We Re Too Comfortable The Race To Build An Lng Terminal In Northern Germany Germany

Built in 1982, the pier was designed to accommodate not only two chemical import terminals but also one for liquefied natural gas (LNG), shipped by tanker from the US. With cheap Russian gas beating LNG on price, those tankers never arrived. Two neighboring plots of land, reclaimed from the North Sea to make room for industry, instead attracted rare terns and bitterns. But as Russia’s war in Ukraine upends decades of German energy policy, getting LNG tankers to dock at the Hooksiel wharf is suddenly a matter of national priority. Wilhelmshaven, the nearby historic port city, has become emblematic of a double, seemingly contradictory promise made by the German government: that it can import LNG to offset gas imports from Russia at a record pace, belying a reputation for red tape. and that the jetty in the North Sea will carry LNG – a polluting fossil fuel – for a short time, which will soon be replaced with a more climate-friendly substitute. Wilhelmshaven is one of five floating LNG terminals that Germany is rushing to build by the end of the year, creating infrastructure that a study in July by the Fraunhofer Institute argued would be crucial to avoiding cold homes and closed factories this year. winter, not just in Germany but across Europe as Vladimir Putin turns off the tap. The Höegh Esperanza, a 300-meter-long tanker converted to a floating storage and regasification unit chartered by the German government at an estimated cost of €200,000 per day, will dock at the jetty and convert the liquid back into gas at a rate of about 10 hours per load tanker. About 80 tankers are expected to arrive at Wilhelmshaven each year, replacing half of German energy company Uniper’s gas imports from Russia, or 8 percent of Germany’s total gas use before the war began. Shortly after Russian troops crossed into Ukrainian territory in the spring, the talk was that the construction of LNG terminals would take three to five years. Now politicians are confident the terminal and connecting pipeline can be built in seven months, with the works ending on December 21 and the gas flowing the next day. Holger Kreetz, of Uniper, on a boat trip to the LNG terminals construction site. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian Uniper, which is managing construction, is slightly more cautious, saying wind in the colder months could delay completion until the second half of winter. Behind schedule building projects such as Berlin’s new airport and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall have in recent years shattered myths of German efficiency. LNG terminals are trying to ease the trend by emulating the model behind Tesla’s new Gigafactory in Brandenburg, with construction already under way and permit applications still pending. “What is usually done step by step, we are now doing in parallel,” said Holger Kreetz, Uniper’s chief operating officer for asset management, on a boat trip at the end of the Hooksiel wharf earlier this week. Environmental impact assessments, usually a necessary step, are simply omitted. Finance Minister Robert Hambeck, a Green Party politician and self-proclaimed “biggest seal fan in government”, dismissed concerns that construction work could disturb the endangered aquatic mammals that pond in Jade Bay. Ensuring that Germany was no longer blackmailed by Putin had to take priority, he said. Germany’s view from Russian gas pipelines to shipping LNG will not only test the political credibility of the Greens. “It’s hard to admit, but we probably wouldn’t have been able to build these terminals so quickly if it weren’t for the war,” said Olaf Lies, the center-left Social Democrats’ environment minister for the state of Lower Saxony. “To a certain extent, what is happening now in Wilhelmshaven also shows the political failures of the past. We got too comfortable and neglected other projects we should have tackled.” The hope is that Europe’s energy crisis could be an opportunity to take steps towards a greener future rather than a setback for its climate goals, said Lies, who insisted that Hooksiel Pier would host a “terminal molecule station’ and not an LNG specialist. The German Navy replenishment ship Berlin is pictured in an urban neighborhood in Wilhelmshaven. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian With Germany committed to being greenhouse gas neutral by 2045, pipelines on the North Sea coast will soon pump not LNG but green hydrogen, produced by using renewable electricity to drive a water-splitting electrolyte into hydrogen and oxygen, Lies said. an interview. Some of the green hydrogen will be produced in Wilhelmshaven, where Uniper is converting a decommissioned coal plant into electrolysis. The remainder will be imported through the new terminal infrastructure. Open Grid Europe, the company that connects the terminal to the national gas grid, said its pipelines were 100% hydrogen-compatible, barring any additional insulation before the switch. Tests are underway to see if a natural underground salt dome outside Wilhelmshaven, where Germany’s emergency crude reserves have been stored since the 1970s, could contain hydrogen. “The big energy exporters of tomorrow will not be the countries that are rich in natural gas, but those that have plenty of wind, sun and water,” Lies said, painting a picture of his city’s reinvention as a renewable energy hub. for imports from Australia, South America and Africa. The “Green Wilhelmshaven” leaflets have already been printed. Some skepticism remains among Wilhelmshaven residents. The coastal city north of Bremen is a place of superlatives: the biggest hub for Germany’s military, which coordinates its naval forces from here. the country’s only German deep-water port. and the largest crude oil import terminal, channeled to the industrial heartland in the Rhine Valley. It was here that a sailors’ revolt against the Kaiser’s orders in October 1918 set off a chain of events that swept the old German empire. But the triumphant highs in Wilhelmshaven’s history were usually quickly followed by humiliating lows. After becoming a pirate stronghold in the 14th