Background: How the power plant park is to be converted

In 2030, at least 80 percent of the electricity consumed should come from renewable energies – especially from wind turbines and solar systems. But why are gas power plants also supported?

The question is what the German power plant fleet should look like in the future. The federal government’s stated goal is for at least 80 percent of the electricity consumed to come from renewable energies by 2030 – primarily from wind power and solar systems.

But other power plants are also needed. On the one hand, to fill the remaining gap, and on the other hand, because electricity generation from wind and sun fluctuates greatly – depending on the weather. Last year, a good quarter of the local electricity came from coal-fired power plants. The federal government wants to switch this off by 2030 if possible. So other solutions are needed.

The power plant strategy is primarily based on the construction of new gas power plants, which will also be able to generate electricity with hydrogen. Pure hydrogen power plants are also to be built. According to forecasts by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, up to 25 gigawatts of new capacity would have to be added. This corresponds to around 50 new power plants.

Reserve for dark lulls

This requires high investments. The industry expects up to 40 billion euros. The main problem is that since the power plants are unlikely to run constantly, but will mostly only serve as a reserve for so-called dark lulls, the investments are not worth it. The industry therefore relies on government funding – both to finance the construction of the power plants and for ongoing operations.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs is ready to do this in principle. In the end, it’s about the exact costs and conditions – especially since the EU Commission in Brussels has to approve the billion-dollar subsidies.

Technological New territory

Another problem is that the federal government is breaking new technological ground with its power plant strategy. From the 2030s onwards, the new gas power plants will be gradually converted to green hydrogen, which is currently hardly available worldwide and correspondingly expensive.

The entire infrastructure for climate-friendly hydrogen still needs to be built. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ plans are very ambitious: the new power plants are to be converted from natural gas to hydrogen as early as 2035, i.e. in eleven years.