Dr. Fübi,
Mr. Hattaka,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am particularly pleased to be able to welcome you today, here in Hamburg at the VGB congress Power Plants 2014.
Many of you will probably have heard people make an ironic remark along the lines of, Who needs power plants? My electricity comes out of the socket. In Germany that was even written on bumper stickers. It actually describes the heart of the dilemma: we appreciate the pleasant sides of modern life; a warm home, fast train connections, a car that takes us wherever we want to go, flat screen TVs, hot water on tap, and the vast range of goods in the supermarket around the corner - where we automatically expect to be able to pay for our shopping with a card.
But none of that happens without power plants and electricity. Power has to be available, permanently, uninterruptedly and one hundred per cent reliably, even in this age of the energy turnaround, when the sun and wind deliver fluctuating amounts of power. This, in conjunction with the stated aim of the Federal Government to phase out the use of nuclear power stations, has now resulted in an upheaval in the power industry that is probably bigger than that faced by any other sector.
VGB the G used to stand for Großkessel, giant boilers, and for Großkraftwerke, large power stations. That alone shows how far the industry has come in the past century. Now the VGB PowerTech gathers together all forms of power and heat generation, from the large power plant to the many decentralized solar and biomass facilities and, of course, the land-based and offshore wind turbines which have proliferated in recent years here in the north of the country, and which will be one of the topics for discussion today.
In your invitation to this congress, you said that Hamburg is not only the Gateway to the World but also, and I quote:
...site of state-of-the-art thermal power plants and important junction for renewables, thus providing an important bridge to future power and heat generation.
It is good to hear such praise, which will encourage the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg to keep to its course. Hamburg, being a base for numerous power companies and a major consumer of energy, is also an important driver of the energy turnaround, which, as far as I can see, the present Federal Government has tackled far more systematically and with appreciably greater resolve than in previous years.
This owes a great deal to the revision of the Renewable Energy Act, or EEG in Germany. Despite difficult negotiations with the EU Commission, the Federal Government was able to pass this key element of the energy turnaround reforms. In order to avoid putting Germanys industrial centres at risk, Hamburg actively supported the Federal Government during negotiations with the EU Commission on matters of state subsidies and rules on exemptions for energy-intensive industries. Finally it was possible to conclude talks with a good result and achieve sensible provisions in the new EEG.
Further steps need to follow. After all, the wind and the sun do not care whether it is a work day or public holiday, whether we need a lot of electricity or less than usual. Since the energy turnaround, the generation and consumption of power have been decoupled, which brings me to the key challenge now facing us, namely how best to integrate largerand fluctuating volumes of wind and solar power into the energy system - and what answers have already been found in Hamburg and what we plan for the future.
Two types of technology play an important role here, and in both fields there have already been several promising developments: On the one hand we have the storage systems - power to heat or power to gas, and on the other, flexible load-following systems. This is not only crucially important for the energy turnaround. It is also environmental protection driven by engineering, and Hamburg has resolved to play a pioneering role in both technologies.
Id like to name two specific, local projects here: last year the foundation stone for a power to gas plant was laid in Hamburg-Reitbrook; it will use electrolysis to turn wind-power electricity into hydrogen - when work is completed, this will in fact be one of the most modern plants in the world. It stores electricity generated by renewables and takes excess capacity out of the grid.
In Wedel, on the western border with Hamburg, the heating grids operator is to develop an innovations power plant on the site of an old coal-fired one. In this connection some concepts will be examined and an especially flexible combination of power to heat conversion tested. The State Ministry for Urban Development and the Environment are working on a heat concept for Hamburg.
In both cases we are closely cooperating with the energy companies E.ON and Vattenfall. Yes we are! The results of a referendum have now obliged us to buy back the energy grids throughout the inner-city. We stand by our word, but it will not jeopardize our joint concepts.
We also want to blaze a trail in the use of hydrogen, in particular in the use of wind to hydrogen systems. Together with Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg is working hard to ensure that the Lower Elbe region becomes a market place for wind-hydrogen by 2025. Demand for hydrogen from industrial and transport enterprises is already high and set to increase further. Moreover, hydrogen can be used as an energy storage medium, because it can be converted back into electricity to take up the slack when the wind is light.
