By Kalte Sonne

That could have been the motto of Chancellor Scholz and Economics Minister Habeck’s trip when they travelled to Canada together to improve the supply situation of liquefied natural gas LNG for Germany. The plan did not work.

Instead of getting LNG quickly, long-term contracts for green hydrogen were agreed. N-tv reported:

“Newfoundland is considered a favorable location for the production of green hydrogen, which is produced with the help of renewable energies. There is a lot of wind and a lot of land in the sparsely populated region to convert it into energy. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is forcing Germany to position itself more broadly, especially in the energy sector. Although Canada also has liquefied natural gas (LNG) to offer, Germany could only benefit from this in the medium term because there are still no pipelines and terminals for transport across the Atlantic. That’s why the focus of the trip was on hydrogen production.”

Which makes it clear that Germany apparently cannot produce the hydrogen it needs to promote processes for decarbonization itself.

This new agreement with Canada is the indirect admission of that. After more than 20 years of energy transition, Germany is still far from covering its electricity needs 100% from renewables, despite major investments.

How will additional electricity be produced for hydrogen production?

Because low-CO2 (nuclear energy) has been replaced with low-CO2 (wind and solar), the effects have so far been very manageable.

It gets even worse because gas, which burns at only 50% of coal’s emissions, is scarce, coal is making a comeback – with the corresponding effects.

No wonder that in summer the maps at Electricitymap for Germany often provide the color brown. 30% of the electricity in Germany came from coal on 25.08.2022. Wind was present over Germany only with 3-6 meters per second, a meager electricity yields the result.

Robin Alexander formulates it even more drastically in the world (paid article).

“And then the German advertising tour for a green future collides with reality”

At best, a kind of ring exchange in terms of gas would be the result of the Canada trip.

Transport to the east coast and delivery across the Atlantic to Europe are not only ecologically but also financially nonsensical. At least so far. “We’re looking at how we can best help,” Trudeau says. “Our best capacity would be to contribute to the global market and transport gas that Germany and Europe can then obtain from other sources.”

He thinks: Then perhaps more of Arab and African providers would be left for Germany. Then, as if to do Scholz a favor, he adds: “But we are looking for all the ways in which we can help the Europeans in the short term to help them meet the challenges of this winter in the face of Russia’s limited gas supply.”