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George Moeritz
Dresden. Saxony-Anhalt's Minister President Reiner Haseloff (CDU) has experienced many disappointments. Most recently, the microchip manufacturer Intel from the USA postponed the announced construction of the factory in Magdeburg. Haseloff is currently worried about plants at the SKW Piesteritz chemical factory in Wittenberg because energy is expensive in Germany and Russia can supply the diesel additive Adblue more cheaply than SKW. "We are losing industrial jobs every day," said Haseloff on Tuesday in Dresden. He was a guest at the 56th Power Plant Technology Colloquium, which the TU Dresden is holding for two days at the Congress Center.
Haseloff said: "The energy transition is stuttering, that is now a problem." For a while, Saxony-Anhalt had the "Solar Valley" with the world's largest production capacities, but now solar and increasingly wind power plants were coming from China. The CDU politician did not mention the Greens by name as a political opponent, but said: "The only climate problem is the current climate policy." Because if industrial jobs are relocated overseas, they will be less climate-friendly in future than in Germany. However, the energy transition is necessary. He did not deny climate change, said Haseloff, who holds a doctorate in physics and studied in Dresden.
Kretschmer mentions "renaissance of nuclear power" as a possibility
In recent months, Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer has argued along similar lines to his party colleague, saying that the energy transition has failed. In a written greeting to the Dresden conference, Kretschmer now emphasized that "many innovations for the energy transition" are coming from Saxony - for example battery storage systems and a 300-metre-high wind tower. Coal-fired power plants should not be shut down before 2038. The costs of the energy transition should not lead to companies diverting their investments abroad. Kretschmer wrote that there are many proposed solutions for an affordable and secure energy supply - and mentioned, among other things, "a renaissance of nuclear power" and "nuclear fusion on the distant horizon" as well as domestic natural gas.
Several panelists at the conference presented plans for hydrogen as an electricity storage medium. Kerstin Andreae, head of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries, referred to the plans for the German hydrogen core network. "The basic logic is in place," she said, adding that she now had confidence in German engineering skills. Haseloff, however, said that hydrogen would be an issue for the next few centuries: "We will not have a hydrogen economy in this century." Companies are overstretched when it comes to capital requirements.
Hydrogen experts: Germany dependent on imports
Hydrogen from green electricity is currently expensive, admitted Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, who represents the industry association Hydrogen Europe in Brussels. Europe is too small and too populous to produce hydrogen cheaply. He expects around 60 percent of the gas to be imported in future, for example from Saudi Arabia. In order to achieve favorable prices, long-term contracts could be offered. Chatzimarkakis praised the Dresden-based company Sunfire as one of the well-known manufacturers of electrolysis technology.
The organizers posed the question of whether Germany needs Canada or Kuwait as an energy partner. Andreae said that you can't be choosy when it comes to importing hydrogen. Leag board member Philipp Nellessen also said that Germany could not choose the supplier countries, they were not queuing up.
