Politicians from the Union and the FDP are demanding longer nuclear power plant runtimes in order to bridge possible short-term power shortages in the course of the Ukraine war in the winter. Saxony’s Prime Minister joins in. Kretschmer declares the energy transition for gas to have failed.
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer has called for the lifetimes of nuclear power plants to be extended indefinitely for the time being. “As long as the federal government has not developed a new concept for the energy transition, the nuclear power plants must continue to run,” said CDU man Kretschmer to the “Handelsblatt”. The deputy CDU chairman declared the energy transition in this form a failure. “The energy transition with gas as the base load has failed.”
Last winter already showed that production from green energies is often not enough, said Kretschmer. Weather-independent electricity production is therefore essential. From the Prime Minister’s point of view, there is no alternative simply to generate more electricity from wind and sun. The exploding gas and electricity prices are now “a threat” for the business location. “We need a base load capability. It’s crazy to fire up lignite-fired power plants for this,” said Kretschmer, looking at their CO2 balance.
Due to fears of a stop in Russian gas deliveries, a possible extension of the service life of the last three nuclear power plants still in operation in Germany, which according to current nuclear law would have to go offline at the end of December, is currently being discussed.
Union and FDP are campaigning to allow at least limited continued operation beyond the turn of the year. The SPD and the Greens in particular are still skeptical. They also do not want to generally rule out at least temporary continued operation in the event of a crisis.
