(Bloomberg) — Germany’s coal phase-out plans face a potential setback after the energy regulator predicted the country will need a lot more fossil-fuel power plants on standby to help keep the lights on in the coming years.
The need for so-called reserve capacity to cover shortfalls in wind and solar generation during the 2026/27 winter period is set to reach 9.2 gigawatts, double the amount put aside for the last heating season, the regulator said Tuesday. That’s even more than the 8.3 gigawatts of mainly coal-fired backup deployed in 2022, when Russia curbed pipelined natural gas supplies to Europe.
While Germany hopes to phase out coal entirely by 2030 — eight years before a legal deadline — many companies have already warned it might not have enough alternative power sources to do so by then. The country’s grid-reserve units are mainly coal and gas plants, with batteries only providing a fraction of the backup power. Germany shuttered its remaining nuclear plants last year.
Keeping Standby German Coal Plants Is Too Costly, Says Operator
Europe’s largest economy has made huge strides in the transition to renewables — which now make up half of the country’s generation — but it’s still not enough to meet demand when the weather’s calm and the sun isn’t out. The need for more reserve plants is further heightened by delays in the country’s grid expansion, which means electricity can’t be fully transported to regions with high consumption.
To help shrink its reliance on coal, the government wants to build 10 gigawatts of new gas power plants that can later switch to hydrogen. However, as details of the program aren’t even sketched out yet, it’s unlikely that these units will be running before the end of the decade.
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