Dieter Janecek, member of the Greens in the Bundestag, is meeting with operators of biogas plants in the region.
In the conversation, the draft law for a levy is discussed.
Erding/Schwindegg
– The mood among the biogas operators in the region is heated.
In order to be able to finance the electricity price brake, the state wants to skim off excess profits from electricity providers.
However, because the production costs have also risen, the draft law has caused resentment among the operators of the around 30 biogas plants in the district.
The Greens member of the Bundestag Dieter Janecek came at the invitation of the Upper Bavaria regional group of the Fachverband Biogas e.
V. to Schwindegg.
to discuss with the operators.
They sharply criticized the Hölzl biogas plant in Niederloh (Schwindegg/Mühldorf district).
The meeting was also attended by the managing director of the Biogas Association, Stefan Rauh, Mathias Lohmayer, spokesman for the Upper Bavaria regional group, and his deputy Viktoria Neheider.
Also on site was the Mühldorfer Green Party candidate Bianca Hegmann.
Klaus Hölzl, who has been in charge of operations in Niederloh for two years, guided the participants through the facility.
The flexible output – biogas plants can cover short-term peaks by ramping up quickly – is 1.7 megawatts.
The Hölzls operate a district heating network with around 40 households.
"So we save around 90,000 liters of heating oil a year." Hölzl explained that the family business invested over one million euros in 2016.
“If the law comes into force, we will no longer drive flexibly.
The maintenance costs of the machines would be so high that it would no longer be profitable,” he explained.
"I understand that skimming profits is a no-go for you," explained Janecek.
“Because of the price increases in your industry, we discussed granting a surcharge.
I can't promise sweeping changes, but they're possible.”
“Everyone in the biogas area was happy.
You knew that you were needed and did what the politicians wanted,” reported Rauh.
"Now we're hitting the wall.
Politicians say you can't keep anything.
What you do isn't worth anything," he said, describing the mood among the operators.
“Can you still trust politics at all?
The signal that will be sent next week is extremely important for us," said Rauh.
Skimming off the excess profit was originally planned for last summer, in the current draft law for December.
So there is no far-reaching reverse creation.
"Thank God you have resolved the retroactive effect," said Josef Götz, addressing the Greens, relieved.
The member of the executive committee of the Biogas Association considered a levy to be “catastrophic”.
"What is skimmed off is not excess profit, but the turnover of the energy producers," explained Martin Bruckmeier from the company OH Umwelttechnik.
"Since the costs have gotten so high, we have to rely on it."
"It's just not possible that profits are socialized and the costs stay with the operator," interjected Johannes Mundigl.
“Fully wrong incentives are being created.
With this policy, no one dares to invest anymore.” Bruckmeier agreed: “All planned investments in the company have been canceled in the past few weeks.” Projects that were about to be completed failed due to the uncertainty of lending .
Josef Knoll from Energie Plus Agrar also spoke out clearly against the levy.
“We should replace the nuclear power plants and create jobs.
In addition, value creation remains local.”
"They need a reliable perspective that they can continue to invest," Janecek turned to the operators.
"We mustn't make the mistake of choking them off." He'll take that with him to Berlin.
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Dieter Janecek (left), member of the Green Party in the Bundestag, discussed skimming off the profits with, among others, the managing director of the Biogas Association, Stefan Rauh (3rd from left), as well as operators of biogas plants in the region.
© Lea Warmedinger