century, its fortress was destroyed by the Hanseatic League. Flourishing as the center of the German Imperial Navy under the rule of Kaiser Wilhelm II, it was limited in size by the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. After Hitler used the square in front of Wilhelmshaven to denounce the naval agreement with Britain, in April 1939 came the Allied bombs, destroying two-thirds of the town’s residential buildings. The city’s unemployment rates have yet to recover from the closing of Olympia Typewriter in 1991 and the loss of nearly 3,000 jobs. Floating LNG terminals are unlikely to change this, as they come with their own trained personnel. An employee reported that the number of jobs created did not exceed 20. While the new terminal won’t spoil the view from Wilhelmshaven’s Südstrand tourist spot, or smell the coastal air, some residents have concerns about the project’s long-term viability. “It’s an opportunity, but also a risk,” said Fritz Santjer, an electrical engineer and member of Scientists for Future, an initiative launched three years ago to support the Fridays for Future climate movement. Fritz Santjer, who hopes LNG terminals will be a bridging technology to greener energy. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian Santjer, who lives on a green plot next to the embankment in the neighboring village of Sande, added: “If the government follows through on its plans to expand offshore wind farms, then we are making real progress towards meeting the Paris agreement. and floating LNG terminals could be a good bridging technology on this path. “But what if we have a new government in four years, who decide the targets are unrealistic and are quite happy to keep pumping fracking gas? Are we sure Germany will switch to hydrogen then? Do we know if it will be green or blue?’ Pressure group Environmental Action Germany warns that the pipelines built at Wilhelmshaven will create more capacity for natural gas imports than is needed to bridge a nervous winter and also lead Germany to miss its carbon reduction targets. Last Friday, climate activists blocked off parts of the pipeline construction site in Hooksiel and poured sand into the tanks of the excavators. A spokesman said the damage caused would not delay the works schedule. While the enthusiasm of German politicians and energy companies for green hydrogen is palpable, economic reality may tie them to non-renewable gas for longer than they wish. China and Japan, the world’s biggest LNG importers, have made little use of their long-term options with suppliers this summer, allowing Europe to win their withdrawals. In winter, they may hold on to market share, forcing countries like Germany into long-term commitments. Berlin’s negotiations for an LNG deal with Qatar are reportedly proving more difficult than expected because the gas-rich Middle Eastern state insisted on a 20-year contract until 2042. In order for Wilhelmshaven to become the symbol of Germany’s carbon neutrality success in 2045, the country must sustain its new momentum.

title: " We Re Too Comfortable The Race To Build An Lng Terminal In Northern Germany Germany Klmat" ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-20” author: “Linda Ojeda”

Built in 1982, the pier was designed to accommodate not only two chemical import terminals but also one for liquefied natural gas (LNG), shipped by tanker from the US. With cheap Russian gas beating LNG on price, those tankers never arrived. Two neighboring plots of land, reclaimed from the North Sea to make room for industry, instead attracted rare terns and bitterns. But as Russia’s war in Ukraine upends decades of German energy policy, getting LNG tankers to dock at the Hooksiel wharf is suddenly a matter of national priority. Wilhelmshaven, the nearby historic port city, has become emblematic of a double, seemingly contradictory promise made by the German government: that it can import LNG to offset gas imports from Russia at a record pace, belying a reputation for red tape. and that the jetty in the North Sea will carry LNG – a polluting fossil fuel – for a short time, which will soon be replaced with a more climate-friendly substitute. Wilhelmshaven is one of five floating LNG terminals that Germany is rushing to build by the end of the year, creating infrastructure that a study in July by the Fraunhofer Institute argued would be crucial to avoiding cold homes and closed factories this year. winter, not just in Germany but across Europe as Vladimir Putin turns off the tap. The Höegh Esperanza, a 300-meter-long tanker converted to a floating storage and regasification unit chartered by the German government at an estimated cost of €200,000 per day, will dock at the jetty and convert the liquid back into gas at a rate of about 10 hours per load tanker. About 80 tankers are expected to arrive at Wilhelmshaven each year, replacing half of German energy company Uniper’s gas imports from Russia, or 8 percent of Germany’s total gas use before the war began. Shortly after Russian troops crossed into Ukrainian territory in the spring, the talk was that the construction of LNG terminals would take three to five years. Now politicians are confident the terminal and connecting pipeline can be built in seven months, with the works ending on December 21 and the gas flowing the next day. Holger Kreetz, of Uniper, on a boat trip to the LNG terminals construction site. