Any subsidy plans require the approval of the federal
government and the European Union.
Salzgitter expects to build up a 100 megawatt
(MW)electrolysis plant by 2026 at its core site in Lower Saxony
state, for which it needs regional renewable power.
It is pursuing the transformation under the project name
SALCOS for which it received 1 billion euros of combined German
federal government and Lower Saxony state funding last month.
Steel is responsible for 30% of Germany's industrial
greenhouse emissions.
($1 = 0.9060 euros)
(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Kirsten Donovan)
FRANKFURT, May 3 (Reuters) - German industry still needs
help with high electricity prices, the head of the country's
second-largest steelmaker Salzgitter said on
Wednesday, arguing that without support it would not be possible
to finance a shift to clean technologies.
Plans to be firmed up soon by the economy ministry to
subsidise industrial power, possibly by around 50 euros ($55)
per megawatt hour (MWh), for several years are controversial
within the coalition government.
Greens and some Social Democrats are supportive, while the
Free Democrats want businesses to succeed without subsidies,
citing fairness principles and budgetary constraints.
European day-ahead wholesale power stood at 97 euros on
Wednesday , having shot up to 548 euros in August, when
the loss of Russian gas imports propelled gas and power prices
to all-time highs.
"That (near 100 euros) price is still far too high to keep
energy-intensive industry competitive in Germany long-term,
which must be the goal," said Gunnar Groebler at a Handelsblatt
conference on transforming industry to clean hydrogen from
renewable energy.
"We have to be competitive in global markets and need an
energy supply that enables us to do so," he added.
Groebler said his company's plans for a hydrogen route for
crude steel-making would benefit from price support, stressing
it should apply only for an interim period.
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