If elected, German opposition leader promises to build 50 gas-fired energy plants

The t-online newspaper reported that the opposition leader Friedrich Merz has pledged to build 50 gas-fired plants if the conservatives win in the snap elections on February 23.

Merz, the head of the CDU/CSU bloc in Germany, said in an interview with t-online that "we need to build 50 new gas-fired plants as soon as possible in Germany, which will immediately be connected to grid."

In November, Germany's gas-fired electricity output jumped a record 79% from the previous month as utilities scrambled for a way to compensate for a second consecutive month of wind farm output that was significantly below normal.

In October and November, wind speed was 25 percent lower than the previous year's output. This resulted in power companies being deprived of an important electricity source as winter approached. In 2023, wind farms will provide 27% of German utilities' electricity.

Merz, head of Germany's CDU/CSU bloc, will succeed Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Scholz's fractured coalition with the Greens, and the probusiness Free Democrats, collapsed in November due to contradictory plans for reviving the nation's struggling economy.

He told tonline that Scholz's government had made a "serious mistake" in shutting down "the last three nuclear plants which guaranteed reliable energy generation during the energy crisis." (Writing and editing by Friederike Hiene, Deepa Babington).

(source: Reuters)