Two significant key findings emerge from the representative survey conducted by NATURSTROM AG: First, 73 percent of respondents agree that the twelve oldest lignite-fired power plants should be shut down by 2020 for climate protection reasons. The fact that these closures are feasible in terms of energy management is shown not only by several studies but also by a paper published by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and the German Federal Network Agency in 2017.
Secondly, 62 percent of those surveyed subsequently assessed further lignite mining as not absolutely necessary and see it as unnecessary for energy supply in times of the energy turnaround and not serving the common good.
In order to sustainably advance the energy transition, the expansion of new renewable energy plants is urgently needed. All energy suppliers offering a Green Electricity-certified green electricity product are obliged to invest fixed subsidy amounts per kilowatt hour of green electricity consumed in energy transition projects. In this way, the company is working toward a 100 percent energy supply from renewable energies in Germany.
NATURSTROM AG assesses the above findings as explosive "because the assumed common good forms the legal basis for the resettlement and expropriation of thousands of people in the lignite areas."
