In view of feared energy bottlenecks, the Hamburg CDU parliamentary group leader Dennis Thering has sharply criticized the current crisis management of the Senate and called for the continued operation of the Moorburg coal-fired power plant. "For me it is absolutely incomprehensible why the red-green Senate is walking through the city so ideologically blinded to this topic and simply says: 'we don't want to, we don't discuss it either,'" he said.
"Instead, the mayor suggests placing wind turbines in nature reserves." This statement by Peter Tschentscher (SPD) was "imprudent" and makes it clear that he "has lost the compass in many areas, but especially in this crisis".
It is important "to get energy cheaply and promptly," said Thering. The federal government must take care of that. "The continued operation of Moorburg would be a first step. We will certainly not be able to avoid the temporary continued operation of the nuclear power plants. And, of course, renewables (energies) must also be expanded further at full speed.”
Hamburg's Economics Senator Michael Westhagemann (independent) said last week in WELT AM SONNTAG that restarting the Moorburg power plant would have to be considered if gas deliveries from Russia were to fail completely. He was sharply criticized for this by Environment Senator Jens Kerstan (Greens) and received no support from the SPD.
Thering also admitted that restarting the power plant in Moorburg, which was shut down last year as part of the coal phase-out, would be a financial challenge. "Technically, it is definitely conceivable." However, it is clear that the energy company Vattenfall has no interest in starting up the 1,600-megawatt power plant again at its own expense. “The federal government has to support the city here, there is no question. What only annoys me are these bans on thinking.”
For the CDU, however, it is very clear "that nature reserves are nature reserves in which neither wind turbines nor any other buildings are allowed to stand". If the area potential for wind turbines in Hamburg is exhausted, you have to rely on other regenerative energies such as photovoltaics. "And we know that of the approximately 1,100 city buildings, only a little more than 30 are equipped with photovoltaic systems," said Thering. "One should do one's homework before making such absurd suggestions."
According to the leader of the opposition, the fact that Hamburg was not awarded the site for the four floating liquefied gas terminals planned by the federal government is due to the Senate's failures. “We should have got there. If the Senate had agreed and acted accordingly at the federal level, it would also have been possible.”
The fact that the LNG terminals are now to be built in Wilhelmshaven, Brunsbüttel, Stade and Lubmin is “simply annoying,” said Thering. “And we have a good location with our port. It would have been possible there.” He assumes that energy-intensive industrial companies such as the Aurubis copper works could continue to produce in Hamburg, “even if the LNG terminals are now somewhere else. But it would have been a better feeling if we had had a terminal here in Hamburg.”
