Karl Haeusgen does not shy away from swimming once morest the tide if the occasion allows it. The Bavarian entrepreneur, who is also president of the German machine builders’ federation, calls ” myth “ the threat of deindustrialisation, which has been regularly agitated in the economic debate for a year. “Overall, the year was much better than feared,” he says. His company, HAWE, a family group specializing in hydraulic systems, overcame the energy crisis without too much damage.
“At the start of the conflict, when the risk of energy shortages became a serious threat, we analyzed our dependence on the price of gas and modified our production processes. We have built propane tanks, which can be filled by truck, in case the gas runs out. It took a few months raconte M. Haeusgen. Many companies have done the same. They have changed fuel or taken energy efficiency measures, which have reduced overall gas consumption. We have succeeded in a considerable collective social, political and economic effort to reduce our dependence on Russian gas. »
The war in Ukraine marks a break in the economic and energy history of Germany. In many respects, the moment is comparable to that of the Fukushima accident in 2011. After the explosion of the Japanese nuclear power plant, Germany immediately closed its seven oldest plants still in operation and acted on the early and final exit from nuclear energy, with painful consequences for its energy groups. This abrupt and unexpected decision, supported by a very large majority of the population, had led the country to accelerate the development of renewable energies, but also to increase its imports of fossil gas from Russia. Political consensus continued around the construction of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, even following Moscow invaded Crimea in 2014.
inconceivable decisions
Gas was seen as the ideal “transitional” energy to achieve the renewable development objectives set by the government. Inexpensive, delivered by pipeline, flexible in use, less CO emitter2 that coal, capable of compensating for the intermittency of wind or solar power, Russian gas won all the votes, despite warnings from Western partners regarding the danger of dependence. In 2021, fossil gas covered 27% of German energy consumption, 55% of the supply came from Russia. February 24, 2022 marked the end of the Russian gas era. Faced with the risk of shortages and the explosion of prices, Germany was forced to revise in catastrophe its entire energy model, with the certainty that in the future it would have to pay considerably more for its supply.
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