Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 10, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
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German coal plants are vital for electricity supply during low wind and solar periods, says VDKi, urging for a competitive capacity market.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's power plants run on hard coal remain an important back up to guarantee supply when volatile wind and solar power are not available, coal importers lobby VDKi said in a statement on Thursday, calling for better remuneration.
VDKi's call comes in a regulatory limbo ahead of national elections on Feb. 23, three months after Germany's coalition government collapsed, and after recent high price periods in wholesale power that harmed industrial consumption and burdened households.
"Modern hard coal plants are an important backbone of German power grids," said VDKi chairman Alexander Bethe in a statement issued ahead of a reception on Friday.
"In order to tap into sufficient secure power supply, it will be necessary to introduce a capacity market that is open to any technology, competitive, and centralised," he added.
Bouts of dark and calm weather in early November and mid-December, known in German as "dunkelflaute", meant wind and solar plants were not producing.
Germany abandoned nuclear power in 2022 and was meant to have launched a building programme for gas-fired plants, which are less carbon-heavy than those run on coal, since then.
But the programme has lost the chance to receive parliamentary approval after the government collapsed, reopening discussion on how supply security can be guaranteed.
Bethe said a capacity market, where generators compete in tenders for fixed remuneration to provide power and modelled on successful schemes in other European countries, would provide incentives for both coal and gas plant operators.
"Coal must not be demonised," he said, adding options for carbon sequestration and storage should not be reserved for operators burning gas for power, but also extended to coal.
Germany has 16 gigawatts (GW) of hard coal capacity left that contributed 5.4% of all power generated in 2024, according to industry group BDEW.
(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Alexandra Hudson)
The article discusses the importance of German coal plants in ensuring electricity supply during periods of low wind and solar power.
Coal plants provide a backup power source when renewable energy sources like wind and solar are not producing enough electricity.
VDKi proposes a capacity market open to all technologies to ensure secure power supply and provide incentives for coal and gas plant operators.
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