BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck considers the energy supply in Germany to be more independent than before the crisis and secure even after the shutdown of several coal-fired power plants. "Several coal-fired power plants that were still on the grid as a precautionary measure over the last two years are therefore now superfluous and can be taken off the grid for good," the Green politician told the German Press Agency on Monday. The prices for electricity and gas have fallen significantly and the majority of electricity now comes from "clean, climate-friendly sources" thanks to the expansion of renewable energies, said Habeck.

At the turn of the month, several coal-fired power plants in Germany were shut down for good. A total of seven lignite-fired power plant units were shut down in the Rhenish mining area and in Brandenburg, as confirmed by the energy companies RWE and Leag on Easter Sunday. In addition, eight medium-sized and smaller hard coal plants with a total capacity of 1.3 gigawatts were permanently taken off the grid, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Monday, citing information from the Federal Network Agency. These plants had been temporarily producing electricity again in order to reduce gas consumption over the past two years.

The decommissioning of the power plants had been planned earlier. However, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, several coal-fired power plant units were left running longer than planned or taken out of reserve in order to use them for power generation and save natural gas./swe/DP/he