the next seven years.
“It is extremely annoying that we could find ourselves in the situation of having to continue operating coal-fired power plants for longer because there is no sufficient other reserve capacity,” he said.
Germany plans to phase out coal-fired power plants by 2030, eight years earlier than the official target date. The administration intends to rely on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar while revamping the electrical grid. However, power from gas-fired plants is planned as a backup if renewables are insufficient to meet demand. German industries have been waiting for Berlin to detail a strategy for funding the building of these new facilities, which will initially run on natural gas and thereafter on climate-neutral hydrogen.
The government, according to Russwurm, must create incentives for private enterprise to build the plants.
“It’s going to take private investment, and it has to be worth it – even if it’s just a few operating hours a year. I am a fan of expanding renewables. But honesty requires us to say that we need back-ups. We are a long way from having sufficient storage capacity,” Russwurm warned, noting that the country needs at least 50 new gas-fired power facilities.
“If 50 are to be ordered, planned, approved and built at the same time, that is an objective that seems unrealistic to me. And if this expansion does not succeed, the Federal Network Agency will have little choice to maintain security of supply other than to keep coal-fired power plants connected to the network,” he stated.