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian Uniper, which is managing construction, is slightly more cautious, saying wind in the colder months could delay completion until the second half of winter. Behind schedule building projects such as Berlin’s new airport and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall have in recent years shattered myths of German efficiency. LNG terminals are trying to ease the trend by emulating the model behind Tesla’s new Gigafactory in Brandenburg, with construction already under way and permit applications still pending. “What is usually done step by step, we are now doing in parallel,” said Holger Kreetz, Uniper’s chief operating officer for asset management, on a boat trip at the end of the Hooksiel wharf earlier this week. Environmental impact assessments, usually a necessary step, are simply omitted. Finance Minister Robert Hambeck, a Green Party politician and self-proclaimed “biggest seal fan in government”, dismissed concerns that construction work could disturb the endangered aquatic mammals that pond in Jade Bay. Ensuring that Germany was no longer blackmailed by Putin had to take priority, he said. Germany’s view from Russian gas pipelines to shipping LNG will not only test the political credibility of the Greens. “It’s hard to admit, but we probably wouldn’t have been able to build these terminals so quickly if it weren’t for the war,” said Olaf Lies, the center-left Social Democrats’ environment minister for the state of Lower Saxony. “To a certain extent, what is happening now in Wilhelmshaven also shows the political failures of the past. We got too comfortable and neglected other projects we should have tackled.” The hope is that Europe’s energy crisis could be an opportunity to take steps towards a greener future rather than a setback for its climate goals, said Lies, who insisted that Hooksiel Pier would host a “terminal molecule station’ and not an LNG specialist. The German Navy replenishment ship Berlin is pictured in an urban neighborhood in Wilhelmshaven. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian With Germany committed to being greenhouse gas neutral by 2045, pipelines on the North Sea coast will soon pump not LNG but green hydrogen, produced by using renewable electricity to drive a water-splitting electrolyte into hydrogen and oxygen, Lies said. an interview. Some of the green hydrogen will be produced in Wilhelmshaven, where Uniper is converting a decommissioned coal plant into electrolysis. The remainder will be imported through the new terminal infrastructure. Open Grid Europe, the company that connects the terminal to the national gas grid, said its pipelines were 100% hydrogen-compatible, barring any additional insulation before the switch. Tests are underway to see if a natural underground salt dome outside Wilhelmshaven, where Germany’s emergency crude reserves have been stored since the 1970s, could contain hydrogen. “The big energy exporters of tomorrow will not be the countries that are rich in natural gas, but those that have plenty of wind, sun and water,” Lies said, painting a picture of his city’s reinvention as a renewable energy hub. for imports from Australia, South America and Africa. The “Green Wilhelmshaven” leaflets have already been printed. Some skepticism remains among Wilhelmshaven residents. The coastal city north of Bremen is a place of superlatives: the biggest hub for Germany’s military, which coordinates its naval forces from here. the country’s only German deep-water port. and the largest crude oil import terminal, channeled to the industrial heartland in the Rhine Valley. It was here that a sailors’ revolt against the Kaiser’s orders in October 1918 set off a chain of events that swept the old German empire. But the triumphant highs in Wilhelmshaven’s history were usually quickly followed by humiliating lows. After becoming a pirate stronghold in the 14th century, its fortress was destroyed by the Hanseatic League. Flourishing as the center of the German Imperial Navy under the rule of Kaiser Wilhelm II, it was limited in size by the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. After Hitler used the square in front of Wilhelmshaven to denounce the naval agreement with Britain, in April 1939 came the Allied bombs, destroying two-thirds of the town’s residential buildings. The city’s unemployment rates have yet to recover from the closing of Olympia Typewriter in 1991 and the loss of nearly 3,000 jobs. Floating LNG terminals are unlikely to change this, as they come with their own trained personnel. An employee reported that the number of jobs created did not exceed 20. While the new terminal won’t spoil the view from Wilhelmshaven’s Südstrand tourist spot, or smell the coastal air, some residents have concerns about the project’s long-term viability. “It’s an opportunity, but also a risk,” said Fritz Santjer, an electrical engineer and member of Scientists for Future, an initiative launched three years ago to support the Fridays for Future climate movement. Fritz Santjer, who hopes LNG terminals will be a bridging technology to greener energy. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian Santjer, who lives on a green plot next to the embankment in the neighboring village of Sande, added: “If the government follows through on its plans to expand offshore wind farms, then we are making real progress towards meeting the Paris agreement. and floating LNG terminals could be a good bridging technology on this path. “But what if we have a new government in four years, who decide the targets are unrealistic and are quite happy to keep pumping fracking gas? Are we sure Germany will switch to hydrogen then? Do we know if it will be green or blue?’ Pressure group Environmental Action Germany warns that the pipelines built at Wilhelmshaven will create more capacity for natural gas imports than is needed to bridge a nervous winter and also lead Germany to miss its carbon reduction targets. Last Friday, climate activists blocked off parts of the pipeline construction site in Hooksiel and poured sand into the tanks of the excavators. A spokesman said the damage caused would not delay the works schedule. While the enthusiasm of German politicians and energy companies for green hydrogen is palpable, economic reality may tie them to non-renewable gas for longer than they wish. China and Japan, the world’s biggest LNG importers, have made little use of their long-term options with suppliers this summer, allowing Europe to win their withdrawals. In winter, they may hold on to market share, forcing countries like Germany into long-term commitments. Berlin’s negotiations for an LNG deal with Qatar are reportedly proving more difficult than expected because the gas-rich Middle Eastern state insisted on a 20-year contract until 2042. In order for Wilhelmshaven to become the symbol of Germany’s carbon neutrality success in 2045, the country must sustain its new momentum.

