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LEAG's Lippendorf coal-fired power plant in Saxony: "This will not be decided par Ordre du Mufti"
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IMAGO/Dirk Sattler
2030 instead of 2038: Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck has spoken out in favor of an earlier phase-out of coal in the east as well.
However, this must be agreed in consensus, said the Green politician of the German Press Agency.
“I hereby promise the prime minister and all employees: This will not be decided par Ordre du Mufti, but it must be perceived as a good plan in a broad alliance.” He has sensible arguments for this.
"From my point of view, and I don't want to make a secret of it, it's economically advantageous," Habeck continued.
“Generating electricity from coal after 2030 no longer makes economic sense with the certificate trade, which has now been tightened up again.” Coal-based power generation is becoming more expensive and unattractive.
Companies must demonstrate rights to emit climate-damaging greenhouse gases and can trade with each other if necessary.
The number of these certificates is to be reduced more.
In addition, free allowances for industry are gradually being phased out.
Prime Ministers feel under pressure
In North Rhine-Westphalia there was a broad social consensus for an early coal phase-out in 2030.
»Consensus doesn't mean that everyone participates, but that it is politically wanted and supported.
In East Germany, the skepticism is significantly greater.
And then you have to see whether such an appointment is possible.« The brown coal states in East Germany are Brandenburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.
According to the current legal situation, the last decommissioning of power plant blocks in Germany is planned for 2038 - at the operator Leag in Lusatia.
The heads of government of the three coal states, Dietmar Woidke (Brandenburg), Michael Kretschmer (Saxony) and Reiner Haseloff (Saxony-Anhalt), had warned in mid-December of a premature exit from coal, referring to the energy crisis, and called for the federal government to be reliable.
In a letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, they wrote that the Federal Ministry of Economics in particular was "exercising direct and indirect pressure in many ways to persuade the East German lignite companies to exit early."
Habeck recognizes an “opportunity for German industry”
The Bundestag and Bundesrat had decided that the phase-out of coal in the Rhenish mining area would be brought forward by eight years.
There had previously been an agreement between the federal government, the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia and the energy company RWE.
Accordingly, three lignite-fired power plants will go offline as early as 2030.
However, the agreement also means that the power plant blocks, which were actually supposed to be shut down at the end of the year, will remain in operation at least until the end of March 2024 due to the energy crisis.
The security of supply must be guaranteed, said Habeck.
“Hydrogen-capable power plants have to be built.
They don't exist yet, they have to be developed and produced.
This is a great economic opportunity for German industry to develop such types of power plants, test them here and then sell them worldwide.« But they would have to be approved and built.
Hydrogen is considered a beacon of hope in the transition to a more climate-friendly economy.
"Something like this takes time, so that you can't decide to phase out lignite in 2030 until 2028," said the minister.
"That's too late.
If the decision is made too late, after 2030 you may have to live with a technology that no one wants anymore and that is too expensive and ineffective.
We don't have forever to dally on the decision."
2022 was an exceptional year.
"It wasn't my personal plan and it wasn't the coalition plan to bring coal-fired power plants back online." But war is raging in Ukraine and half of Germany's gas imports are missing.
"We had to take what we could." Before that, Russia was Germany's main supplier of natural gas.
In order to save gas, coal-fired power plants have been connected back to the grid to generate electricity.
»The first figures indicate that we have one percent more CO2 emissions in the energy industry than would be permitted under the Climate Protection Act.
That's nothing to be happy about," said Habeck.
However, this could be achieved in the coming years through an accelerated expansion of renewable energies and an early exit from coal.
“This is not a total catastrophe.” According to the federal government's goals, Germany should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent compared to 1990 by the end of the decade.
pbe/dpa