By Andreas Kissler
BERLIN (Dow Jones) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) called for an accelerated expansion of the power lines in southern Germany while visiting a wind farm. “It is very important that the line expansion now proceeds at the pace that is so important for our industrialized country,” said Scholz in Simmerath near Aachen. The expansion of renewable energies must be pushed forward “at a much faster pace than in the past years and decades”. The number of permits for wind turbines throughout Germany was recently above the target range.
“Now we mustn’t let up, we have to keep going,” emphasized Scholz. “The same applies to solar energy, and of course that also applies to grid expansion. If it were the case that we had already moved the long-planned, large transmission grids from the north and east of Germany to the south-west, then we would already be today significantly lower electricity prices,” the Chancellor pointed out.
It depresses him that the main beneficiaries of the network expansion in the south of the republic and in the industrial conurbations “did not all pull together when it came to the speed of expanding the power lines,” said Scholz. In order to achieve the goal of 80 percent electricity from renewable energies by 2030 and thus “in just a few years”, a corresponding number of systems would have to be built. “It is clear that in Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in particular, much more approval and speed are needed,” stressed the Chancellor.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 22, 2023 06:55 ET (10:55 GMT)