AfD on climate and energy

The AfD wants to bring gas power plants to the state so that stable, affordable electricity attracts industry and AI data centers. It counts on a reopening of Nord Stream and keeps a return to nuclear power open as an option.

The AfD wants new gas power plants in the state. They should deliver reliable and cheap electricity. The Nord Stream gas pipeline should open again. This should bring factories and large data centers to the state.

According to the platform, the state offers space and good cooling conditions but lacks reliable, affordable power. Around Lubmin, together with the University of Greifswald and institutions such as the Max Planck Institute, an industrial cluster with high-value jobs could emerge. The AfD rejects handing over the existing Lubmin gas power plant to Ukraine. Its reasoning is that it considers Ukraine presumably responsible for blowing up the pipelines.

The AfD wants wind and solar plants to compete on the market without priority grid access and without permanent subsidies. In the program's view, current energy policy rests on market interventions that drive up electricity prices and destabilize the grid.

Wind and solar power get help from the state today. The AfD wants to end this help. The plants should pay off on their own. The AfD says the help makes power expensive.

The program criticizes subsidies, quotas and state privileges for renewables, heat pumps and electric mobility, while conventional energy is said to be made more expensive or banned. It calls wind power a price driver because grid expansion, reserve power plants, compensation for curtailed turbines and storage create extra costs. In the future, renewable plants would have to show that they are environmentally sound and economically useful without priority feed-in and without permanent subsidies. The AfD names security of supply, affordability and environmental protection as its guiding principles.

The AfD wants to press the federal government to repeal or fundamentally rewrite the Windenergieflächenbedarfsgesetz (wind energy land requirements act) so the state can set its own energy goals. Environmental reviews for wind projects are also to become stricter. The program cites harm to nature, landscape, tourism and residents.

A federal law says how much land must go to wind turbines. The AfD wants to end or change this law. The state should decide for itself. Wind projects should get stricter checks. The AfD says wind turbines harm nature and neighbors.

The Windenergieflächenbedarfsgesetz requires the states to set aside certain shares of their land for wind power. The AfD rejects such quotas and expansion targets and wants to push at the federal level for repeal or far-reaching reform. Environmental impact assessments are to be tightened considerably. State-organized citizens' forums, which the AfD says only serve to push wind projects through, would be ended immediately. The program pledges support to citizens' initiatives and municipalities that oppose wind power. It lists noise, falling property values, unresolved disposal of rotor blades and profits flowing out of the state as problems.

The AfD rejects a large-scale buildout of ground-mounted solar on agricultural land. Good arable soil is to remain reserved for food production. Solar installations should go primarily on rooftops and on land that is already sealed.

The AfD does not want big solar parks on fields. Good soil should grow food. Solar panels should go on roofs. Parking lots and business sites are also meant for them.

The program treats fertile soil as a strategic asset for food supply and regional value creation. In its account, large fenced-off installations compact the soil, alter the landscape and mainly benefit outside investors. Priority is to go to rooftop systems on private, commercial and public buildings. The AfD also names former military or industrial sites, parking lots and commercial areas, in each case without permanent subsidies.

The AfD does not want to keep the liquefied natural gas terminal off the island of Rügen permanently but to replace it with pipeline gas. It says the facility burdens nature, fishing, coastal protection and tourism. Once alternatives are in place, it is to be shut down.

There is a terminal for liquid gas off Rügen. The AfD does not want to keep it forever. Gas should come through pipelines again. Then the terminal can be shut down. The AfD wants to protect the coast this way.

The program acknowledges that the terminal is legally secured and currently contributes to energy supply. But it says an industrial facility off a sensitive coastal region cannot be a permanent solution. As a replacement, pipeline connections for natural gas from continental Europe and Asia are to be repaired and put into operation. The AfD regards this supply as more reliable, cheaper and easier on the environment.

The AfD wants to quickly use the undamaged line of Nord Stream 2 and have the destroyed pipelines repaired. Cheap pipeline gas is meant to lower energy prices and secure industrial jobs. The attack on the pipelines is to be fully investigated.

Nord Stream is a set of gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea. An attack damaged them. The AfD wants to repair and use them again. The gas should make energy cheaper. The attack should be fully cleared up.

