Germany’s plans for 20 GW of new gas power plant capacity face EU setback – media
Clean Energy Wire / Tagesspiegel Background / Der Spiegel
Germany's government and the European Commission have found an agreement on initial conditions for the state to provide support for the construction of new gas power plant capacity, several media have reported. The country will likely need to scale back its ambitions to build 20 gigawatts (GW) by almost half.
The European Commission has agreed on initial framework conditions with Germany to support the building of 12.5 GW, Tagesspiegel Background and Der Spiegel reported. Negotiations are still ongoing, yet approval “on a limited scale” could be expected soon, Der Spiegel reported. Still, the first tenders would have to be prepared and are not expected to start before spring 2026 at the earliest, it added.
Germany plans to support the building of new gas-fired power plants to serve as a backup for electricity generation at times of little wind and sunshine. Financial support measures risk distorting competition, so they require the green light from the European Commission based on state aid rules. According to the latest monitoring report on electricity supply security by network regulator BNetzA, Germany does require new controllable capacity to prevent power shortages in the mid-term.
The plans face additional headwind. Energy management start-up 1KOMMA5° has lodged an official complaint with the European Commission against the government’s plans, saying they would “distort competition and unnecessarily drive up the costs of the energy transition”.
The start-up 1KOMMA5°, which combines home technologies such as heat pumps and batteries with software to optimise electricity use, argues that flexibility is more cost-effective and climate-friendly than gas-fired power plants, and that the planned subsidies are unnecessary and inappropriate. It said that virtual power plants – systems that bundle consumers and shift their power demand in the event of bottlenecks – would be disadvantaged if subsidies for gas power plants were granted.
As Germany continues expanding its wind and solar power capacity while phasing out coal, it needs to develop backup capacity that can be switched on at any moment. The previous coalition under chancellor Olaf Scholz had planned to build around 10 GW of new gas-fired and hydrogen-ready power plants, but the government's early collapse led to significant delays to auctions. The new leadership re-opened negotiations with the European Union.
