"Can't be surpassed in terms of absurdity" - paper mill appalled by hydropower production stop

Created: 06/17/2022, 8:30 p.m

By: Carina Zimniok

Green energy: Florian Kohler's handmade paper factory in Gmund in the district of Miesbach currently covers half of its energy requirements with electricity generated in its own hydroelectric power plant.

© Thomas Plettenberg

The federal government no longer wants to subsidize electricity from small hydroelectric power plants.

For the head of a paper mill, this is incomprehensible.

Gmund - Florian Kohler is the head of a Bavarian model company: in the fourth generation he runs the paper mill in Gmund (Miesbach district) - according to his own statements, the only one in the world that covers more than 50 percent of its energy requirements with hydropower.

There they invented the environmentally friendly hemp paper and also received the German Sustainability Award.

But now, of all things, the plans of the federal government are threatening Kohler's environmentally friendly course.

Legislative package for the energy transition: Ban on subsidies for small hydroelectric power plants up to 500 kilowatts (kW)

So far, the company boss has received money for the electricity generated by hydropower that he feeds in – the so-called EEG feed-in tariff.

However, small hydroelectric power plants in Germany should no longer receive this funding.

Modernizations are also no longer financially supported.

That's what it says in the so-called Easter package from Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) - to the dismay of hydropower operators like Kohler.

Mr. Kohler, how important is hydropower to you at the Gmund paper mill?

Florian Kohler

: Up to 50 percent of electricity generation.

We have three turbines, and a professional takes care of them.

We have invested a lot of time and money.

And then we also fish the garbage out of the river.

Plastic, glass, any dirt.

For free, we should actually charge something for that.

If Mr. Habeck doesn't want that anymore, the rubbish just keeps floating.

You are angry with the minister.

Florian Kohler

: It's not about me.

It doesn't hit us as hard as all other operators of small and medium-sized hydropower plants.

But Mr. Habeck ensures that the generation of electricity with the lowest emissions is gradually phased out.

And then he flies to Qatar to get oil there.

This cannot be surpassed in terms of climate-damaging absurdity.

There are definitely environmentalists who are against hydropower – for example because it kills fish.

Florian Kohler

: That is practically fictitious, there are enough expert opinions on it.

I've lived by the river for 60 years and I've never seen a dead fish.

The small and medium-sized hydroelectric power plants under 500 kW do not generate a stronger current.

The fish is not drawn in.

Habeck wants to keep the large power plants – no fish can stand their current.

But we, who only use the flow rate in a natural way, no longer get any remuneration.

And it's really strange: If a fish actually dies in the power plant, it would be a catastrophe.

But the Germans eat millions of fish a year.

Rather, the emissions from other power plants harm the animal world.

also read

Saurüsselalm: lawsuit against conversion dismissed - but there is a partial success

These are the reactions to the Saurüsselalm verdict

Small hydroelectric power stations usually have a good reputation.

Why isn't there more resistance to these plans?

Florian Kohler

: Mr. Habeck's Easter package has hundreds of pages.

It says somewhere hidden that we're kicking out hydroelectric power.

Nobody really noticed that.

I think some interest group got involved.

Now that's slipping through.

And at the same time, Habeck puts himself in front of the camera on the topics of the day and says, we save every kW, please shower sparingly and so on.

I do not get it.

The green policy does not want us to generate environmentally friendly electricity.

They are fighting against the plans along with other operators.

What did you do?

Florian Kohler

: Last Wednesday we were at a video conference with the top politicians in Berlin - only Greens.

48 German power plant operators, at the invitation of the Federal Ministry for the Environment and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs.

There were two operators there who demonstrated against the reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf at the time.

They have built extra small, environmentally friendly power plants.

And now they are on the verge of extinction!

Even if environmental protection is my priority: These are bad fates.

What did the ministry representatives say about your criticism?

Florian Kohler

: The politicians were allowed to talk as long as they wanted, we experts were only allowed to speak to a limited extent.

We were just heard, but they weren't in the subject at all and brushed us off, appeased.

We have loved hydropower for generations, I think it's great!

But the consequence is that energetic people will no longer earn their money with zero-emission hydropower, but with something else – what sense does that make?

Does the end of the subsidy have any consequences for the paper mill in Gmund?

Florian Kohler

: For us it means certain financial losses, where energy makes the location difficult anyway.

But in general, this sends out a devastating signal for Germany as a business location: stop investing in hydropower in this country.

It is no longer the most environmentally friendly, but the most ideological energy that counts.

Did you ask Bavarian politicians for support?

Florian Kohler

: That's our opinion - but it doesn't help.

There are around 7,000 hydroelectric power plants in Germany, around 4,500 of them in Bavaria.

With Habeck's project, Bavaria is extremely damaged.

In Holzkirchen, too, private water wheel owners are struggling with the impending EEG abolition.

They had invested 250,000 euros in the system.

While the industry is appalled, environmentalists advocate the idea.

The WWF welcomes the planned elimination of hydropower subsidies.