Clear the way for the first LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven
Created: 2022-12-16, 2:19 p.m
The "Höegh Esperanza" will serve as a floating platform to land and regasify LNG.
© Sina Schuldt/dpa
The ship with the gas is here, the dignitaries are coming, Germany's new major energy project can go into operation.
But environmentalists continue to fear for the sensitive Wadden Sea.
Wilhelmshaven - The way to the commissioning of the first German LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven is clear.
On Friday, the state of Lower Saxony issued the last outstanding water law permit for the facility for importing liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The discharge of chlorine-containing waste water into the sea was regulated under strict conditions.
"The best possible balance between social, economic and ecological concerns was ensured".
That said Anne Rickmeyer, head of the Lower Saxony State Office for Water Management, Coastal Protection and Nature Conservation (NLWKN).
The approval was handed over to the operator Uniper Global Commodities.
Environmental groups criticize the discharge of chemicals and fear damage to the Unesco World Heritage Wadden Sea.
The LNG plant is part of Germany's efforts to become independent of natural gas from Russia.
It is to be put into operation on Saturday in the presence of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) and other politicians.
On Thursday, the special ship "Höegh Esperanza" moored at the new pier.
In the future, liquid gas will be converted back into the gaseous state on the ship.
Further LNG plants are planned in Brunsbüttel (Schleswig-Holstein), Stade (Lower Saxony) and Lubmin (Mecklenburg-West Pomerania).
Seawater is used in the so-called regasification, explained the NLWKN.
In order to clean the water and protect the pipes, the salt in the sea, sodium chloride, is converted into active chlorine (NaOCl).
This is then returned to the sea with the sewage.
The discharges requested met the legal requirements, the approval authority announced.
Before that, more than 300 objections from public bodies, environmental organizations and private individuals had been examined.
Environmentalists, on the other hand, call for chemical-free cleaning processes.
Susanne Gerstner from BUND Lower Saxony criticized the effects of the plant on the highly sensitive Wadden Sea.
"An urgently needed environmental impact assessment was suspended with reference to the LNG Acceleration Act." The environmental association is therefore examining a lawsuit.
According to the BUND, the LNG systems should also run for too long, which slows down the switch to renewably produced green hydrogen and other alternative energy sources.
The Wilhelmshaven Economic Development Agency also called LNG an "emergency and bridging solution".
At the same time, the infrastructure created within a few months is a building block for the future.
"It is the basic structure and should be a pioneer for the use of green hydrogen and other environmentally friendly molecules as soon as possible," said Managing Director Alexander Leonhardt.
dpa
