German opposition leader vows to build 50 gas-fired power plants if elected

Germany's opposition leader Friedrich Merz vows to build 50 gas-fired power plants to tackle energy challenges if elected chancellor, citing wind power shortfalls and nuclear plant closures.

Opposition leader Friedrich Merz, who is tipped to be Germany's next chancellor, has vowed to build 50 gas-fired power plants if his conservatives win the Feb. 23 snap election, the t-online news outlet reported on Sunday.

"We need to build 50 gas-fired power plants in Germany as quickly as possible, which will be connected to the grid immediately," Merz, who heads the CDU/CSU conservative bloc, told t-online in an interview.

Gas-fired electricity production in Germany jumped by a record 79% in November from the month before as utilities scrambled to offset a second straight month of sharply below-normal output from wind farms.

Wind power output was 25% below year-prior levels in October and November due to slow wind speeds, depriving power firms of a key electricity source just as winter set in. Wind farms supplied 27% of German utility electricity in 2023.

Merz, the head of Germany's CDU/CSU conservative bloc, is in line to succeed Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose fractious coalition with the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats collapsed in November over contradictory plans to revive the nation's ailing economy.

He told t-online it had been a "serious strategic mistake" by Scholz's government to "shut down the last three nuclear power plants that guaranteed reliable power generation in the middle of the energy crisis."

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