Günther calls for temporary bridge electricity price

Saxony's energy minister Wolfram Günther has called for a temporary, subsidized bridge electricity price for energy-intensive industrial companies. In Saxony, indispensable basic materials for the semiconductor and solar industries are produced, there are numerous energy-intensive companies that are indispensable for the industrial state of Saxony, the Green politician announced in Dresden on Sunday. "We can't afford to have these companies postpone investments or go elsewhere just because the industrial electricity price is blocked for ideological reasons."

Responsible industrial policy, he said, is to say to all companies that need a lot of electricity and play a key role in the energy transition and climate neutrality: "We'll help you. We'll build you a bridge to 100 percent renewables." This would also drive the expansion of renewables, the lowest-cost energy. "We wouldn't have the tug-of-war over the industrial electricity price if the expansion of renewables hadn't been systematically slowed down for years in Saxony, too, if we didn't still have far too many expensive fossil-fuel power plants in the grid."