Nobody says that he did not warn us in time where the path was taking us: after a year in 2023 in which he confronted us with a heating law, the Minister of the Economy, Robert Habeck, moves on to the next round. Now his ministry has announced in a document that it will drastically reduce gas networks by 2045. From Habeck's point of view, this is coherent. Firstly, in the coalition agreement gas was only envisaged as a “bridge technology”, which means that the bridge will have to be demolished at some point. And secondly, the closure of gas distribution networks is the logical consequence of a heating law that focuses mainly on electrically generated heat.

The hydrogen euphoria is fading

But there is a big but, or more precisely two: a technical but and a general but.

The first, the technical, is obvious to anyone who remembers Habeck's appearance almost exactly four months ago. At the time it was about the federal government's hydrogen strategy. Content: Of the approximately 10,000 kilometers of hydrogen network to be created by 2030, around 60 percent are existing gas pipelines. “Where natural gas flows today, hydrogen may flow tomorrow,” said an expert from Habeck's team.

Now there is talk of “complex modifications” to the gas network if it is to be converted to hydrogen. And as Habeck's draft on gas phase-out says: “A decentralized supply of hydrogen, especially for heating customers or individual households, currently seems unlikely, among other things, due to the high costs of hydrogen in the energy sector. heating and, above all, due to the limited quantities available.”

This looks a lot like the hydrogen euphoria that the federal government, with Habeck at the helm, was fueling until late last year is fading. Without a doubt, the government is now more realistic when it comes to the use of hydrogen. Habeck could have simply served pure wine.

Habeck is failing in the energy transition

The second, the general but, refers to the long-term planning of a politician who, in this case, wants to close a large part of the gas network by 2045, but who is no longer able to face the imminent challenges of the transition energy. The Federal Court of Auditors has just told Habeck: The current expansion of renewable energies and electrical networks is taking too long. “The federal government must react immediately,” the report demands, otherwise the energy transition could fail. Habeck auditors carefully noted that in 2024 only half of the planned production for onshore wind energy will be put out to tender.

The electrical grid still had 6,000 kilometers of lines missing. Furthermore, Habeck is cheating if he does not take into account the necessary investments when presenting electricity costs. The rating for Habeck's performance was “unsatisfactory.”

Waiting leads to paralysis

It is negligent to leave someone like that responsible for making now a decision that will mean a cold end for most industrial companies and most private clients if there is no replacement in time. It is really annoying to read in the draft that coercive measures and enforcement methods for unwilling gas fans are already being considered.

Apart from the fact that, thank God, 20-year plans do not work well in democratic countries, there is something dangerous: with the project that has now been presented, Habeck is making gas network operators think twice before to invest in their networks from now on. What needs to be redone is better repaired. Let's see what's next, that is already the attitude of the sector, taking into account the activism of the Ministry of Economy, which is often riddled with errors. However, waiting leads to paralysis. And that is exactly what is unfortunately happening right now in Germany.

The article “Why is the Habeck project paralyzing this country from now on?” comes from Business Punk.