Too expensive, too little demand: in recent years, plans for the construction of liquid gas terminals in Germany have not been able to gain acceptance.
Now, in view of the war in Ukraine, everything should go very quickly: On Saturday, Economics and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) gave the go-ahead for the construction of a first terminal in Brunsbüttel in Schleswig-Holstein - with state support.
The federal government is said to hold 50 percent of the shares in the terminal via the state bank KfW.
The costs for this were estimated in Berlin at 500 million euros.
The Dutch gas network operator Gasunie, which is also to operate the terminal, has a 40 percent stake.
The remaining 10 percent will be taken over by the German energy company RWE.
Julia Loehr
Business correspondent in Berlin.
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Operation Energy Security has begun.
Just over a week ago, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced the two planned liquid gas terminals in the Bundestag.
In addition to Brunsbüttel, another one is planned in Wilhelmshaven.
To date, Germany has obtained more than half of its gas imports from Russia.
This could soon be over if Russian President Vladimir Putin, furious about the West's support for Ukraine, should stop deliveries - or if the EU decides to stop sourcing energy from Russia in the next stage of economic sanctions.
However, the liquid gas terminals will not bring rapid relief.
Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU) estimates the construction time for Brunsbüttel to be around three years.
His Economics Minister Bernd Buchholz (FDP) spoke of four to five years.
LPG more expensive than pipeline gas
Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) recently estimated that two-thirds of natural gas imports from Russia could be replaced with liquid gas.
However, liquid gas has so far been significantly more expensive than Russian pipeline gas.
Parallel to the terminal plans, the Ministry of Economic Affairs is working on how to reduce the gas requirement in Germany, also for reasons of climate protection.
An "ad hoc gas reduction project group" has now bundled all the planned measures in a paper, including the ban on new gas heating systems from 2025 and a solar roof requirement for new buildings.
SPD, Greens and FDP had agreed in the coalition agreement that new heating systems must be operated with 65 percent renewable energies from 2025 onwards.
Only heat pumps operated with green electricity or district heating networks that use waste heat from waste incineration plants, for example, can do this.
Generous subsidies are intended to prevent property owners from quickly installing new gas heating systems "in advance, so to speak", as the new paper states.
According to the coalition agreement, solar systems should be mandatory for all new commercial buildings and “the rule” for new private buildings.
Various exceptions were originally planned for the latter.
Their scope could now be significantly smaller.
Even before the Russian attack on Ukraine, Habeck had also announced that the KfW efficiency house standard 55 should be mandatory for new buildings from next year, meaning that new houses may require significantly less energy.
The concept of the gas reduction group also includes a "waste heat usage obligation" and 11.4 billion euros for federal funding for efficient heating networks.
Too high expectations
The economist Volker Wieland, one of the current four "wise men", warns against expectations that are too high: "Even if we build as many wind turbines and solar systems: Germany will never be self-sufficient in energy supply." According to Wieland's assessment, that would at most be possible , if all domestic coal deposits were used - which is politically difficult to imagine.
From the point of view of FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr, it is now crucial to diversify energy imports in such a way that no new dependencies arise.
"Specifically, LNG terminals in Germany will also help us in the short term," he told the FAZ. But other imports are also necessary.
"Hydrogen and e-fuels have the advantage over fossil energies that they can be produced wherever there is sufficient wind and sun." This opens up new economic prospects worldwide.
"The political risks would also be reduced accordingly."
The deputy parliamentary group leader of the Greens, Julia Verlinden, also believes that energy imports are still necessary, but emphasizes: "For climate protection reasons alone, it is essential that we convert our energy supply completely to renewable energies." Germany will probably import green hydrogen in particular.
"In doing so, we will ensure compliance with environmental and human rights standards in the production countries and rely on a variety of export countries in order to create the greatest possible security of supply."
The CDU called on the traffic light coalition to prepare for a scenario in which supplies of gas, oil and coal from Russia would be reduced or even interrupted.
In this case, "all options would have to be examined with an open mind as to how energy security can be guaranteed now, for the next winter and in the years to come," said party leader Friedrich Merz after a closed conference in Sankt Ingbert, Saarland.