The program calls Nord Stream an anchor of economic stability and its destruction an attack on critical infrastructure. If states were involved, the AfD wants to claim damages under international law. Germany's economic interests are to apply regardless of the supplier country's political system. At the same time, sources of supply are to be broadly diversified, including continental European and Asian routes, to reduce dependence and sharp price swings.

The AfD calls for restarting shut-down nuclear power plants quickly and wants to work in the Bundesrat toward ending the nuclear phase-out. Within the state, possible sites are to be examined and small modular reactors co-developed. It says nuclear power delivers electricity around the clock without CO2 and can stabilize prices.

The AfD wants to use nuclear power again. Closed plants should run again. The state should check where new plants could stand. The AfD also wants to support small new reactors. It says nuclear power is safe and cheap.

The program points out that the EU has included nuclear energy in its taxonomy of climate-compatible investments. It says wind and solar cause additional system costs for grids, storage and backup plants that are borne by the public. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the AfD wants to strengthen nuclear expertise in companies, public agencies and universities. A feasibility study is to determine which sites and technologies could be considered in the long term. Small modular reactors (SMRs) are to be advanced through research funding and international cooperation.

Until new nuclear plants deliver electricity, the AfD wants to secure supply through gas-fired power plants, electricity imports and biogas plants. No additional wind turbines are to be built for this.

New nuclear plants take time. Until then the AfD wants power from gas plants. Power from nearby countries should be added. Biogas plants should also make power. The AfD does not want new wind turbines for this.

The AfD names three pillars for the transition period. Modern gas-fired plants are to run on pipeline gas where possible. Electricity is to be bought temporarily from neighboring countries that rely on nuclear and hydropower. Biogas plants are to generate power locally because, according to the program, they can supply baseload and fit the state's agriculture.

The AfD wants everyone to decide on their own heating system. Gas and heating oil are to remain equal options, and it rejects modernization mandates and rules favoring heat pumps.

The AfD wants everyone to pick their own heating. Gas and oil should stay allowed. No one should be forced to rebuild. The state should not require heat pumps.

The program speaks of technology neutrality in heating. Gas is to be cheap and come by pipeline where possible. The AfD rejects forced renovations paid for by citizens. It considers hydrogen uncompetitive at present and does not want state programs to promote it as a substitute.

The AfD wants to promote deep geothermal heat as a heat source for municipalities where geology and economics allow. Permitting is to become simpler. It says the state has some of the best geothermal potential in Germany.

There is hot water deep in the ground. It can be used for heating. The AfD wants to support this for towns. But it has to pay off. Permits should become simpler.

According to the program, sandstone layers carrying hot brine lie beneath about two-thirds of the state. One study is said to identify up to 86 municipalities that could draw heat from geothermal sources. The AfD sees deep geothermal energy as a reliable baseload option, not as a mandated one-size-fits-all solution. Municipal operators are to receive support, and procedures for new projects are to involve less red tape.

The AfD wants energy that households and businesses produce for their own use to stay free of taxes and levies. Subsidies already promised for existing plants would continue, but new energy policy should work without permanent subsidies.

Some people and companies make their own power. The AfD says they should pay no taxes on it. Old plants keep the state money they were promised. New energy should work without lasting help from the state.

The platform considers decentralized solutions such as self-supply and regional grids more suitable for a large rural state than central models, which it describes as coercive. Subsidies guaranteed by contract for existing plants are to remain untouched to protect legitimate expectations. For future energy policy, the AfD rejects ongoing support. In its view, an energy source is not viable if it only works with public money.

The AfD rejects wind turbines close to homes and large solar arrays on open land. Every project would be reviewed individually on site, taking residents' concerns into account. The platform justifies this as protecting home ownership.

The AfD does not want wind turbines close to homes. It also does not want big solar fields on open land. Each project should be checked locally, one by one. Residents should have a say.

In the platform's view, wind turbines and large solar fields reduce property values, harm the landscape and health, and divide village communities. The AfD describes the energy transition as misguided. It says the state must not become a place for investors while residents bear the burden. Property and quality of life are to be protected from what the platform calls speculation and political ideology.