Freie Wähler on climate and energy

The Free Voters want to amend the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and continue feed-in payments for electricity from bioenergy over the long term. Biogas production should grow. The platform calls bioenergy indispensable because it can supply power continuously.

Bioenergy is energy from plants and waste. The Free Voters want to keep paying support for this energy. There should be more biogas. But farmers should still grow enough food.

More residual materials from farming, trade, and industry would be approved for biogas plants, in line with European rules. Biogas plants should be expanded flexibly, partly because biomethane can replace natural gas. The balance between food and energy production on farmland should be maintained. Producers should be able to market their energy more easily. Landowners whose land is crossed by new power lines should receive ongoing, nationally uniform payments instead of a one-time payment.

The Free Voters want to cut electricity costs for households substantially and secure supply with about 20 gigawatts of additional power plant capacity, mainly hydrogen-ready gas plants. Climate measures should not place a disproportionate burden on households or small and mid-sized businesses.

Electricity is very expensive in Germany. The Free Voters want it to be cheaper. They want to build new gas power plants. These deliver power when there is no wind or sun. Climate protection should not hit people with little money too hard.

The platform blames high prices on taxes and on what the party sees as poor management of the renewables build-out. Alongside expanding renewables as needed, base load and peak load are to be secured, including during periods without wind and sun. The Kraftwerkssicherheitsgesetz (power plant security act) is to move ahead quickly. Energy policy should take the situation of low earners into account. The energy transition should not be left to large utilities alone but involve citizens, businesses, regional suppliers and farmers.

The Free Voters want to change how the Gebäudeenergiegesetz (building energy act) rates buildings so that construction materials, building work and disposal also count. They stand by the goal of climate neutrality, but a fixed target year should not be untouchable if the burdens become too high.

Today, what counts for buildings is mostly how much energy they use. The Free Voters also want to count the building materials. Wood should be rated better than concrete. Older people should not lose their home because of costly rules. The year for climate neutrality should be movable.

The party does not reject minimum energy-saving standards for new and existing buildings in principle but considers today's calculation too one-sided. Continued use of existing buildings is to be credited, as are wood and other alternative materials that store CO2. Gypsum and sand extraction should weigh more heavily in the assessment. Renovation rules should take into account the age of owners living in their own homes so that older people are not forced to move out. On the timeline for climate neutrality, the platform also wants to look at how other economies proceed.

The Free Voters favor decentralized supply from renewable sources in which municipalities and citizens have a stake. Local heating grids with a monopoly position should not be privatized, and cooperatives of connected customers should get special support.

Energy should be produced locally, for example from wind and sun. Towns and citizens should share in the earnings. Heating grids should not go to private companies. Citizens should be able to join together and invest in heating grids themselves.

Funding should reflect regional differences in land and terrain so each region uses its strengths. For transmission grid expansion, the platform demands a detailed cost-benefit comparison from grid operators and the Bundesnetzagentur (federal network agency). Distribution grids, which take in 90 percent of decentralized plants, should get more political weight. Municipalities should be able to invest in heating grids regardless of their finances. Local heat supply is meant to reduce uncertainty among citizens by letting them become investors themselves or through their town.

The Free Voters want the power system to follow supply more closely: when electricity is plentiful, the price should fall so that consumption shifts. To that end they call for flexible rates, grid fees that reflect who causes the costs, more storage and bidirectional charging.

When there is a lot of electricity, it should be cheap. Then it pays to use power at that time. The Free Voters want more power storage. Electric cars should also be allowed to feed power back into the grid. This is called bidirectional charging.

Grid fees should assign costs as precisely as possible to those who use the grid, since today mainly those who cannot generate power themselves are paying. Investment in smart grids and controllable storage is meant to secure stability. Regionally produced power should be sold directly, for example through charging stations at wind farms. Laws that currently prevent bidirectional charging are to be changed. Pumped-storage plants are also considered useful if environmentally sound, and expanding distribution grids is to secure supply despite the coal and nuclear phase-out.

