Germany is set to go to the polls on February 23, amid a heated election campaign due to the impact the cloudy winter weather will have on the country’s unsustainable green energy transition. Electricity prices in Europe’s top economy have temporarily jumped twice in recent months. The country lacks both sunlight and wind to power solar panels and turbines.
This situation, described as “dark peace”, has caused the price of electricity to reach 936 euros ($972) per megawatt hour on December 12. This is 12 times more than the average of previous weeks. Conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz’s party CSU/CDU has every hope of winning the elections. Merz is cornering centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz on this issue.
Europe’s energy markets are interconnected. Merz told Scholz that “your energy policies are troubling the entire European Union.” This comment was rejected by the Greens (Germany’s green political party is called ‘Greens’). The Greens have long been the political driving force behind Germany’s shift away from fossil fuels and nuclear power and toward clean renewable energy.
Commitment and challenges regarding green energy
Greens Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck hit back, saying previous CDU/CSU governments led by Angela Merkel had been “blind” to Germany’s energy challenges. To help fight climate change, Germany has pledged to phase out fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030 below 1990 levels and become carbon-neutral by mid-century.
Due to the recent surge in electricity prices, some of Germany’s most energy-consuming companies have temporarily limited or stopped production. On December 12, Germany bought electricity from the European Energy Exchange in Leipzig, causing a surge in prices in neighboring countries.
Meanwhile, the German energy sector is ringing alarm bells. Markus Creber, head of RWE, the largest energy supplier, said that the recent decline in renewable energy supply makes power supply unmanageable during high peak load days such as January. He warned that the system is currently operating “at its limits”.
Europe illuminated by sun and wind
The situation soon stabilized after the recent decline as renewable energy production picked up again and households and most businesses were protected from daily price fluctuations by fixed tariffs. The Scholz government defended the transition to green energy. He said that occasionally darkness may occur as a “temporary phenomenon”, which can push up prices in the spot market.
“When the sun shines a lot and the wind blows a lot, electricity production is very cheap in Germany,” said spokesman Stefan Hebestreit. “In such a situation, electricity is happily exported, supplied to our neighboring countries.” ”
Renewable energy has become an important part of Germany’s energy mix. Its average electricity production so far this year is 60 percent. Traditional sources of energy are being shut down. Coal power stations are gradually closing after the last three nuclear power stations were removed from the grid last year.
political contest on energy
Many experts say the world’s third-largest economy, which is already struggling with a lack of competition in other sectors, cannot afford such fluctuations in power supply.
Analysts say Germany needs to increase energy storage capacity and, if necessary, develop other sources of production, such as gas and hydrogen.
“If the state sets up a good regulatory framework, it may be possible to avoid shortages by investing in storage and keeping supply flexible,” Georg Zachman, an energy and climate expert at the Bruegel think tank, told AFP.
Will politics take Germany back towards nuclear energy?
However, he added that “a major concern is that the framework will not be sufficient to quickly develop the necessary infrastructure.” “It takes an average of seven years to build a wind energy facility, but it only takes seven months to build a liquefied natural gas terminal. It should be the other way around,” said energy expert Claudia Kaempfert.
Currently, Germany is facing several months of political deadlock after the fall of Scholz’s three-way coalition government. The collapse of the coalition government also means the cancellation of a key draft law for a project to build a network of gas and hydrogen power stations as part of an energy transition away from coal.
It may take several months for a new government to emerge after the February elections and then set its energy policy. Merz, who is leading in the election, has promised to study a return to nuclear power.
Also read –
Building a green, bright future for millions of people ‘we do it’: Gautam Adani
Adani family will invest Rs 9,350 crore in green energy unit