title: " We Re Too Comfortable The Race To Build An Lng Terminal In Northern Germany Germany Klmat" ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-10” author: “Jennifer Utecht”

Built in 1982, the pier was designed to accommodate not only two chemical import terminals but also one for liquefied natural gas (LNG), shipped by tanker from the US. With cheap Russian gas beating LNG on price, those tankers never arrived. Two neighboring plots of land, reclaimed from the North Sea to make room for industry, instead attracted rare terns and bitterns. But as Russia’s war in Ukraine upends decades of German energy policy, getting LNG tankers to dock at the Hooksiel wharf is suddenly a matter of national priority. Wilhelmshaven, the nearby historic port city, has become emblematic of a double, seemingly contradictory promise made by the German government: that it can import LNG to offset gas imports from Russia at a record pace, belying a reputation for red tape. and that the jetty in the North Sea will carry LNG – a polluting fossil fuel – for a short time, which will soon be replaced with a more climate-friendly substitute. Wilhelmshaven is one of five floating LNG terminals that Germany is rushing to build by the end of the year, creating infrastructure that a study in July by the Fraunhofer Institute argued would be crucial to avoiding cold homes and closed factories this year. winter, not just in Germany but across Europe as Vladimir Putin turns off the tap. The Höegh Esperanza, a 300-meter-long tanker converted to a floating storage and regasification unit chartered by the German government at an estimated cost of €200,000 per day, will dock at the jetty and convert the liquid back into gas at a rate of about 10 hours per load tanker. About 80 tankers are expected to arrive at Wilhelmshaven each year, replacing half of German energy company Uniper’s gas imports from Russia, or 8 percent of Germany’s total gas use before the war began. Shortly after Russian troops crossed into Ukrainian territory in the spring, the talk was that the construction of LNG terminals would take three to five years. Now politicians are confident the terminal and connecting pipeline can be built in seven months, with the works ending on December 21 and the gas flowing the next day. Holger Kreetz, of Uniper, on a boat trip to the LNG terminals construction site. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian Uniper, which is managing construction, is slightly more cautious, saying wind in the colder months could delay completion until the second half of winter. Behind schedule building projects such as Berlin’s new airport and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall have in recent years shattered myths of German efficiency. LNG terminals are trying to ease the trend by emulating the model behind Tesla’s new Gigafactory in Brandenburg, with construction already under way and permit applications still pending. “What is usually done step by step, we are now doing in parallel,” said Holger Kreetz, Uniper’s chief operating officer for asset management, on a boat trip at the end of the Hooksiel wharf earlier this week. Environmental impact assessments, usually a necessary step, are simply omitted. Finance Minister Robert Hambeck, a Green Party politician and self-proclaimed “biggest seal fan in government”, dismissed concerns that construction work could disturb the endangered aquatic mammals that pond in Jade Bay. Ensuring that Germany was no longer blackmailed by Putin had to take priority, he said. Germany’s view from Russian gas pipelines to shipping LNG will not only test the political credibility of the Greens. “It’s hard to admit, but we probably wouldn’t have been able to build these terminals so quickly if it weren’t for the war,” said Olaf Lies, the center-left Social Democrats’ environment minister for the state of Lower Saxony. “To a certain extent, what is happening now in Wilhelmshaven also shows the political failures of the past. We got too comfortable and neglected other projects we should have tackled.” The hope is that Europe’s energy crisis could be an opportunity to take steps towards a greener future rather than a setback for its climate goals, said Lies, who insisted that Hooksiel Pier would host a “terminal molecule station’ and not an LNG specialist. The German Navy replenishment ship Berlin is pictured in an urban neighborhood in Wilhelmshaven. