THERE IS SUNSHINE ONLY DURING THE DAY, AND THE WIND DOESN’T BLOW CONSTANTLY. WON’T WE CONTINUE TO NEED COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS TO MAKE UP THE DIFFERENCE?

That’s a question the conventional power producers like to raise, however the answer is a firm “no.” Renewable energy is already delivering approximately half of Germany’s energy needs. That’s an average of course, and the figure is indeed higher in the daytime and lower at night. But we use the excess energy we produce during the day to create climate-neutral hydrogen, which is used to fire calorific power plants and make up the deficit. The best thing about it is: We already have sufficient gas-fired plants and storage facilities because we have been importing natural gas from Russia [editor’s note: this is supplied by Gazprom, which is ranked thirdworst in the world for its CO2 emissions]. Because Russia has also been known to use its natural gas as a political weapon, we have to be aware of the threat that the Russian state could simply turn off the gas. Thus we store a three-month supply, and we also have the space we need to store the gas we create from renewable energy sources. The goal is to make Germany not only climate-neutral but also independent of foreign sources.