Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck believes the energy supply in Germany is more independent than before the crisis and is secure even after the shutdown of several coal-fired power plants. “Several coal-fired power plants that were still on the grid as a precautionary measure over the last two years are now superfluous and can finally be taken off the grid,” the Green politician told the German Press Agency. The prices for electricity and gas have fallen significantly and, thanks to the expansion of renewable energies, the majority of electricity now comes from clean, climate-friendly sources, said Habeck.
At the turn of the month, several coal-fired power plants in Germany were finally shut down. A total of seven lignite power plant blocks were shut down in the Rhenish Revier and in Brandenburg, as the energy companies RWE and Leag confirmed on Easter Sunday. In addition, eight medium-sized and smaller hard coal plants with a total output of 1.3 gigawatts have finally been taken off the grid, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Monday, citing information from the Federal Network Agency. These temporarily produced electricity again in order to reduce gas consumption over the past two years.
The closure of the power plants had already been planned earlier. After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, however, several units of coal-fired power plants were allowed to run longer than planned or were taken out of reserve in order to use them to generate electricity and save natural gas.