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian With Germany committed to being greenhouse gas neutral by 2045, pipelines on the North Sea coast will soon pump not LNG but green hydrogen, produced by using renewable electricity to drive a water-splitting electrolyte into hydrogen and oxygen, Lies said. an interview. Some of the green hydrogen will be produced in Wilhelmshaven, where Uniper is converting a decommissioned coal plant into electrolysis. The remainder will be imported through the new terminal infrastructure. Open Grid Europe, the company that connects the terminal to the national gas grid, said its pipelines were 100% hydrogen-compatible, barring any additional insulation before the switch. Tests are underway to see if a natural underground salt dome outside Wilhelmshaven, where Germany’s emergency crude reserves have been stored since the 1970s, could contain hydrogen. “The big energy exporters of tomorrow will not be the countries that are rich in natural gas, but those that have plenty of wind, sun and water,” Lies said, painting a picture of his city’s reinvention as a renewable energy hub. for imports from Australia, South America and Africa. The “Green Wilhelmshaven” leaflets have already been printed. Some skepticism remains among Wilhelmshaven residents. The coastal city north of Bremen is a place of superlatives: the biggest hub for Germany’s military, which coordinates its naval forces from here. the country’s only German deep-water port. and the largest crude oil import terminal, channeled to the industrial heartland in the Rhine Valley. It was here that a sailors’ revolt against the Kaiser’s orders in October 1918 set off a chain of events that swept the old German empire. But the triumphant highs in Wilhelmshaven’s history were usually quickly followed by humiliating lows. After becoming a pirate stronghold in the 14th century, its fortress was destroyed by the Hanseatic League. Flourishing as the center of the German Imperial Navy under the rule of Kaiser Wilhelm II, it was limited in size by the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. After Hitler used the square in front of Wilhelmshaven to denounce the naval agreement with Britain, in April 1939 came the Allied bombs, destroying two-thirds of the town’s residential buildings. The city’s unemployment rates have yet to recover from the closing of Olympia Typewriter in 1991 and the loss of nearly 3,000 jobs. Floating LNG terminals are unlikely to change this, as they come with their own trained personnel. An employee reported that the number of jobs created did not exceed 20. While the new terminal won’t spoil the view from Wilhelmshaven’s Südstrand tourist spot, or smell the coastal air, some residents have concerns about the project’s long-term viability. “It’s an opportunity, but also a risk,” said Fritz Santjer, an electrical engineer and member of Scientists for Future, an initiative launched three years ago to support the Fridays for Future climate movement. Fritz Santjer, who hopes LNG terminals will be a bridging technology to greener energy. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian Santjer, who lives on a green plot next to the embankment in the neighboring village of Sande, added: “If the government follows through on its plans to expand offshore wind farms, then we are making real progress towards meeting the Paris agreement. and floating LNG terminals could be a good bridging technology on this path. “But what if we have a new government in four years, who decide the targets are unrealistic and are quite happy to keep pumping fracking gas? Are we sure Germany will switch to hydrogen then? Do we know if it will be green or blue?’ Pressure group Environmental Action Germany warns that the pipelines built at Wilhelmshaven will create more capacity for natural gas imports than is needed to bridge a nervous winter and also lead Germany to miss its carbon reduction targets. Last Friday, climate activists blocked off parts of the pipeline construction site in Hooksiel and poured sand into the tanks of the excavators. A spokesman said the damage caused would not delay the works schedule. While the enthusiasm of German politicians and energy companies for green hydrogen is palpable, economic reality may tie them to non-renewable gas for longer than they wish. China and Japan, the world’s biggest LNG importers, have made little use of their long-term options with suppliers this summer, allowing Europe to win their withdrawals. In winter, they may hold on to market share, forcing countries like Germany into long-term commitments. Berlin’s negotiations for an LNG deal with Qatar are reportedly proving more difficult than expected because the gas-rich Middle Eastern state insisted on a 20-year contract until 2042. In order for Wilhelmshaven to become the symbol of Germany’s carbon neutrality success in 2045, the country must sustain its new momentum.

