The federal government wants to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2038 in order to achieve the climate targets. Coal-fired power plants should be replaced by gas-fired power plants until Germany produces enough renewable energy.
Because Germany no longer purchases pipeline gas from Russia, the RWE group can run two lignite-fired power plant units longer: until March 2024 instead of the end of 2022. And RWE is allowed to demolish the North Rhine-Westphalian village of Lützerath for the mining of lignite. Environmental organizations and climate activists strongly criticize this. Activists have set up protest camps in the village. They are resisting the preparatory measures for the planned evacuation.
In this episode, Handelsblatt energy expert Catiana Krapp talks to Ina Karabasz about possible alternatives: “There is a total of over 200 gigawatts of electricity generation capacity in Germany. Of this, 16 percent is hard coal and lignite and only about two percent is nuclear power.” In other words, as things currently stand, nuclear power cannot compensate for coal-fired power generation.
The same applies to renewable energies, although they make up more than 50 percent of the generation capacity: for days when there is no sun and no wind, reliable power generation is needed.
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Also in this episode: The start of the new series “2023 I’ll take care of …” Every week we explain what is important when it comes to sometimes complex financial issues, what obstacles and special aspects there are. The first part deals with the statutory pension insurance in Germany. How is it calculated? How much is the pension for employees? What about the maximum pension and the pension gap? And for whom is it worth paying more voluntarily?
Handelsblatt financial editor Markus Hinterberger explains: “For everyone who is employed, the statutory pension is actually the cornerstone of old-age provision. That’s what you build everything else on later. But just because I have a foundation doesn’t mean I have a house.”
More: What to look out for when it comes to statutory pensions
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