And while on the topic of what the future may bring: Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein intend to join with a powerful and well-connected consortium in a bid for the Showcase for Smart Energy - Wind, a development project for the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. After all, the wind does blow far more vigorously and reliably on the coast, which is why wind power is fundamentally important for the energy turnaround. Permit me, therefore, to digress briefly and talk about the highs and lows of offshore power generation and network capacities.
During the process of revising the Renewable Energy Act Hamburg has strongly advocated a dependable framework for wind energy operations, both on land and offshore. We shall continue to do so, together with the other states in Northern Germany. The Federal Grids Agency is currently prioritizing the issue of how contracts are to be awarded, so that the first round of allocations can be held in 2014. This is very welcome, because it is the quickest way to ensure that many would-be operators of offshore wind farms are given a dependable framework for planning and erecting the turbines. In essence, offshore wind power is capable of meeting baseload demand. It can make us less dependent of imports and nuclear power. And it has zero emissions. Therefore it is important, after all the difficulties in recent years, to attain the target of 6.5 GW installed by the year 2020.
But that is not the whole story: offshore and onshore wind power both need the best transmission grid in the world and there is no time to lose in completing it, because the last nuclear plants will shut down in 2022. The new goals in relation to the expansion of renewables contained in the latest revision of the EEG do not alter this fact. In particular, we still need to set up the nation-wide corridors for the four electricity highways to which the Federal Grid Agency has already committed, in order to transmit the wind power generated in North Germany to the consumption-heavy regions in the South.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you know, when you are close to the sea, then lighthouses or beacons are not far away, and the point of the Showcase for Smart Energy - Wind that I mentioned a couple of minutes ago, is to let a light shine out. The objective in applying for this subsidized project is to create a model region linking the West coast of Schleswig-Holstein, which generates the wind power, with the regions in and around Hamburg which consume a huge amount of it. Acting as a model for the energy systems of the future in Germany, the aim is to conduct a large-scale test that integrates up to 100 per cent renewable energies - in a way that offers reliable supplies and systems, is reasonably priced and socially acceptable. We thus aim to put the first ever multi-state large-scale energy project in place - to act as a beacon to point the way to the future of renewables in Germany.
This project is designed to further the development of workable concepts and solutions for smart networks and markets and to test them in wide-spread practical trials. The aim is to maximize the integration of wind power into the grid, without an excess supply of power causing problems. Key elements in this scheme are information and communication technologies for the smart management of the generation, consumption and storage of energy in order to integrate into the grid the widely fluctuating feed-in of wind power from turbines in the west of Schleswig-Holstein. That sounds ambitious and it is ambitious, because it represents no less than a revolution in energy supply systems and moves away from baseload-driven to generation-driven operations.
Industry and commerce play a key role in implementing this concept, as they consume over half of the energy used in Hamburg. In the context of the European Regional Development Fund for the period from 2014 to 2020, Hamburg is therefore developing another scheme that concentrates on steps to restructure how energy is generated, to integrate renewables and to develop a smart distribution system. The objective is to increase the share of Hamburgs energy needs that is met by renewables and to conserve energy. In enterprises, for example, this can be achieved through smart energy management methods, such as: flexible power plants, smart load management, conversion of excess electricity into heat and the more efficient use of energy.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
More and more new objectives, more new rules
I suspect that many of you find the energy sector over-regulated. But on closer look, there are usually reasons, good ones and less good ones, such as matters involving competition or environment protection. Not only that: the energy turnaround is leading to rapid changes. In the past, market economy tools have been selected. This is the case with emissions trading and the EEG.
In my view, providing a reliable framework for investments and giving entrepreneurs freedom to act are very important objectives. I am well aware that many aspects of the energy business involve considerable risks. But there are also many opportunities and the chance to help shape one of Germanys major projects for the future. I shall be pleased if the industry - especially companies in the VGB - take up this challenge. Thank you very much.