title: " We Re Too Comfortable The Race To Build An Lng Terminal In Northern Germany Germany Klmat" ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-15” author: “Mario Payne”

Built in 1982, the pier was designed to accommodate not only two chemical import terminals but also one for liquefied natural gas (LNG), shipped by tanker from the US. With cheap Russian gas beating LNG on price, those tankers never arrived. Two neighboring plots of land, reclaimed from the North Sea to make room for industry, instead attracted rare terns and bitterns. But as Russia’s war in Ukraine upends decades of German energy policy, getting LNG tankers to dock at the Hooksiel wharf is suddenly a matter of national priority. Wilhelmshaven, the nearby historic port city, has become emblematic of a double, seemingly contradictory promise made by the German government: that it can import LNG to offset gas imports from Russia at a record pace, belying a reputation for red tape. and that the jetty in the North Sea will carry LNG – a polluting fossil fuel – for a short time, which will soon be replaced with a more climate-friendly substitute. Wilhelmshaven is one of five floating LNG terminals that Germany is rushing to build by the end of the year, creating infrastructure that a study in July by the Fraunhofer Institute argued would be crucial to avoiding cold homes and closed factories this year. winter, not just in Germany but across Europe as Vladimir Putin turns off the tap. The Höegh Esperanza, a 300-meter-long tanker converted to a floating storage and regasification unit chartered by the German government at an estimated cost of €200,000 per day, will dock at the jetty and convert the liquid back into gas at a rate of about 10 hours per load tanker. About 80 tankers are expected to arrive at Wilhelmshaven each year, replacing half of German energy company Uniper’s gas imports from Russia, or 8 percent of Germany’s total gas use before the war began. Shortly after Russian troops crossed into Ukrainian territory in the spring, the talk was that the construction of LNG terminals would take three to five years. Now politicians are confident the terminal and connecting pipeline can be built in seven months, with the works ending on December 21 and the gas flowing the next day. Holger Kreetz, of Uniper, on a boat trip to the LNG terminals construction site. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian Uniper, which is managing construction, is slightly more cautious, saying wind in the colder months could delay completion until the second half of winter. Behind schedule building projects such as Berlin’s new airport and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall have in recent years shattered myths of German efficiency. LNG terminals are trying to ease the trend by emulating the model behind Tesla’s new Gigafactory in Brandenburg, with construction already under way and permit applications still pending. “What is usually done step by step, we are now doing in parallel,” said Holger Kreetz, Uniper’s chief operating officer for asset management, on a boat trip at the end of the Hooksiel wharf earlier this week. Environmental impact assessments, usually a necessary step, are simply omitted. Finance Minister Robert Hambeck, a Green Party politician and self-proclaimed “biggest seal fan in government”, dismissed concerns that construction work could disturb the endangered aquatic mammals that pond in Jade Bay. Ensuring that Germany was no longer blackmailed by Putin had to take priority, he said. Germany’s view from Russian gas pipelines to shipping LNG will not only test the political credibility of the Greens. “It’s hard to admit, but we probably wouldn’t have been able to build these terminals so quickly if it weren’t for the war,” said Olaf Lies, the center-left Social Democrats’ environment minister for the state of Lower Saxony. “To a certain extent, what is happening now in Wilhelmshaven also shows the political failures of the past. We got too comfortable and neglected other projects we should have tackled.” The hope is that Europe’s energy crisis could be an opportunity to take steps towards a greener future rather than a setback for its climate goals, said Lies, who insisted that Hooksiel Pier would host a “terminal molecule station’ and not an LNG specialist. The German Navy replenishment ship Berlin is pictured in an urban neighborhood in Wilhelmshaven. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian With Germany committed to being greenhouse gas neutral by 2045, pipelines on the North Sea coast will soon pump not LNG but green hydrogen, produced by using renewable electricity to drive a water-splitting electrolyte into hydrogen and oxygen, Lies said. an interview. Some of the green hydrogen will be produced in Wilhelmshaven, where Uniper is converting a decommissioned coal plant into electrolysis. The remainder will be imported through the new terminal infrastructure. Open Grid Europe, the company that connects the terminal to the national gas grid, said its pipelines were 100% hydrogen-compatible, barring any additional insulation before the switch. Tests are underway to see if a natural underground salt dome outside Wilhelmshaven, where Germany’s emergency crude reserves have been stored since the 1970s, could contain hydrogen. “The big energy exporters of tomorrow will not be the countries that are rich in natural gas, but those that have plenty of wind, sun and water,” Lies said, painting a picture of his city’s reinvention as a renewable energy hub. for imports from Australia, South America and Africa. The “Green Wilhelmshaven” leaflets have already been printed. Some skepticism remains among Wilhelmshaven residents. The coastal city north of Bremen is a place of superlatives: the biggest hub for Germany’s military, which coordinates its naval forces from here. the country’s only German deep-water port. and the largest crude oil import terminal, channeled to the industrial heartland in the Rhine Valley. It was here that a sailors’ revolt against the Kaiser’s orders in October 1918 set off a chain of events that swept the old German empire. But the triumphant highs in Wilhelmshaven’s history were usually quickly followed