Dresden (dpa / sn) – Saxony’s Economics Minister Martin Dulig sees the resumption of Russian gas deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline as a “positive signal”. At the same time, the SPD politician warned on Thursday not to weigh oneself in a false sense of security. No matter how much gas flows – it is important to save energy now and to become less dependent on Russian gas in the medium term, Dulig told the German Press Agency. He also emphasized that nuclear power would not solve the energy problem in Germany.
“We don’t know what strategy Putin has now. He will certainly have an interest in us remaining in a crisis. That’s why one can assume that there will be fluctuating gas supplies. Either way, we face the challenge of less dependent on gas supplies from Russia,” said Dulig. However, this conversion of the German energy supply will take a while.
“Of course we have a great interest in ensuring that there is enough gas for autumn and winter,” said Dulig. “But we will also do everything we can to save energy. And I say energy consciously because we continue to use a larger proportion of gas to generate electricity. So saving electricity also helps to save gas.”
Nuclear power, on the other hand, will not help Germany out of the crisis, said Dulig. You have only a share of six percent of the electricity generation. “Furthermore, all questions related to the topic of nuclear energy have not been answered. The safety questions, the repository questions,” said Dulig. At most, he could imagine a “pragmatic solution” when it comes to running a single power plant for half a year longer.
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) had spoken out in favor of allowing the remaining three German nuclear power plants to run longer. They are scheduled to go offline at the end of this year.
