On Sunday, the government of Germany, one of Europe’s most dependent countries on Russian natural gas, announced its intention to pass emergency regulations to reopen some closed coal-fired power plants: they will be used to offset other cuts in Russia’s supply of gas.
The Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom reduced the daily volume of gas delivered to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline by around 60 percent last week reduce economic sanctions.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck said it expects to use coal-fired power plants for two years to produce up to 10 gigawatts of electricity. This decision will increase Germany’s reliance on coal, going in the opposite direction of the country’s climate goals, which aimed to phase out its use by 2030: coal is the fuel causing the largest emissions of carbon dioxide, the main gas used for the… Climate responsible is change.
Although in Germany the energy from wind and solar power plants (which cause no emissions) is gradually replacing that generated from fossil fuels, the use of coal is still widespread: in 2021 according to the Federal Association BDEW As a representative of the German energy producers and – 28 percent of the energy produced in Germany was obtained from coal.
The plan announced by Habeck, the details of which are still being worked out, also provides for the introduction of an economic incentive mechanism for companies able to reduce their gas consumption.
Germany also wants to start buying liquefied natural gas (LNG) from other countries, which is transported by ship and requires regasifiers, plants that return fuel to the gaseous state: the country doesn’t currently have one, but the government has reached an agreement to charter four FSRU (Floating Storage and Regasification Unit) vessels, the easiest type of regasifier to install.
– Also read: Will Russian Gas Divide Europe?