Coalition plans to boost renewables expansion render grid plans obsolete – report

The aim of Germany’s emerging coalition government to speed up the expansion of renewable energy sources could render the current scenarios for expanding the country’s power grid obsolete, Michael Bauchmüller writes in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The “scenario framework” for grid expansion by 2030 “is already outdated before the last amendments are submitted,” Bauchmüller argues. According to their coalition agreement, the would-be government partners - the conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the Social Democrats (SPD) - want to increase the share of renewables in Germany’s power consumption to 65 percent by 2030 instead of the previous goal of 50 percent, Bauchmüller writes. “Germany’s four major grid operators are bound to run into problems by this acceleration,” he says. The current plans for grid expansion stipulate that major wind power transmission lines connecting the north with industrial centres in the south should be finished by 2025. Transmission grid operator 50Hertz says the accelerated expansion means that the power lines should be built with a greater capacity right away, instead of starting a second round of construction after the first line is finished.

Read the article in German here.

Find background in CLEW interview with CDU energy politician Pfeiffer.