In order to secure the energy supply in Germany, the CSU is also relying on nuclear energy in the long term – in addition to the continued operation of the three nuclear reactors that still exist. “The energy strategy must be readjusted: with a mix of renewable energies, new energy sources such as hydrogen, the development of domestic gas deposits and new research on the further development of nuclear energy in both areas, nuclear fission and nuclear fusion,” said CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt WELT ON SUNDAY. “We want to set up a new federal energy research campus for cutting-edge research without bans on thinking.”
On the required campus, “the energy technologies that will determine the coming decade should be developed together with companies and other research institutions,” as stated in the draft for a resolution at the upcoming annual kick-off meeting of the CSU in the Bundestag. In addition to nuclear fusion processes, the state group also counts hydrogen as an energy source among these technologies.
In the latest energy concept of the Christsozialen, which is available to WELT AM SONNTAG and is to be adopted on the first weekend in January in the Seeon monastery in Upper Bavaria, the construction of a new nuclear power plant is also advocated. However, primarily for research purposes. There, “new concepts of nuclear energy are to be developed in order to examine the potential of the technology again in Germany”. With a view to the three reactors still connected to the grid, the CSU is calling for continued operation until at least the end of 2024 and the necessary purchase of new fuel elements.
The Christian Socialists are thus heating up the debate about the use of nuclear energy and the continued operation of existing plants, and with their concept they are fundamentally questioning the nuclear phase-out. Because after successful research into new nuclear energy processes, the next step would be to build new plants.
The nuclear plans of the CSU are a direct attack on the Greens and their Economics and Energy Minister Robert Habeck, as well as on the SPD. The focus of both parties in the federal government is clearly on the expansion of renewable energies and hydrogen technology. In order to persuade the Greens to leave the three existing reactors on the grid at least until mid-April 2023 in view of the impending energy bottlenecks, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had to make use of his directive authority last October. The nuclear phase-out is firmly agreed in the coalition agreement of the traffic light parties and is not negotiable for the Greens and the SPD.
However, the FDP is on course with the Union and is calling for at least a longer continued operation of existing systems. After the reactor accident in Fukushima in spring 2011, Markus Söder, then Bavarian Environment Minister, also called for a rapid nuclear phase-out and even threatened to resign if it wasn’t completed until after 2022. Under the impression of the currently threatening energy bottlenecks and the sharply rising prices, the Bavarian Prime Minister and the Union parties have meanwhile started to rethink.
In its paper, the national group now demands that Germany “must get away from ideological debates about supposed moral energies and strengthen real rational energies in order to prevent blackouts and end the greenout in Germany”.
For the Christian Socialists, these so-called rational energies include not only renewables but also domestic gas reserves. To this end, it should be examined where funding makes sense and is profitable. So far, the Bavarian state government has been rather reluctant to drill into gas deposits in the Free State. However, CSU General Secretary Martin Huber recently emphasized that the promotion of reserves in the Free State must also be examined. A mandatory gas reserve is to be stipulated in Germany as part of a new stockpiling law.
According to the plans of the national group, the storage systems should no longer be able to be sold to foreign companies. Important gas storage sites in Germany had been sold to the Russian state-owned company Gazprom, among others, which drastically reduced the filling levels. The Federal Network Agency has now regained control of the Russians’ natural gas storage facilities in Germany.
However, the Federal Government and the Union agree on the expansion of renewable energies. According to the CSU, raising the expansion targets is not enough to install new plants for hydropower, photovoltaics, wind energy, geothermal energy and bioenergy at the required speed.
That is why she proposes “turbo approval procedures and effective investment incentives with the introduction of super depreciation and a bonus of 20 percent of the investment costs as a subsidy”. Above all, the construction of hydrogen power plants should be promoted with priority. The idea: In cooperation with southern European and North African countries, terminals at Mediterranean ports and pipelines across the Alps could create the “prerequisite for setting up your own hydrogen production”.
“Kick-off Politics” is WELT’s daily news podcast. The most important topic analyzed by WELT editors and the dates of the day. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, among others, or directly via RSS feed.
