Chancellor candidate Scholz plans to write electricity expansion target into law

SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz is aiming for a new law to ensure industry has enough renewable electricity to decarbonise over the coming decades, report newswires Reuters and dpa, according to an article carried by Tagesspiegel. "Next year, we must write the electricity expansion target for 2045 into law," the finance minister said during a visit to a cement plant near Berlin. The article did not specify whether Scholz was talking about power production or capacity. Currently, Germany's Renewable Energy Act (EEG) prescribes renewable power capacity targets for 2030. In addition, laws will need to be changed quickly to speed up the approval procedures for grid expansion, Scholz explained. He added that huge changes are necessary to make the steel, chemical and cement industries climate-neutral, but also stressed that the sector offers big potential for emissions reductions. "Nowhere are the results as large and comprehensive as in this sector," Scholz said. 

German industry will need huge amounts of electricity for deep emission cuts. The chemical industry alone has said it will require as much electricity in 2050 as the whole of Germany uses today, partly for making renewable hydrogen to replace fossil fuels. The economy ministry earlier this year revised up its forecast for Germany's 2030 power needs to between 645 and 665 terawatt-hours to reflect the expected surge in demand from heat pumps, electric cars and green hydrogen production.