The federal government is taking unusual paths to justify the controversial nuclear phase-out in the middle of the energy crisis. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) announced on Monday that the two southern German nuclear power plants Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 would be put on standby by April next year.
At the nuclear power plant in Lingen in Lower Saxony, however, the statutory shutdown date at the end of this year should remain. One of the reasons why the North German nuclear power plant does not even make it into reserve operation was submitted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Tuesday. It’s causing some surprises in the energy industry.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Tuesday that there was no replacement for the nuclear power plants located deep inland in southern Germany for the time being, so they would have to remain on standby until April 2023. There is a “less risky alternative” for the North German nuclear power plant in Lingen. For example, “additional oil power plants in the form of power plant ships, so-called ‘power barges’, could be used here in the short term,” explained a spokeswoman for Federal Minister of Economics Habeck.
For the second time in this energy crisis, the federal government is relying on floating infrastructure off the north German coast. Ships that act as floating liquid gas terminals should also be ready for use there by the winter. It is at least an unusual idea that floating oil-fired power plants should now also secure the German nuclear phase-out. In principle, however, it is a globally established electricity supply technology, said Tilman Tütken, Vice President Strategic Projects at MAN Energy Solutions.
There is a global market for leasing such “power barges” with a volume of around ten gigawatts. In order to replace a nuclear power plant like Lingen with its output of around one gigawatt, you would probably need two of these floating power generators, the largest of which have an output of around 500 megawatts. Tütken was unable to provide any information about the costs for the operating fee, interest on capital and the fuel contract.
On the ships, the electricity is usually produced with engines that could achieve an efficiency of up to 50 percent, said Tütken. In the meantime, there is often the possibility of burning biofuels instead of diesel and heavy oil. A power barge also helped out with the power supply to New York, says the expert from MAN Energy Solutions. “Typically, however, such ships are used in the Third World, where there is not enough money to build power plants.”
This is confirmed by a look at the homepage of the world market leader for power barges, Karadeniz from Turkey. The company claims to have chartered 25 Powerships worldwide since 2010, in countries such as Cuba, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Zambia. In the future, Europe’s leading industrial nation, Germany, could also be on the company’s list of customers.
According to information from government circles, the floating power plants are not to be operated by the state itself, but by energy companies. The fact that the use of such oil power plants is worthwhile is also due to the high electricity prices that were triggered by the crisis. In the past, the ships in Germany would not have been competitive. But the Russian energy war and the German nuclear phase-out ensure that such power barges now also pay off in this country. The CO₂ emissions of such oil-fired power plants are significantly higher than those of gas-fired power plants or even nuclear power plants.
Incidentally, in Russia, where the energy crisis was triggered, floating power plants were already being used. “Akademik Lomonossow” has been supplying the port city of Pewek with electricity since 2020. However, no oil is burned in the Lomonosov, it is a floating nuclear power plant.
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