Bavaria: Environment Minister Glauber wants to take over Uniper hydroelectric power plants – Bavaria

According to Environment Minister Thorsten Faithr, the Free State of Bavaria should in future produce renewable energies itself. “The brutal war of aggression in Ukraine shows that we have to rethink the energy supply of the future. We need a revolution in the energy sector,” said the Free Voter politician on Thursday in Munich. The triad must be: “From Bavaria, in Bavaria and for Bavaria. The central task is security of supply for people and the economy. In particular, the expansion of renewable energies must be significantly accelerated.”

Hydropower would be a good first step towards state energy supply. “The takeover of Uniper SE by the federal government currently offers the opportunity to take over hydroelectric power plants from Uniper Kraftwerks GmbH. In total, this involves 97 hydroelectric power plants with a total output of around 970 megawatts and around 4800 gigawatt hours of electricity per year in the power plant groups Danube, Isar, Lech and Main,” said Glauber. The hydroelectric power plants would generate around a third of Bavaria’s electricity production from hydropower.

Faithr is not alone in his demand: the Greens in the Bavarian state parliament have been campaigning for hydropower to be returned to the public sector for years. “The CSU sold off the crown jewels of Bavaria’s energy supply in the 1990s and 2000s: the hydroelectric power plants on the Danube, Lech, Isar and Main. Now there is a window of opportunity to rectify this error,” said parliamentary group leader Ludwig Hartmann. The power plants are now owned by the federal government. “We want to put them back in the hands of the people of Bavaria.”

Hartmann continues: “We can thus reunite the triad of electricity production, flood protection and protection of water ecology in public hands. This is a historic opportunity. The neighboring municipalities should also benefit from it – whether through a municipal participation or environmental funds like in South Tyrol. We want them Bavarian hydropower as the basis for a Bavarian energy cooperative.”

Faithr emphasized: “We stand for the common good-oriented, ecologically sustainable and climate-neutral use of hydropower.” A new operating company would be conceivable for the operation of the systems. “We will approach the federal government with this proposal. It is important that something moves quickly and consistently.” Specifically, this would mean that Bavaria would have to buy the said hydroelectric power plants from the federal government. In the future, however, the state must also become an independent energy producer in addition to hydropower, Glauber said. In this way, renewable energies could be expanded without the need for investors.

“The Free State has a role model function. Renewable energies ensure services of general interest and jobs. We need a completely new dynamic in the expansion of renewable energies. We also need significantly higher investments in the distribution grids,” he said. For example, wind turbines on state land or photovoltaic systems could be set up by the Free State itself, said Glauber. Financial means for this could be gained through a participation of the federal states in the federal income from CO2 pricing, which Bavaria has repeatedly requested.

“The more the energy supply is in the hands of the state, the more control Bavaria has over this critical infrastructure. But it must be clear: the new structures must be used as an opportunity to operate hydropower in a more environmentally friendly way than before,” said Christine Margraf from the Bund Naturschutz Bayern. The association rejects the development of further hydroelectric power plants, as is currently being planned on the Salzach. “This is also not necessary for the energy transition, since hydropower only accounts for a very small proportion of our electricity supply.”

In mid-September, the federal government announced that it wanted to take over almost all of Germany’s most important gas importer, Uniper. The background is the complete cessation of the contractually agreed gas supplies from Russia.

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