The Free Voters want base-load power to become climate-neutral as soon as possible. All forms of renewable generation, including biogas and biomass, are to be expanded. The party also counts on hydrogen and on further scientific development of nuclear power and nuclear fusion.

Germany always needs a basic amount of electricity. This should soon be produced without harming the climate. The Free Voters want more biogas and biomass for this. They also want research on hydrogen, nuclear power and nuclear fusion.

The platform calls for a strong expansion of all renewable generation types across the country. Biogas is seen as an important complement because its output can be controlled, and the party says it has been neglected lately. Waste and residual materials and improved crop cultivation are meant to better its environmental footprint without harming biodiversity. Base-load plants, hydrogen research, and nuclear and fusion options are described as indispensable potential, including for new industries.

The Free Voters want to push the market ramp-up of hydrogen and plan power, heat and gas grids together. Gas pipelines should not be dismantled. Hydrogen is to be used wherever it makes the most technical and economic sense, including in transport.

Hydrogen is a gas that can store energy. The Free Voters want to make it usable faster. Gas pipelines should stay, because they can carry hydrogen later. The power grid and the gas grid should be planned together.

In the coming legislative term, reliable national and European rules and timelines for an integrated energy system are to be set so that investment follows. The transformation plan presented by gas grid operators is to be coordinated with industry and municipalities. Electrolyzers should be spread across many regions because they can relieve power grids. The party expects growing demand for synthetic fuels, for example for ships, aircraft, heavy transport and industry. It rejects political constraints that hold hydrogen back in transport.

The Free Voters want to cushion the effects of the coal phase-out on lignite regions and compensate for them ecologically and financially. Research and innovation funding are meant to turn these regions into climate pioneers.

Germany is ending the use of coal. This hits the coal regions hard. The Free Voters want to help these regions. More research should happen there. This should bring new companies.

The platform calls for carrying out the proposals of the coal commission. As effects of the phase-out it names extra land needed for mining natural gypsum and possible damage to water quality when open-pit mines are flooded. Research capacity is to be built up and its results passed on to local industry, for example to develop substitutes for the FGD gypsum the building materials sector will lose. The Central German lignite region in particular is to receive funding so that industry settles there.

The Free Voters commit to the obligations of the Paris climate agreement. They want to achieve climate and environmental protection mainly through innovation and, as far as possible, without levies and bans, while always taking social effects into account.

The Free Voters stand by the Paris climate agreement. They want to protect the climate mainly with new technology. They want to avoid bans and new charges where they can. Climate protection should stay affordable for everyone.

The program sees environmental protection as a way to keep nature, living spaces and the economy existing side by side in the long run. Citizens and municipalities should not be left alone with effects such as floods, heat, drought, storms and heavy rain. Every policy measure should take social aspects into account. In the party's view, what it calls ideological paternalism has damaged public support for climate protection.

The Free Voters want the state to take climate consequences into account when it aids companies. The platform rejects bailing out airlines with taxpayer money as clinging to old structures.

The state sometimes helps companies with money. The Free Voters want it to consider the climate when it does. The state should not simply rescue airlines. That is the party's view.

The platform generally supports federal and state stimulus programs that protect jobs in a crisis. However, it points to the Paris climate agreement, which Germany has signed. Bailing out airlines, it says, contradicts responsible use of taxpayer money. As a reason it cites foreseeable penalty payments because the transport sector is missing its climate targets.

The Free Voters see both opportunities and risks in underground CO2 storage (CCS). Before any project, they demand expert assessments, public participation and the consent of the federal state concerned.

The gas CO2 can be pressed underground. The Free Voters see chances and dangers in this. Experts should check each project first. Citizens should have a say. The state must agree.

The conditions should also apply to CO2 pipelines and other transport facilities. The platform highlights protection of the Wadden Sea National Park. Storage sites must be proven leak-tight, even when the CO2 is taken abroad. According to the platform, drinking water, groundwater, surface waters and soils take priority.