Is the traffic light now changing its energy policy?

Economics Minister Robert Habeck said on a historic Sunday evening that there should no longer be any “tabus of thought”. In the morning, under the impact of the war in Ukraine, the German government announced a 180-degree turnaround in its defense and security policy. An additional 100 billion euros are to be available for the military as early as 2022, and in future more than two percent of gross domestic product will be spent on defense. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks of a “turning point in time”.

But a turning point is also imminent in energy policy, as will become clear on Sunday. In the “Report from Berlin” of the ARD, the Green Habeck explains that in view of the energy dependency on Russia, his ministry is examining leaving nuclear and coal-fired power plants in Germany longer on the grid.

The debate about this has been going on ever since the gas and oil prices exploded in the winter. With the invasion of the Russian army, the question suddenly also arises in terms of security policy. Can Germany phase out nuclear power by the end of the year while still being dependent on Putin’s gas supplies?

“I would not ideologically ward off the question,” says Vice Chancellor Habeck. However, he pushes directly afterwards: “But the preliminary check showed that it does not help us.” In fact, the operators of the last three nuclear power plants – EON, RWE and EnBW – only spoke out against extending the service life at the weekend. “It is strange to start a debate about this in Germany shortly before it is switched off,” said an EON spokesman.

In fact, the Ministry of Economic Affairs is examining an extension of the term, but the result seems clear. Safety is not guaranteed because the piles are already being shut down to an exit at the turn of the year, and there are no new fuel rods for this in the short term. In addition, there is a lack of appropriate specialist staff in the reactors and, ultimately, nuclear power is not profitable. “Nuclear power will not help us for the winter of 2022/2023,” says Habeck. But he leaves a back door open.

But even the energy policy spokesman for the Union, Andreas Jung, unlike his party colleague Günther Oettinger, does not believe in a delayed phase-out of nuclear power: “An extension of the service life would not be an answer to a current shortage of gas heating, industrial heat generation with gas or anything Gas as a raw material in chemistry.”

More on the Russian attack on Ukraine:

Gas cannot be replaced here in the short term, but only in the medium and long term – by “climate-neutral gases or with investments in electricity-based technologies”.

The particularly climate-damaging coal power generation, from which the federal government “ideally” wants to phase out according to the coalition agreement in 2030 instead of 2038, is now to be reviewed. One looks at which old coal-fired power plants could be connected to the grid again, explains Habeck. But since hard coal is no longer mined in Germany and half of the imported coal comes from Russia, such a step makes little sense: “Letting it run longer means longer dependence on hard coal deliveries from Russia.”

In the short term, a national coal reserve is to be created to hoard supplies for about three months. Location and procurement are currently being examined.

Even Lindner now speaks of “freedom energies”

In fact, the turning point in energy policy seems to lie in the expansion of renewable energies. Already in the coalition agreement, the energy transition was declared the core of the traffic light government, by 2030 80 percent of German electricity should come from wind, water and solar systems. “The real path to energy independence is to phase out fossil fuels. The sun and the wind do not belong to anyone,” says Habeck.

One heard from his party on Monday that the funds for the expansion of renewable energies would now have to increase in line with the defense budget. One will “take relevant more money into the hand”, announces Green leader Ricarda Lang. “Energy policy is security policy,” she said. Her party is hoping for the support of Finance Minister Christian Lindner. In his speech in the Bundestag on Sunday, the head of the FDP spoke for the first time of “freedom energies” when it came to renewable energies. That too is a turning point.

There is a draft law for a national gas reserve

However, it will take a while before the wind turbines, solar systems and hydroelectric turbines are in operation. At a special Council of Energy Ministers convened at short notice in Brussels on Monday, the primary focus was on the energy sovereignty of the EU states. For Germany, this will primarily mean state intervention in the gas market. Around 55 percent of gas deliveries in this country come from Russia.

In order to reduce the influence of the Kremlin, a national gas reserve is to be built up. A draft law by the Ministry of Economics, which became known on Monday, now provides that the German gas storage facilities – the fourth largest in the world – will be legally obliged to fill in the future. According to the draft, the storage tanks should be 80 percent filled with gas by October 1st and 90 percent by December 1st. The law is expected to be passed by the Bundestag in April.

In addition, Habeck announced on Sunday that he would soon present a “gas reduction plan”. Apparently parts of the industry should use less gas, but private households should also save. According to Tagesspiegel information, this also includes a future installation stop of gas heating in new buildings.

German environmental aid is keeping complaints against the LNG terminal open

In addition, Germany should quickly get its own ports for liquefied natural gas, so-called LNG. It was decided to build two LNG terminals in Brunsbüttel and Wilhelmshaven “quickly”, Scholz said on Sunday in the Bundestag. But how quickly this can be achieved is questionable. The costs are enormous, and there are also protests from environmentalists.

The German Environmental Aid (DUH) recently commissioned two legal opinions on the two locations. The result is clear, says Sascha Müller-Kraenner, DUH Managing Director of the Tagesspiegel: “In Brunsbüttel, an emergency operation at this location is impossible, in Wilhelmshaven there are concerns about nature conservation.”

Müller-Kraenner did not rule out possible lawsuits against the construction of the LNG terminals. “I can’t issue a free pass for individual projects now.” But the war in Ukraine is changing the situation: “So far there has been overcapacity in the gas sector in Germany, which is why we considered LNG terminals to be superfluous. Now we need a reassessment and, above all, an overall strategy as to how we will phase out gas by 2045,” says Müller-Kraenner. The signs point to a turning point, also in energy policy.