Where more e-cars roll on the streets, heat pumps ensure comfortable temperatures in the houses and hydrogen ensures production in industry, the demand for electricity increases.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) therefore assumes that consumption in 2030 will be around 15 percent higher than last thought.

The reason for this is not least the tightened national and European climate targets.

The CDU politician reported on Tuesday of an initial assessment of the question of electricity consumption at the end of the decade.

The full analysis is due to be presented in autumn.

If it were up to him, this would happen before the general election, said Altmaier.

Manfred Schäfers

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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The Minister of Economics has recently been increasingly pressured to finally present new figures, since the more stringent climate protection goals inevitably result in higher electricity consumption.

The Saarlander therefore pointed out that his house had already predicted a higher electricity demand than the Federal Environment Ministry in March of last year.

The Prognos Institute commissioned by him had come to 591 terawatt hours for the year 2030, the Öko-Institut a few days later to 567 terawatt hours.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs asked Prognos to update the figures to take into account the new political framework.

According to an initial estimate, the demand is now between 645 and 665 terawatt hours.

E-mobility era

Altmaier named three developments that, in his opinion, will be responsible for the greater demand. In his words, the age of e-mobility is now beginning. The goal of getting one million e-cars on the German roads by the end of 2020 was achieved with a six-month delay. This should be 7 to 10 million in 2030, now it is assumed that there will be 14 million electric vehicles by the end of the decade. That increases the chance of reaching the climate targets, he said. The Minister of Economic Affairs also assumes that 6 million heat pumps will heat houses in the future. The black-red coalition has stabilized the EEG surcharge with the economic stimulus program. Many parties wanted to abolish the surcharge of 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour in their election manifestos. That makes heat pumps more attractive.

After all, the industry is preparing to work more with green hydrogen in the future.

He cited the manufacture of steel as an example.

But it could be that only part of the manufacturing process runs on hydrogen and that there is an electric blast furnace at the end of production.

It is assumed that 30 terawatt hours of electricity will be required for green hydrogen in 2030.

The CDU politician spoke out in favor of increasing the expansion targets for wind power and solar energy.

Each federal state should have a specific area target.

"Germany will increasingly generate its own electricity with renewable energies," he said.

Altmaier considers "one, if not two" additional large power lines to be necessary; three such power highways are planned by the end of the decade. He advocated significantly shortening the planning and approval process. With a view to the slow expansion of wind power on land, the minister said that it was a matter of protecting species, not protecting “individual individuals”. Altmaier called on Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) to plan funds for the abolition of the EEG surcharge to promote green electricity in the household.