SSW on climate and energy

The SSW wants to promote renewable energy and relies on incentives rather than rules. It rejects a solar mandate for all private homes and wants to give more financial support for solar panels instead.

The SSW wants more power from wind and sun. But it does not want mandates for this. No one should be forced to put solar panels on their house. Instead, there should be more money to help. The state should tell people about this help.

Renewable energy should be promoted wherever it makes sense for the state. The party wants to build acceptance through transparency and dialogue, for example on offshore wind farms, citizen-owned wind farms and hydrogen technology. It rejects a solar mandate on the grounds that not every surface on a home is suitable. A state government information campaign would explain the available funding programs. In general, climate measures should remain affordable for people with low and middle incomes.

The SSW wants to extend EU emissions trading to further sectors and, if possible, worldwide. The costs of climate action should fall mainly on industry and large corporations, not on private households.

In the EU, companies must buy permits for their CO2 emissions. This is called emissions trading. The SSW wants to make this system bigger. It should cover more sectors and more countries. Mostly big companies should pay for climate action.

According to the platform, companies save money under emissions trading when they invest in climate-friendly technology because they then need few permits. The SSW cites Article 6 of the Paris Agreement as the legal basis for trading between countries. Emissions would thus fall where this is cheapest and most effective. In the party's view, climate action can only succeed internationally; legislation should be technology-neutral and encourage innovation.

The SSW wants the state's energy supply to be climate-neutral by 2035 and the coal phase-out moved forward, ideally to 2030. Coal and gas power plants are to go offline in step with the growth of renewables.

The SSW wants electricity and heat that do not harm the climate. This should be reached by 2035. Coal power plants should close by 2030 if possible. Heat pumps should replace oil and gas heating. Protecting the coasts should become more important.

The platform cites the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the 1.5-degree target and sees Schleswig-Holstein as especially threatened by rising sea levels. The coal exit is to be cushioned socially. People who buy regional, sustainable electricity should get a price advantage. Heat pumps and green local and district heating are to replace fossil heating, and there are to be more financing incentives for energy retrofits. A state climate competence center is to advise municipalities on their energy plans. Coastal protection is to get more weight in the state's master plan.

The SSW wants to speed up wind power expansion onshore and offshore again and make the state a pioneer. Citizens and municipalities are to share more in the revenues in order to build acceptance.

The SSW wants more wind turbines on land and at sea. Old turbines should be replaced by stronger ones. Citizens should get a share of the profits more easily. Towns should also get more money from wind farms.

According to the platform, wind expansion stalled for a long time under the 'Jamaica' coalition of CDU, Greens and FDP. The state is to plan and steer the expansion and weigh different interests, but still push new capacity and repowering, meaning the replacement of old turbines with more powerful ones. At the federal level, the SSW wants to make profit sharing easier, for instance through citizen-owned wind farms. Municipalities are to benefit more from wind farms on their territory. The party points to skilled jobs created by the wind industry.

The SSW wants more solar installations, mainly on rooftops: public and commercial buildings are to be fitted with them when built or renovated, and private roofs are to get more subsidies. Clear rules are to apply to ground-mounted solar parks.

The SSW wants more solar panels on roofs. The state should lead with its own buildings. Business buildings should also get solar panels. Private homeowners should get more support. Solar parks should first go on land that is already built on.

A rooftop register is to show how much potential solar power has in the state. Municipalities are to be more involved in planning and construction, and in new development areas houses with solar roofs are to get priority. Installations are to be built in a nature-friendly way. For solar parks, the SSW wants rules on location and size; already sealed land is to be used before new open land. In new buildings, renewables are to get more weight with state subsidies, and funding applications are to consider a building's entire life cycle.

The SSW wants to update the state's hydrogen strategy and greatly expand research on green hydrogen. Hydrogen from fossil sources is not to be produced in the state; sector coupling and storage technology are to advance as well.

Green hydrogen is made with power from wind and sun. The SSW wants much more research on it. There should be no hydrogen from gas or coal in the state. Power storage should also get better. Universities and companies should work together on this.

The platform sees green hydrogen as important for the state: as energy storage, as fuel for trucks, buses and cars, for converting district heating and for industrial processes. The green electricity generated in the state is to be used for it. Sector coupling means using renewable electricity for heating and transportation too; the SSW wants to fund the technologies this requires. On storage technologies, universities are to cooperate better with each other and with businesses.

The SSW wants to speed up grid expansion and spread its costs across all of Germany so that people in Schleswig-Holstein do not pay a disproportionate share. Renewable electricity is to get consistent priority for grid feed-in, and self-consumed green power is not to carry extra charges.

New power lines should be built faster. Everyone in Germany should share the costs. The SSW says people in the north pay too much today. People who use their own green power should not pay extra for it.

Grid fees are to be changed so that renewables do not become a financial burden. Before new lines are built, the public is to be involved early. Priority feed-in for green power is to be enforced more strictly. In the party's view, extra costs or double taxation on self-consumed power slow down innovation, sector coupling and storage.

The SSW stands by the nuclear phase-out and rejects classifying nuclear energy as sustainable in the EU taxonomy. The search for a final repository is to run nationwide, on scientific criteria and with broad public participation.

The SSW is against nuclear power. Nuclear waste needs a safe place deep underground. The search should cover all of Germany. Science should decide, not politics. People should be informed early and have a say.

No site is to be ruled out in advance for political reasons. Besides geology, risks such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods are to be part of the selection because safety must hold over very long periods. It must remain possible to retrieve the waste later. Research on partitioning and transmutation, the conversion of long-lived substances into shorter-lived ones, is to move forward. Cleared rubble from dismantling is to be stored in the affected county or on the plant site; the SSW sees the operators as responsible.

The SSW wants to permanently rule out underground CO2 storage (CCS) and fracking in the state and build no infrastructure for liquefied natural gas. In the party's view, these technologies prolong fossil fuel use and endanger groundwater.

CCS means pressing the gas CO2 into the ground. Fracking uses chemicals to get oil and gas out of rock. The SSW wants to stop both for good. It also wants no facilities for liquefied natural gas. Groundwater should stay protected.

Mining law is to be changed so that groundwater protection takes priority over fracking and CCS. According to the platform, CCS does not cut emissions but only makes them look better on paper; the injected CO2 cannot be retrieved and its containment is not certain. With fracking, it is unclear how the chemicals behave underground in the long run. The SSW considers liquefied natural gas (LNG) unsuitable as a bridge technology because of escaping methane; shipping, too, needs emission-free fuels.