by humiliating lows. After becoming a pirate stronghold in the 14th century, its fortress was destroyed by the Hanseatic League. Flourishing as the center of the German Imperial Navy under the rule of Kaiser Wilhelm II, it was limited in size by the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. After Hitler used the square in front of Wilhelmshaven to denounce the naval agreement with Britain, in April 1939 came the Allied bombs, destroying two-thirds of the town’s residential buildings. The city’s unemployment rates have yet to recover from the closing of Olympia Typewriter in 1991 and the loss of nearly 3,000 jobs. Floating LNG terminals are unlikely to change this, as they come with their own trained personnel. An employee reported that the number of jobs created did not exceed 20. While the new terminal won’t spoil the view from Wilhelmshaven’s Südstrand tourist spot, or smell the coastal air, some residents have concerns about the project’s long-term viability. “It’s an opportunity, but also a risk,” said Fritz Santjer, an electrical engineer and member of Scientists for Future, an initiative launched three years ago to support the Fridays for Future climate movement. Fritz Santjer, who hopes LNG terminals will be a bridging technology to greener energy. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian Santjer, who lives on a green plot next to the embankment in the neighboring village of Sande, added: “If the government follows through on its plans to expand offshore wind farms, then we are making real progress towards meeting the Paris agreement. and floating LNG terminals could be a good bridging technology on this path. “But what if we have a new government in four years, who decide the targets are unrealistic and are quite happy to keep pumping fracking gas? Are we sure Germany will switch to hydrogen then? Do we know if it will be green or blue?’ Pressure group Environmental Action Germany warns that the pipelines built at Wilhelmshaven will create more capacity for natural gas imports than is needed to bridge a nervous winter and also lead Germany to miss its carbon reduction targets. Last Friday, climate activists blocked off parts of the pipeline construction site in Hooksiel and poured sand into the tanks of the excavators. A spokesman said the damage caused would not delay the works schedule. While the enthusiasm of German politicians and energy companies for green hydrogen is palpable, economic reality may tie them to non-renewable gas for longer than they wish. China and Japan, the world’s biggest LNG importers, have made little use of their long-term options with suppliers this summer, allowing Europe to win their withdrawals. In winter, they may hold on to market share, forcing countries like Germany into long-term commitments. Berlin’s negotiations for an LNG deal with Qatar are reportedly proving more difficult than expected because the gas-rich Middle Eastern state insisted on a 20-year contract until 2042. In order for Wilhelmshaven to become the symbol of Germany’s carbon neutrality success in 2045, the country must sustain its new momentum.

title: " We Re Too Comfortable The Race To Build An Lng Terminal In Northern Germany Germany Klmat" ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-15” author: “Jessica Thacker”

Built in 1982, the pier was designed to accommodate not only two chemical import terminals but also one for liquefied natural gas (LNG), shipped by tanker from the US. With cheap Russian gas beating LNG on price, those tankers never arrived. Two neighboring plots of land, reclaimed from the North Sea to make room for industry, instead attracted rare terns and bitterns. But as Russia’s war in Ukraine upends decades of German energy policy, getting LNG tankers to dock at the Hooksiel wharf is suddenly a matter of national priority. Wilhelmshaven, the nearby historic port city, has become emblematic of a double, seemingly contradictory promise made by the German government: that it can import LNG to offset gas imports from Russia at a record pace, belying a reputation for red tape. and that the jetty in the North Sea will carry LNG – a polluting fossil fuel – for a short time, which will soon be replaced with a more climate-friendly substitute. Wilhelmshaven is one of five floating LNG terminals that Germany is rushing to build by the end of the year, creating infrastructure that a study in July by the Fraunhofer Institute argued would be crucial to avoiding cold homes and closed factories this year. winter, not just in Germany but across Europe as Vladimir Putin turns off the tap. The Höegh Esperanza, a 300-meter-long tanker converted to a floating storage and regasification unit chartered by the German government at an estimated cost of €200,000 per day, will dock at the jetty and convert the liquid back into gas at a rate of about 10 hours per load tanker. About 80 tankers are expected to arrive at Wilhelmshaven each year, replacing half of German energy company Uniper’s gas imports from Russia, or 8 percent of Germany’s total gas use before the war began. Shortly after Russian troops crossed into Ukrainian territory in the spring, the talk was that the construction of LNG terminals would take three to five years. Now politicians are confident the terminal and connecting pipeline can be built in seven months, with the works ending on December 21 and the gas flowing the next day. Holger Kreetz, of Uniper, on a boat trip to the LNG terminals construction site. