The Green NRW Economics Minister, the Green Federal Economics Minister, together with the RWE boss, presented an accelerated phase-out of coal by 2030.
(Photo: dpa)
Dusseldorf The energy company RWE wants to bring the phase-out of coal forward by eight years to 2030. This emerges from a key point agreement between RWE, the Federal Ministry of Economics and the NRW Ministry of Economics. The decision was presented to journalists on Tuesday morning by Economics Minister Robert Habeck, NRW Economics Minister Mona Neubaur and RWE boss Markus Krebber.
The agreement also stipulates that two power plant blocks, which according to the current legal situation should be shut down at the end of the year, will continue to run until spring 2024. This would strengthen the security of supply and save natural gas in the electricity market.
Habeck said that this decision means that residents in the lignite regions will be able to keep their villages and farms. However, the Lützerath settlement had to be “cleared” because RWE needed the lignite areas underneath.
The traffic light coalition at the federal level has the goal of the latest Germany’s planned phase-out of coal by 2038 should “ideally” be brought forward to 2030, as stated in the coalition agreement. However, this is only possible if the power supply is ensured by other power plants on days with little sun and wind. If coal and nuclear power plants disappear, gas-fired power plants will have to take over this task.
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Habeck explained: “At the same time, energy security must of course also be guaranteed for the year 2030 and beyond, which is why we will be issuing a tender for hydrogen gas power plants.” More precisely, it is about gas power plants that can be converted to hydrogen as quickly as possible . Habeck said: “I assume that part of this, if not all, can be provided by RWE.”
RWE boss insists on remuneration for gas-fired power plants in reserve
With the agreement, the federal government is a step closer to its goal from the coalition agreement. RWE boss Markus Krebber said: “We will end lignite-fired power generation in 2030.” However, he emphasized the conditions that he believes must be met in order for the coal phase-out to succeed by 2030.
The traffic light coalition wants to “ideally” bring forward the planned phase-out of coal in Germany by 2038 to 2030.
(Photo: dpa)
According to Krebber, the federal government must create the right framework conditions to expand renewable energies in Germany as quickly as possible. RWE also needs clarity about the expansion of the hydrogen network in Germany. This is the only way that investment and location decisions about hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants can be made.
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Framework conditions are needed to tackle the construction of hydrogen-capable gas power plants as quickly as possible, because the lead time for such projects is up to six years. “In our view, the conditions for this must be created next year to enable the coal phase-out in 2030,” said Krebber.
The RWE boss explained that the group would finance the construction of the new gas-fired power plants from private funds. However, it must be clarified how the power plants are remunerated. The problem: The power plants should only be available for emergencies, i.e. for days when the German electricity requirements cannot be sufficiently covered by wind and solar power.
In this way they would burn as little gas as possible. However, this does not make the gas-fired power plants profitable. Therefore, the power plant operators would like to be paid for the provision of secure electricity production.
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