In the debate on how to build future power highways, the Minister Presidents of Baden-Württemberg and Saxony have spoken out in favor of above-ground high-voltage lines instead of underground cabling. "In order to save money when building future high-voltage lines, we should not build them underground, but above ground," said Winfried Kretschmann (Greens), head of the Baden-Württemberg government, to the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND). This would save 20 billion euros. "For underground cabling, a 40-meter-wide trench would have to be dug across the whole of Germany," said Kretschmann. "Erecting pylons would be a much smaller intervention." Federal Energy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) would be open to this if all federal states were in agreement.
The head of government of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer (CDU), told RND: "I expressly support the initiative against underground cabling. We could save a huge amount of money and time in the expansion." Energy companies had also called for the above-ground variant in order to be able to build the urgently needed lines more quickly, which would bring electricity from the north of Germany to the south in particular.
