UBA calls for 100 percent coverage of electricity supply by renewable energies

UBA President Flasbarth: "Complete switch to renewable energies is feasible"

The President of the Federal Environment Agency Jochen Flasbarth has made an appeal to the energy supply sector to focus all efforts on ensuring a 100-percent coverage of electricity supply through renewable energy by mid-century. Climate protection dictates that fossil fuels gradually be replaced by renewable energies.  At the 2nd EVU summit in Heiligendamm, UBA President Jochen Flasbarth said to industry executives, “As I see it any modernisation of the electricity grid must be one that results in supply of 100 percent renewable energies.” Although this is a very ambitious goal it is one that cannot be skirted and one which can, in principle, be achieved. “Both global warming and the finiteness of fossil-based resources make this modernisation inevitable.“
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In his address Flasbarth presented some of the Federal Environment Agency cornerstones of models for a possible switch to energy supply that is 100 percent renewable energies-based, saying, “Demand for electricity can be reduced by the use of innovative and more efficient technologies.  The potentials of renewable energies must be seized upon whilst taking account of- and avoiding wherever possible- the strain on the environment that these technologies also bring to bear. Electricity grids must be designed to meet the needs of the future.”  The growing share of renewable energies in the electricity market is expected to spur a structural change in the power plant fleet. The use of baseload plants operating on nuclear and coal energy is on the decline. In the future there will be a demand for highly flexible gas power plants. In the course of the change in the power plant fleet nuclear power plants should be decommissioned first, followed by coal-fired plants. Renewable energy sources should be able to replace the gas power plants around mid-century and cover electricity supply completely”, said Flasbarth.

The energy supply sector accounts for some 40 percent of Germany’s carbon dioxide emissions production.

 The 2nd EVU Summit is taking place through 16 March 2010.

15 March 2010

 

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