PURCHASING RECORD AFTER NUCLEAR POWER OFFThat's how much the imported electricity costs us, Mr. Scholz!
Does Germany now have to be permanently supplied with electricity from abroad after the nuclear power plant shutdown?
"Every year there are phases in which we buy electricity from other countries," answered Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (65, SPD) on Thursday in the Erfurt Citizens' Dialogue when asked why Germany was replacing nuclear power with imported electricity.
It sounded as if nothing had changed as a result of the shutdown of the nuclear power plant compared to previous years. But the opposite is the case: Germany imports more electricity than ever before! According to the Federal Network Agency, it was 5783.4 gigawatt hours in July – an all-time record.
Germany has NEVER bought so much electricity from abroad, Chancellor!
And that has its price: 469 million euros is the export balance that Germany had to pay in electricity trading with its EU neighbors in July (cause: more imports than exports).
Germany paid 340 million euros in July
The export price was only 38.60 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), while the import price was 97.20 euros. That means: We shell out almost 60 euros per MWh more than our EU neighbors pay for our electricity!
This means that since German companies had to pay about 59 euros more for a megawatt hour than their neighbors spend on our electricity, there is a delta of 340 million euros that Germany pays to its neighbors in relation to the amount of electricity purchased.
That means: Germany has been a net importer since the nuclear power plants were shut down – and the import volume is constantly increasing! Cause: Even if imported electricity is more expensive than our export electricity, it is still cheaper than coal or gas from here.
However, we are in no way dependent on import electricity, Scholz pointed out: "In the overall balance, the situation is very different." Finally, there is lignite as a substitute. But Germany prefers to rely "on wind power from Denmark and nuclear power from France" because it is cheaper.
Does the European electricity market really work as well as Scholz thinks? BILD asked!
► Top economist and Ifo President Prof. Clemens Fuest (54) said to BILD: “The import strategy will still fall on our feet. Because the price will increase due to the shortage in Germany and thus also have an effect on the European electricity market.”
Germany must now rely on energy supply aid from other European countries because nobody seriously wants coal as an energy source of the future and green electricity is not yet sufficiently available. “We make ourselves dependent on that,” says Fuest.
With a view to the much-vaunted European solidarity, the economist said: "The EU neighbors have a limited desire to help us out in the next few years."
The French Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher (49) even accuses the federal government of hypocrisy: "It is a contradiction to massively import French nuclear energy and at the same time to reject any EU legislation that recognizes the value of nuclear power as a low-carbon energy source," said Pannier -Runacher the "Handelsblatt".
Leonhard Birnbaum (56), CEO of German energy supplier Eon, told the Financial Times that "Germany should stop trying to impose its views on nuclear energy on the rest of the EU". Nuclear power plants are important for the transition to clean energy.► Industry President Siegfried Russwurm (60) said in the “Münchner Merkur” that electricity abroad is also cheaper “because Germany is going out of the energy sources for political reasons that are available seven days a week and 24 hours a day. "
Explosive: In a European comparison, Germany continues to pay the highest taxes and duties for electricity - but exports are still significantly cheaper than it imports. Taxes are only higher in Denmark and Poland, each at 38 percent. The average for the 27 EU countries was 15 percent.
