Germany needs new natural gas capacity to meet its coal phase-out target

Germany must soon move to tenders for new natural gas capacity that would replace coal plants if Europe’s biggest economy is to meet its goal of phasing out coal in power generation by the end of the decade, it says the German energy giant Uniper.

Earlier this year, Germany decided it would auction 10 gigawatts (GW) of new natural gas-fired capacity from power plants that could be converted to hydrogen in the 2030s as part of plans to secure a stable energy supply electricity as wind and solar power generation. and installations grow.

Germany, which last year shut down all of its remaining nuclear power plants, is now trying to balance its generation and transmission systems with new gas-fired power plants. But these plants must be ready to convert to hydrogen sometime between 2035 and 2040, the Economy Ministry said.

The country has also decided to speed up the phase-out of coal by 2030 from an earlier planned date of 2038, but Europe’s biggest economy has restarted some coal-fired power plants over the past two winters after Russian supplies of natural gas to Germany has ceased.

Uniper, which continues to run several coal-fired power plants in Germany, cannot close them now because it needs gas-fired capacity to replace them and ensure system stability, the company’s chief executive, Michael Lewis, told Bloomberg, in an interview given in parallel with the Gastech conference.

“We want to shut down coal as quickly as possible. We want to build new gas plants and we want to build the lowest cost plants possible that can then be converted into hydrogen,” the executive said.

“The sooner we start the bidding process next year, the sooner we start building those plants,” Lewis told Bloomberg.

Uniper, which the German government had to bail out at the start of Europe’s energy crisis in 2022, has also pledged to invest more than $8.9 billion (€8 billion) in green energy by 2030 as seeks to become a greener energy supplier. faster than previously planned.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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