Germany’s Scholz opens floating terminal for liquefied natural gas as country rushes to replace Russian gas
- Its construction, in the record time of just under 10 months, shows that Germany ‘is capable of new beginnings and speed,’ Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday
- The floating terminal off the North Sea coast of Lower Saxony is intended to help close the gap in Germany’s gas supply caused by a lack of supplies from Russia
Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday opened Germany’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the northern town of Wilhelmshaven as the nation hurriedly switches to alternative energy sources to replace Russian gas.
Its construction, in the record time of just under 10 months, shows that Germany “is capable of new beginnings and speed,” Scholz said at the inauguration ceremony on Germany’s North Sea coast.
He thanked workers, engineers, companies and authorities for the rapid realisation of the industrial facility, calling the terminal a “very, very important contribution” to Germany’s security.
By building an infrastructure for LNG terminals, Germany is also taking responsibility for European neighbours without coasts, Scholz said. “This LNG terminal is thus also a symbol of European solidarity.”
He was flanked by Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Green party, Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats (FDP) and Lower Saxony’s state Premier Stephan Weil of the Social Democrats, representing the three parties in the governing coalition.
Weil, who leads the German state in which Wilhelmshaven is located, called the opening of the LNG terminal an “encouraging sign” at the end of a difficult year.
A year ago, anyone who said that Germany would become “independent of Russian natural gas in no time” would have been laughed at, added Weil.
“In fact, it is one of the great political achievements that exactly that has been achieved. That the empty storage facilities have been filled and that today, with the opening of the first LNG terminal here in Germany, we are showing how we are also continuing to advance independence,” he said, referring to German efforts to fill gas storage facilities ahead of the winter.
The floating terminal off the North Sea coast of Lower Saxony is intended to help close the gap in Germany’s gas supply caused by a lack of supplies from Russia.
The centrepiece of the terminal is the almost 300-metre-long special ship Höegh Esperanza, which in future will convert the LNG delivered by tankers back into its gaseous state and feed it into the German gas grid.
The Höegh Esperanza is to feed at least 5 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year into the German gas grid in Wilhelmshaven, around some 6 per cent of Germany’s total gas needs, replacing some 11 per cent of German gas imports from Russia.
Scholz opened the terminal from the passenger ship Helgoland, which normally transports tourists. Around 400 guests attended the ceremony on the ship.
According to operator Uniper, the commissioning is planned for December 22.
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Four more terminals are to be built by the end of next year: one each in Brunsbüttel in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, Stade in Lower Saxony, Lubmin in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on the Baltic Sea coast, plus another in Wilhelmshaven.
According to the economy ministry, together they can accommodate one third of the natural gas needed to supply Germany.
Scholz gave the go-ahead for the construction of the terminals in Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel on February 27, three days after the start of the Russian war against Ukraine.
However, even despite the cold weather in Germany, there is so far little need for the LNG at Wilhelmshaven. German storage levels were 89.2 per cent full on Friday, according to the European Gas Storage Association (GIE).
The terminal has also been fiercely criticised by environmental groups. “Everyone is now talking about a new German speed as far as fossil infrastructure projects like this are concerned. We would have very much liked to use this German speed to phase out fossil energies,” said Imke Zwoch of BUND Friends of the Earth Germany in Lower Saxony. “There is really nothing to celebrate.”
Ahead of Saturday’s event, around 12 activists from the campaign group Ende Gelände protested for a fundamental shift away from fossil fuels.
Meanwhile a further climate group, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (Environmental Action Germany), plans to take more legal steps to limit the site’s operations and has already launched its first lawsuit.
Criticism by locals, environmentalists and the fishing industry is mainly focused on the discharge of waste water treated with chemicals from the Höegh Esperanza. Zwoch said all other special ships to handle LNG in Germany were set to manage without using chemicals such as chlorine. “We can’t understand why they didn’t use these six months to retrofit the ship accordingly.”
However, Lower Saxony’s Energy Minister Christian Meyer, a member of the Green Party, said all limits had been met.
His comments came after Habeck told Deutschlandfunk radio station that the LNG facilities were necessary as a temporary measure to secure gas supplies, but terminal infrastructure should be built that can also be used for green gases such as hydrogen in the longer term.
The Federation of German Industries (BDI) warned that even with the facility, the danger of a gas shortage had not yet been averted.
“In order for the energy supply in Germany to remain secure, the rapid commissioning of the other planned terminals is indispensable,” BDI president Siegfried Russwurm told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) media outlet.
