Germany may need to keep "existing" coal-fired plants connected to the power grid "longer" than currently planned, should the energy crisis continue and there is a shortage of electricity, chancellor Friedrich Merz said at a conference.
Merz is "not ready" to risk the core of German industry for existing phase-out targets should they "become unrealistic", he said at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Kongress.
Germany plans to fully phase out coal and lignite-fired generation by 2038 through its coal-fired power generation termination act, under which the country's coal and lignite-fired capacity will fall incrementally each year. The federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia is already aiming to phase out coal and lignite by 2030.
And while Merz did not explicitly mention any changes to these targets, he stressed the importance in ensuring security of power supply.
He also emphasised the importance in building new gas-fired plants swiftly under the country's power plant strategy. The new plants will be built at pre-existing thermal plant locations and be connected to existing grid infrastructure. They will not need to be hydrogen-ready straight away, he said.
Merz also cited nuclear fusion, as well as small modular reactors (SMRs), as potential technologies for future power generation.
The government has the "ambition to connect the world's first large fusion power plant to the grid in Germany", Merz said, stating that Germany is relatively "far along" and "quite good" in fusion technology.
And Merz expressed interest in further researching SMRs, and would be prepared to work together with other European countries in developing these, although he said this would be for the "longer term".
