CDU on climate and energy

The CDU wants to slow the rise of the carbon price and cut the electricity tax to the European minimum. At the federal level it backs the introduction of the Klimageld (climate dividend) so that carbon pricing revenue flows back to households.

The CDU wants energy to stay affordable. The price on CO₂ should rise more slowly. The tax on electricity should fall sharply. People should get a climate payment. This is money from the CO₂ price that the state gives back.

According to the program, high energy costs are a disadvantage for Germany as a business location and also burden consumers. The CDU therefore rejects increases in the price components set by the state. The Klimageld is meant to relieve mainly households with low and middle incomes and thus secure acceptance of carbon pricing. Climate protection is to go hand in hand with prosperity; the party rejects reaching climate targets through deindustrialization.

The CDU wants to reform grid fees and make the fees for regional distribution grids uniform nationwide. At the same time, local grids are to be upgraded, storage is to be researched and promoted, and generating one's own electricity is to become easier.

The CDU wants to share the costs of power grids equally across Germany. Local power grids should become stronger. The CDU wants to support power storage. Companies and people should find it easier to make and share their own power.

The program criticizes that Thuringia, as a transit state for electricity flowing from north to south, helps pay grid costs without benefiting. Local grids are to be upgraded because of heat pumps, electric cars and decentralized generation, and approval for feeding in solar power is to be sped up. Storage research in Thuringia will be expanded, since storage is seen as a weak point on the path to carbon neutrality. A self-supply bonus is to promote private generation combined with storage, charging stations and electric vehicles, and a storage initiative is to advance large storage units in commercial zones. Rules for energy sharing and renewable energy communities are to be adopted quickly.

The CDU sees hydrogen as a key part of the energy transition in Thuringia and wants to support research and application. The gas network is to be kept and made usable for hydrogen; biogas and hydropower plants are to remain and in part be expanded.

The CDU wants to use more hydrogen. The gas network should stay and later carry hydrogen. Biogas plants should stay and there should be more of them. Hydropower plants should also be kept.

For the ramp-up, the CDU wants to allow turquoise hydrogen and, for a transitional period, blue hydrogen, meaning hydrogen made from natural gas. Together with Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia is to form a central German hydrogen region with area-wide infrastructure and a link to national networks, including hydrogen-powered buses and trains. For biogas, the framework is to allow existing plants to keep running and new ones to be added. All existing hydropower plants are to be preserved and funded further, and unbuilt projects on the Saale cascade will be reviewed.

The CDU wants Thuringia to generate as much electricity from renewable sources as it consumes, on balance. Instead of land-area requirements, it calls for generation targets, and all emission-free forms of energy are to receive equal support.

Thuringia should make as much power as it uses. The power should come from renewable sources. The CDU does not want fixed rules for land area. It wants goals for the amount of power. All clean forms of energy should get the same support.

The platform calls for generation targets based on the state's actual demand and rejects area targets as unrealistic. All relevant state funding programs are to be made technology-neutral. For geothermal energy, it plans easier permits, research, pilot projects, and a funding program called “GeoInvest” to offset high drilling costs. Different generation types are to be linked locally with smart grids and storage in so-called energy districts.

The CDU wants to make greater use of existing wind and solar sites with modern equipment before opening up new land. Wind power is to be expanded only with local residents' support and avoided in forest areas.

Old wind turbines and solar plants should be replaced with new ones. This is called repowering. New plants make more power on the same land. Only after that should new land be used. The CDU wants to avoid wind turbines in forests.

The platform provides for a priority for repowering and wants to simplify planning and permitting for such projects. The existing installation is to count as prequalification. The reasoning is that modern equipment yields far more energy on the same area. In forests, reforestation and ecological restructuring are to take precedence over use for wind turbines.

The CDU wants to make energy efficiency in buildings and grids the guiding principle of the relevant rules. Businesses and households are to get incentives to cut their energy costs through retrofits and energy savings.

Buildings and grids should use less energy. The CDU wants to help companies and households with upgrades. There should be cheap loans for this. People who renovate their home should get a bigger tax break.

The plan includes well-funded loan programs from the Thüringer Aufbaubank (the state development bank) for businesses and households. These are meant to finance energy-saving and retrofit measures that lower energy costs. At the federal level, the CDU wants to push for a larger tax deduction for energy-related building renovations.

The CDU wants more citizen energy cooperatives and a legal requirement that municipalities share in the revenues of local wind farms and ground-mounted solar plants. The aim is to keep the value created by energy generation in Thuringia.

Citizens should be able to take part in making power. There are cooperatives for this. The CDU wants more of them. Towns should get money from wind farms and solar plants. A law should require this.

Cooperatives are to receive organizational and financial support during the planning phase. The state is to lease them roof space on its own properties at low cost. The CDU wants to make municipal participation in the proceeds of local wind farms and ground-mounted solar plants mandatory by law.

The CDU wants to expand solar power mainly on roofs and land already in use, including through a loan program for 50,000 roofs. The state is to lead with its own buildings and make its administration fully carbon-neutral.

The CDU wants more solar panels on roofs. There should be cheap loans for this. Parking lots and land along highways should also make power. The state should put solar panels on its own buildings. The state administration should stop emitting CO₂.

For new construction and major roof renovations of non-residential buildings, incentives for photovoltaics or solar thermal are planned, and owners should be able to lease out roofs more easily. Energy installations are to become mandatory when the state builds new parking lots; industrial brownfields and landfills are to be used as well. Solar projects at interchanges, rest areas, and noise barriers are planned with the federal Autobahn GmbH. In cities, a general solar exemption from historic preservation rules is to apply. Photovoltaics becomes standard for new state buildings, and existing state roofs will be checked for suitability.

The CDU wants to push for restarting all nuclear power plants that are still operable. It cites security of supply, stable prices, and securing baseload power as reasons.

The CDU wants to switch nuclear power plants back on. This applies to all that still work. It says this makes the power supply safe and prices stable. New kinds of nuclear plants should also be researched and used.

The platform calls the shutdown by the federal government irresponsible. In the CDU's view, the plants could contribute to supply, stable prices, and baseload power during the energy crisis. In addition, new generations of power plants and new forms of nuclear energy generation are to be researched, developed, and used in Germany.