(Bloomberg) -- Germany’s efforts to ditch coal for power generation risk delays if the country doesn’t soon move ahead with tenders for its planned expansion of natural gas plants, according to energy firm Uniper SE.
The German utility, which currently still runs several coal-powered facilities in the country, can’t completely close these until it’s built replacement gas plants as they are needed for system stability, Chief Executive Officer Michael Lewis said in an interview at Houston’s Gastech conference.
While Berlin is preparing to spend billions of euros on subsidizing new gas power plants to back up intermittent renewable sources of energy, it has yet to launch tenders for those projects. Officials recently reiterated that the first auctions will come in early 2025.
“We want to close coal as quickly as possible. We want to build new gas plants, and we want to build the lowest cost plants we can that can then be subsequently converted to hydrogen,” Lewis said. “The sooner we get the auction process next year, the sooner we can start building those plants.”
Uniper is set to close its last remaining coal plant in the UK this month, and will also decommission one in Germany.
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