BERLIN, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier (CDU) wants to increase the speed of the expansion of electricity grids in the country.
"We need more power grids and we need them quickly," said Altmaier on Thursday night after a meeting in Berlin.
Altmaier called for measures to accelerate the network expansion at the meeting of the economics ministers of the federal states of Germany.
"We want to use modern technologies to increase the capacity reserves in existing grids on the one hand and ensure that electricity grids are expanded more quickly on the other," stated the minister.
The so-called Energiewende, Germany's transition to renewable energy sources, is well under way.
According to numbers published by the German Solar Association (BSW), the solar sector for example expects record figures with 40 billion kilowatt hours of electricity generated in the first three quarters of 2018. The same amount of solar energy was produced during the entire year 2017. Also, all German nuclear power plants will be shut down by 2022 and a so-called coal commission has been set up to develop plans for phasing out of the use of coal energy.
Wind energy is the most important source of renewable energy in Germany. It contributed a total of 16.3 percent to the entire German electricity supply mix in 2017 and is the second largest source of energy after brown coal.
One of the biggest challenges for the German energy transition is to transport the electrical power generated by wind energy from the coast in the north to the south where many large industrial sites are located. To facilitate the necessary expansion of power grids in Germany, two new major power lines called Suedlink and Suedostlink are expected to be completed by 2025.
According to information from the German network agency, only 950 of the 7,700 kilometers of power lines required for the expansion of the network are currently completed. A further 1,750 kilometers have been approved.
An action plan of Altmaier seeks to simplify the approval procedures for the construction of power lines and to involve citizens in the planning process. The German government will make a final decision on the proposal by the beginning of next year at the latest.
