Thuringia has so far had to import a lot of electricity - that should change in the next few years. “We have to take the energy supply into our own hands,” said Energy Minister Tilo Kummer (Thüringen.Gerecht) in a government statement on energy policy in the state parliament. The draft of a new energy law is available. Criticism came from the opposition AfD and Left parties, who spoke of “label fraud” and “quite a lot of hot air”. AfD parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke described the energy transition as an “extremist political approach”.
The aim of the new law is to further boost energy production in the Free State from renewable sources, to involve the municipalities more financially, to reduce prices in the long term and to organize the supply in a more stable and crisis-proof manner, said Kummer. It is primarily about regional energy production coupled with more storage options, but not about “making Thuringia completely self-sufficient.”
Overall, the energy transition offers great opportunities, including for the Thuringian economy, which should be exploited. With the systems in Goldisthal (Sonneberg district) and at the Saale dams, Thuringia already has large storage capacities for electricity.
Kummer referred to extremely high energy prices, attacks like the one in Berlin that led to power outages that lasted for days, and the current acts of sabotage against substations in several federal states. “That shows how sensitive we are.” Energy supply systems should be better protected.
New regulations in the Energy Act are intended to enable municipalities to invest more in financially lucrative energy production and not just in self-sufficiency. They should be given the legal opportunity to operate solar systems, biomass power plants and wind turbines on their own account and to sell the energy. They could use the income to improve their coffers. Currently in Thuringia only municipal utilities can make profits with energy projects, but not cities and municipalities without such companies.
Kummer reiterated that municipalities and their citizens should also benefit more from projects run by commercial operators in their area. In the future, operators of wind turbines in the vicinity of cities and municipalities will have to pay 0.3 cents per kilowatt hour to municipal coffers instead of the previous 0.2 cents. The obligation for municipalities to contribute financially to ground-mounted solar systems is to be expanded. With these deposits they should receive 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour.
The CDU MP Thomas Gottweiss advocated that the expansion of wind power should move away from rigid area requirements. The federal government's requirement is that 2.2 percent of Thuringia's land area must be reserved for wind turbines. Kummer referred to a move by the state government to use electricity output as a criterion for wind power expansion instead of area requirements. However, there is currently no support for this from the other federal states.
While support for the energy transition came from the SPD, Left, the new Thüringen.Gerecht faction and currently non-attached MPs, the AfD expressed massive criticism. The energy transition cost enormous amounts of money and a functioning energy supply system was destroyed without necessity, said AfD parliamentary group leader Höcke. There is a fear of a blackout – i.e. a temporary power failure. The AfD MP Peter Gerhard expressed his opposition to the higher participation of municipalities in wind power profits. “Our landscape in Thuringia is not for sale,” he said, referring to initiatives by wind power opponents.
Left MP Jens Thomas explained: “For a government statement, that was a lot of hot air.” He requested information about specific projects, their financing and timetables. The Left rejects the inclusion of regulations from the Thuringian Climate Act in the new Energy Act. “The abolition of the climate law cannot be done with us,” said Thomas.
The state government is planning to hold a hearing with experts and those affected on the draft energy law. It should be presented to Parliament for discussion at the beginning of next year at the latest.
