New German gas power plants stalled as EU approval still pending

It remains unclear when Germany can finally start building new gas power plants to back up renewable electricity generation because the EU’s necessary approval of planned state aid remains outstanding, newspaper taz reported. The economy ministry told the paper that discussions with the European Commission on the details of the planned tenders for the construction of the plants are nearing completion, but it has used this phrase for months, the article says.

Both the economy ministry and the European Commission refused to specify when they expect the talks to conclude. According to utility association BDEW, the new plants won’t be ready before the end of 2031 at the earliest, even if the government manages to launch a tender in mid-2026, which remains uncertain, wrote taz.

“The fact that the tender criteria for the power plant strategy are not yet available means that the time pressure is increasing for us,” said Kerstin Andreae, who heads the lobby group.

The increasing delay puts the coal exit in the west of the country at risk, which is currently planned for 2030, but depends on the availability of backup generation capacity. Former Green economy state secretary Michael Kellner warned that a continued operation of coal power plants or keeping them in reserve “not only damages the climate, but is also very expensive.”

Germany plans to exit coal-fired power plants nationwide in 2038 at the latest according to its coal exit law, but the western coal mining and heavy industry state North Rhine-Westphalia aims to complete the phase-out by 2030.

As the country phases out coal, it must build up alternative capacity it can switch on at times when intermittent wind and solar energy are insufficient to meet demand – so-called “controllable capacity”. It has decided that gas-fired units will play a major role during a transitional period, which would later be converted to or replaced by facilities that run on green hydrogen. Flexibility options such as large-scale batteries or managing demand will also play a role.

The business case for the new gas plants, which will only run occasionally, can only be guaranteed with additional state support, which is why the government is negotiating a state aid scheme with the European Commission. A long-delayed government report assessing the coal exit with regard to supply security and climate targets is due by August 2026.