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian Uniper, which is managing construction, is slightly more cautious, saying wind in the colder months could delay completion until the second half of winter. Behind schedule building projects such as Berlin’s new airport and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall have in recent years shattered myths of German efficiency. LNG terminals are trying to ease the trend by emulating the model behind Tesla’s new Gigafactory in Brandenburg, with construction already under way and permit applications still pending. “What is usually done step by step, we are now doing in parallel,” said Holger Kreetz, Uniper’s chief operating officer for asset management, on a boat trip at the end of the Hooksiel wharf earlier this week. Environmental impact assessments, usually a necessary step, are simply omitted. Finance Minister Robert Hambeck, a Green Party politician and self-proclaimed “biggest seal fan in government”, dismissed concerns that construction work could disturb the endangered aquatic mammals that pond in Jade Bay. Ensuring that Germany was no longer blackmailed by Putin had to take priority, he said. Germany’s view from Russian gas pipelines to shipping LNG will not only test the political credibility of the Greens. “It’s hard to admit, but we probably wouldn’t have been able to build these terminals so quickly if it weren’t for the war,” said Olaf Lies, the center-left Social Democrats’ environment minister for the state of Lower Saxony. “To a certain extent, what is happening now in Wilhelmshaven also shows the political failures of the past. We got too comfortable and neglected other projects we should have tackled.” The hope is that Europe’s energy crisis could be an opportunity to take steps towards a greener future rather than a setback for its climate goals, said Lies, who insisted that Hooksiel Pier would host a “terminal molecule station’ and not an LNG specialist. The German Navy replenishment ship Berlin is pictured in an urban neighborhood in Wilhelmshaven. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian With Germany committed to being greenhouse gas neutral by 2045, pipelines on the North Sea coast will soon pump not LNG but green hydrogen, produced by using renewable electricity to drive a water-splitting electrolyte into hydrogen and oxygen, Lies said. an interview. Some of the green hydrogen will be produced in Wilhelmshaven, where Uniper is converting a decommissioned coal plant into electrolysis. The remainder will be imported through the new terminal infrastructure. Open Grid Europe, the company that connects the terminal to the national gas grid, said its pipelines were 100% hydrogen-compatible, barring any additional insulation before the switch. Tests are underway to see if a natural underground salt dome outside Wilhelmshaven, where Germany’s emergency crude reserves have been stored since the 1970s, could contain hydrogen. “The big energy exporters of tomorrow will not be the countries that are rich in natural gas, but those that have plenty of wind, sun and water,” Lies said, painting a picture of his city’s reinvention as a renewable energy hub. for imports from Australia, South America and Africa. The “Green Wilhelmshaven” leaflets have already been printed. Some skepticism remains among Wilhelmshaven residents. The coastal city north of Bremen is a place of superlatives: the biggest hub for Germany’s military, which coordinates its naval forces from here. the country’s only German deep-water port. and the largest crude oil import terminal, channeled to the industrial heartland in the Rhine Valley. It was here that a sailors’ revolt against the Kaiser’s orders in October 1918 set off a chain of events that swept the old German empire. But the triumphant highs in Wilhelmshaven’s history were usually quickly followed by humiliating lows. After becoming a pirate stronghold in the 14th century, its fortress was destroyed by the Hanseatic League. Flourishing as the center of the German Imperial Navy under the rule of Kaiser Wilhelm II, it was limited in size by the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. After Hitler used the square in front of Wilhelmshaven to denounce the naval agreement with Britain, in April 1939 came the Allied bombs, destroying two-thirds of the town’s residential buildings. The city’s unemployment rates have yet to recover from the closing of Olympia Typewriter in 1991 and the loss of nearly 3,000 jobs. Floating LNG terminals are unlikely to change this, as they come with their own trained personnel. An employee reported that the number of jobs created did not exceed 20. While the new terminal won’t spoil the view from Wilhelmshaven’s Südstrand tourist spot, or smell the coastal air, some residents have concerns about the project’s long-term viability. “It’s an opportunity, but also a risk,” said Fritz Santjer, an electrical engineer and member of Scientists for Future, an initiative launched three years ago to support the Fridays for Future climate movement. Fritz Santjer, who hopes LNG terminals will be a bridging technology to greener energy. Photo: Selim Sudheimer/The Guardian Santjer, who lives on a green plot next to the embankment in the neighboring village of Sande, added: “If the government follows through on its plans to expand offshore wind farms, then we are making real progress towards meeting the Paris agreement. and floating LNG terminals could be a good bridging technology on this path. “But what if we have a new government in four years, who decide the targets are unrealistic and are quite happy to keep pumping fracking gas? Are we sure Germany will switch to hydrogen then? Do we know if it will be green or blue?’ Pressure group Environmental Action Germany warns that the pipelines built at Wilhelmshaven will create more capacity for natural gas imports than is needed to bridge a nervous winter and also lead Germany to miss its carbon reduction targets. Last Friday, climate activists blocked off parts of the pipeline construction site in Hooksiel and poured sand into the tanks of the excavators. A spokesman said the damage caused would not delay the works schedule. While the enthusiasm of German politicians and energy companies for green hydrogen is palpable, economic reality may tie them to non-renewable gas for longer than they wish. China and Japan, the world’s biggest LNG importers, have made little use of their long-term options with suppliers this summer, allowing Europe to win their withdrawals. In winter, they may hold on to market share, forcing countries like Germany into long-term commitments. Berlin’s negotiations for an LNG deal with Qatar are reportedly proving more difficult than expected because the gas-rich Middle Eastern state insisted on a 20-year contract until 2042. In order for Wilhelmshaven to become the symbol of Germany’s carbon neutrality success in 2045, the country must sustain its new momentum.