05/09/2023
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
To expand wind power, CSU leader Markus Söder announces the establishment of a state-owned company. He can also imagine hydroelectric power plants in the hands of the Free State.
More state, less market: for the energy transition in Bavaria, Prime Minister Markus Söder envisions a stronger role for the public sector. At the party conference of the CSU in Nuremberg, he announced the establishment of a state-owned company for the construction of wind turbines in the Free State. "We want to make our own company 'Bayernwind', in order to build wind turbines there ourselves, so that not only any investors earn money," said the CSU chairman.
When "Bayernwind" will be launched and when the company is to start work, he did not let through. On inquiry with the CSU Pressestelle in Munich the editorship was referred to the Bavarian State Chancellery. The inquiry there remained unanswered up to the editorial deadline.
Söder can also imagine a new state role in the use of hydropower. "If the federal government were to sell any hydropower plants that it currently owns, we don't want any investors to buy those, then we are open to it," he said - an allusion to the Uniper plants in Bavaria. He left open whether he was thinking of a state takeover or participation. Such a step would probably meet with broad approval among the population: A representative survey commissioned by the Green Party had shown in March that more than 80 percent consider the privatization of hydroelectric plants in 1990s a mistake and would like to see them return to the ownership of the Free State.
"Quasi notarized": Bavaria number 1 in renewables expansion
Söder sees Bavaria on its way to becoming the leading state for onshore wind power. "Klotzen, klotzen, klotzen," he recently described the agenda to RTL and N-TV. He expects the Free State to achieve and even exceed its area targets for wind power by the end of the decade. However, the start to the current year seems comparatively sluggish. In the first three months, five new wind turbines went into operation, compared with 14 in North Rhine-Westphalia and 17 in Brandenburg in the same period.
He rejects criticism of the pace at which the expansion of renewables has progressed. It is "quasi notarized that Bavaria is now already very, very good," Söder stressed at the party conference. "In terms of installed renewable energy capacity, we are the largest state in Germany." In terms of additions in 2022/2023, "we were clearly number one." "Twenty-five percent of everything that was new in renewable energy in Germany came from Bavaria," the premier said.
Biomass, photovoltaics and hydropower generate as much electricity in Bavaria as 5,000 wind turbines, according to Söder. "No one can rip off what we're doing there." Despite all the efforts for the energy transition, it won't be enough to create baseload capability, he said, again advocating the use of nuclear power as a bridging technology during the crisis: It would be a "fundamental, far-reaching mistake for Germany's economy and citizens to shut down nuclear power plants." The prime minister fears that different electricity price zones could emerge in Germany and that Bavaria could be at a disadvantage.
Author: Manfred Fischer
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