Germany could bring forward its planned coal phase-out by eight years to 2030 as the country's electricity supply would still be secured, a report by the Federal Network Agency has found.
Berlin has agreed to phase out the mining for lignite - also known as brown coal - for power generation by 2030 in the mines in the western Rhine region. However, such a goal has not been set for the lignite mines in the country's east.
While Economy and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck has advocated for bringing forward the coal phase-out currently scheduled for 2038 in the region as well, a decision has to be made by consensus, he said.
According to the Federal Network Agency's report, which is scheduled to be discussed in federal Cabinet on Wednesday, Germany's electricity supply is secured for the period of 2025 to 2031, despite rising power consumption due to heat pumps, electric mobility and electrolyzers.
That calculation takes into account a complete coal phase-out by 2030, the report, seen by dpa, said.
"This means that the very high level of security of supply in Germany can be maintained, even by European standards," it said.
The government publishes the Federal Network Agency's report on electricity supply security every two years.
It considers the developments that can be expected for the market and the grid and doesn't aim to analyse crisis scenarios, the report stressed. It is thus to be clearly separated from parallel demand and system analyses of the transmission system operators. The latter are currently being prepared and will be presented in April.
In its recommendations for action on the report the Economy Ministry pointed out that, in order to ensure power supply security at the highest level, the expansion of renewable energies is key, calling for more hydrogen, bioenergy and gas power plants to be built or modernized.
