“Of course, the nuclear power plants should have continued to run.”
(Photo: dpa)
Stuttgart The chainsaw entrepreneur Nikolas Stihl expresses harsh criticism of the implementation of the energy transition in Germany. “In the way in which it is done, amateurism is a relatively weak word,” he told the German Press Agency. Ten years ago he said in an interview that he didn’t believe that the power grids would be developed enough within a decade to bring the electricity from the wind farms from the north to the south. “And if you look at the fact that only about 2,000 kilometers of the 12,000 kilometers of lines that we need have been completed, then unfortunately I was right in my prediction.”
This development is causing him more concern than the currently high energy prices, said the Swabian family business. “And it doesn’t look like it’s really moving forward any time soon.”
Germany has to build 2,000 new wind turbines every year in order to achieve its goals. “I don’t see that either. Let alone that we would somehow be able to cover the base load.” And that’s only about the electricity requirement. However, the entire primary energy requirement would have to be converted in order to become CO2-neutral.
“Of course, the nuclear power plants should have continued to run,” Stihl continued. The real mistake here was 30 years ago – instead of stopping research, one should have continued research and now have power plants that produce less radioactive waste and are much safer. “If there had been power plants in Chernobyl or Fukushima like the ones in Isar 2 today, we wouldn’t know these names today.”
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The company from Waiblingen is increasingly using rechargeable batteries as a replacement for internal combustion engines for the chain saws and other devices manufactured by Stihl. Most recently, the proportion was 19 percent.
However, Stihl, who is chairman of the advisory board of the chainsaw and garden tool manufacturer, does not want to set a specific target: He suspects that device classes with low performance requirements will switch to rechargeable batteries to a relatively large extent. “And then there are certain product segments where you can’t do without the combustion engine for a very long time – for example professional chainsaws with higher performance requirements.”
The company therefore also relies on climate-friendly fuels, so-called e-fuels. “We are working on the subject and this year, for example, we brought a CO2-reduced fuel onto the market,” said Stihl. The fuel cell, on the other hand, is rather uninteresting because it has to be built very small for Stihl products.
More: Michael Traub faces major challenges at Stihl