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Wacker Chemie wants to keep Bavaria as a location: "We need lines and power lines"

2022-11-15T16:40:47.017Z


Wacker Chemie wants to keep Bavaria as a location: "We need lines and power lines" Created: 2022-11-15, 5:27 p.m By: Matthew Schneider The company logo of Wacker Chemie AG in front of the company headquarters. © Andreas Gebert/dpa/image archive Wacker Chemie has been severely affected by the energy crisis. In an interview, the group explains how the Bavaria location can still be retained. Mun


Wacker Chemie wants to keep Bavaria as a location: "We need lines and power lines"

Created: 2022-11-15, 5:27 p.m

By: Matthew Schneider

The company logo of Wacker Chemie AG in front of the company headquarters.

© Andreas Gebert/dpa/image archive

Wacker Chemie has been severely affected by the energy crisis.

In an interview, the group explains how the Bavaria location can still be retained.

Munich – Wacker Chemie is Europe's most important manufacturer of polysilicon, the basis for photovoltaic modules and semiconductors.

But the strategically important industry is threatened by the fossil fuel crisis.

But Wacker does not want to back down: In an interview, Stefan Henn, responsible for energy at the Burghausen plant, explains how the Bavarian site can be preserved and the group can remain profitable.

Mr. Henn, how much energy does Wacker in Burghausen use every year?

Almost three terawatt hours of electricity and 3.7 terawatt hours of natural gas.

This corresponds to the consumption of a good 900,000 or 280,000 households.

The electricity required flows primarily into the production of polysilicon, which is needed for photovoltaic modules and semiconductors.

What are your additional costs?

Before the crisis, the market price for gas was around 20 to 30 euros per megawatt hour for many years and has risen by a factor of five to ten. There are also several factors for electricity.

Because we buy for the long term, we don't feel the full impact of market price increases.

However, these costs are not marketable over a long period of time.

To give you a feeling for the magnitude of the effects: At Wacker, we expect a drop in earnings of up to 1.5 billion euros this year due to the additional costs for energy, raw materials and logistics.

What price would it need?

A price of four cents per kilowatt hour is considered internationally competitive, although this figure is variable and depends on the prices in the competing countries.

How is the international comparison?

Our competitors are mainly located in Asia and the USA.

The electricity costs there are several times below the German level.

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Stefan Henn is responsible for the energy supply of the Burghausen plant.

This is where the strategically important polysilicon is produced.

© Wacker

So won't the next plant be built in Bavaria?

Plants in the chemical industry run for years, if not decades.

So we look at the long-term developments and also invest continuously at the Burghausen site.

But one thing is clear: If the prices in this country remain so high, we will fall behind in the competition.

That means: In the medium to long term, we would then no longer be able to produce competitively.

However, I am optimistic that together we can also achieve competitive prices in Germany.

To do this, politicians must now get into the implementation mode and act.

How can prices go down?

We need a significant increase in renewable energies to increase supply.

This must be accompanied by an expansion of the infrastructure.

The power grid in the region is fully utilized, but we will need significantly more electricity in the future as part of the transformation towards climate neutrality and the associated electrification.

That is why, among other things, the routes from the north have to be built quickly in order to get the North German wind power into the region.

At the same time, we need additional high-performance lines to Burghausen - and that has to happen quickly.

Why?

So far, only short-term expected demand has been taken into account in the network development plans.

Network operators are forbidden from planning the lines today that we will need in the long term.

But that's not how you create a transformation, we need completely different planning tools.

What about hydrogen?

We use part of our natural gas as material.

This means that this natural gas is not burned, but is used, for example, to produce hydrogen.

In the future we will need green hydrogen that is supplied via a pipeline.

We can use this hydrogen in particular to produce methanol from CO₂ from unavoidable sources, which can be our residue incineration, for example.

We would need thousands of tons of green hydrogen per year from the early 1930s – but you cannot buy these quantities anywhere at the moment, not even for the year 2030.

So you still need natural gas for steam generation?

In the short term yes.

However, we are working on a system of high-temperature heat pumps with which we want to gradually replace natural gas.

There are many processes in which we need to heat and cool.

If we can harvest the energy efficiently, we can probably replace most of the natural gas, thereby electrifying steam generation.

That would save an enormous amount of money.

That depends on the price of electricity.

The systems are expensive and require a lot of electricity.

Therefore, there should be a subsidy for the operating costs for such CO2 reduction measures.

So again the demand for an industrial electricity price?

At Wacker, we are the only major producer of polysilicon in Europe.

We need a lot of electricity, but we use it to produce the basis for solar modules, among other things.

A modern module needs just one year to recover all of its production energy.

It doesn't make more sense from an economic point of view.

Against this background, an industrial electricity price that keeps the production of necessary and ecological products in Europe makes sense.

Can't companies help themselves?

Partly yes, that is already happening.

For example, we are currently planning the gradual installation of large photovoltaic areas on our premises.

In addition, the district of Altötting and the surrounding municipalities want to set up up to 50 wind turbines - we can imagine, if economically feasible, that we take the electricity and thus ensure financial security.

And don't forget: our hydroelectric power station on the Alz Canal has been supplying electricity reliably for 100 years, which is still eight percent of our needs today, which corresponds to the consumption of 90,000 households.

Nevertheless, in view of our high overall demand, it must be clear that we will not be able to produce all of the necessary renewable energies on site.

And again:

Interview: Matthew Schneider

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-11-15

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