Erfurt (dpa/th) - In view of the foreseeable shortage, Environment Minister Anja Siegesmund is relying on municipal utilities to develop alternatives to generating electricity and heat from gas. "Saving gas is currently the be-all and end-all," said the Greens politician on Tuesday in Erfurt, referring to impending bottlenecks because Russia had throttled its deliveries. Too much gas is currently being used. "It must be a discontinued model."
Thuringia has to import almost 100 percent of its gas requirements - about 21 terawatt hours, said Siegesmund. The 274 biogas plants in Bavaria are currently delivering around 2.6 terawatt hours. Next to private households and industry, the largest consumers of natural gas are the combined heat and power plants of the municipal suppliers.
Projects such as solar thermal systems from Stadtwerke Erfurt and Mühlhausen, deep geothermal energy in Erfurt, the use of waste heat from the Unterwellenborn steel works or biogas production for heat from sewage treatment plants in Jena are therefore important. Stadtwerke would use 60 percent of the gas for combined heat and power generation to generate electricity and heat.
