In the debate about how future electricity highways should be built, the Prime Ministers of Baden-Württemberg and Saxony spoke out in favor of above-ground high-voltage lines instead of underground cabling. “In order to save money when building future high-voltage lines, we should not build underground, but above ground,” said Baden-Württemberg’s head of government Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) to the editorial network Germany (RND). That would save 20 billion euros. “A 40-meter-wide working trench runs through the entire republic for the underground cabling,” said Kretschmann. “Putting up masts would be a much smaller intrusion.” Federal Energy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) is open to it if all federal states agree.
The Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) told the RND: “I expressly support the initiative against underground cabling. We could save a huge amount of time and money on expansion.” Energy companies had also called for the above-ground variant in order to be able to build the urgently needed routes more quickly, which would bring electricity, particularly from the north of Germany to the south.