Russia-Ukraine War: Putin ordered a “special military operation” last Thursday in Ukraine.
Berlin:
The invasion of Ukraine reduced Germany’s problematic dependence on Russian gas, forcing Europe’s largest economy to urgently reshape its energy mix.
In a previously unthinkable move for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s fledgling government, the crisis has even prompted politicians to consider delaying Germany’s plan to pull out of nuclear and coal power in order to continue. continue to be effective.
“We will change course to overcome our dependence on imports,” Scholz said Sunday at an extraordinary session of the House of Commons on the Ukraine crisis.
The decision represents a major and costly reversal for the government that has backed Russia to secure its energy needs for the past two decades.
With Russia increasingly isolated on the international stage due to economic sanctions against Ukraine, Berlin can no longer rely on Moscow to continue to supply more than half of the country’s gas.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner said that while energy supplies have largely been exempt from the Western response, policymakers still need to “prepare for a scenario” where Russia “shuts off supplies”. gas”.
Liquefied gas
Initially, Germany hopes to replace Russian supplies with a larger supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG), a form of supercooled fuel that can be imported by sea from producers. like the United States or Qatar.
The German government made headlines in the LNG market on Wednesday when it announced that it was spending 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) on the fuel.
But Germany lacks the infrastructure to take in the massive new supply, with no LNG terminals along the coast where tankers can dock.
Their absence means they will have to import supplies through one of the EU’s 21 other terminals, a costly solution at a time of soaring energy prices.
“Germany must build its own LNG terminals with the necessary connections and infrastructure,” the Economy Ministry concluded last week.
Some projects, which have stalled because of a lack of political and financial support, may also receive “public support,” the ministry said.
In the northern town of Stade, on the Elbe River, construction on a project is about to begin.
“The technical evaluations have been completed,” Hanseatic Energy Hub, the company behind the project, told AFP.
Meanwhile, in Wilmershaven, on the North Sea coast, Belgian group TES is also planning to build a facility.
However, the terminals may take some time to come online. Karen Pittel, an energy expert at the Ifo think tank, told AFP: “The approval process takes a minimum of three years and two years to build.
Climate target
The tight maneuvering space has cast doubt on Germany’s ambitious timetable for the transition to renewable energy.
The ruling coalition of the Social Democrats, the Green Party and Germany’s liberal FDP, which has been in power since December, has promised to pull out of coal earlier by 2030 and upheld Angela Merkel’s decision to give up nuclear by 2030. end of 2022.
Paradoxically, natural gas plays an important role in the planned green transition, providing a ready supply of energy when the wind is calm or the sun does not shine – at least until Energy storage technology generated from renewable energy caught up.
Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck stated recently: “There is no longer a taboo. “In the short term, we may need to be cautious about stockpiling coal power plants,” he said.
The Greens minister has also not ruled out pushing back against the closure of the country’s last three operating nuclear power plants.
However, the government will face significant challenges if it pursues the nuclear option. “You can’t just prolong a nuclear plant that you’ve decided to shut down,” said energy expert Pittel.
Plant operator RWE told German newspaper Handelsblatt there were “extremely high barriers, at the technical and administrative level”.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from the feed provided.)
