FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Germany's energy woes hitting gas-fired crematoriums

Germany's energy woes hitting gas-fired crematoriums

Rising energy prices and gas supply bottlenecks are pushing Germany's funeral industry, where most crematoriums run on gas, to consider new ways to save fuel in the energy-intensive sector.

Of around one million people who die on average in Germany per year, three quarters are cremated, but undertakers in Europe's biggest economy are bracing for a possible crunch of gas supply, essential to keep the ovens running, with falling Russian gas flows.

"Next year we will pay six times as much for the gas. And we don't know yet whether the current contract will be kept at the same price," Karl-Heinz Koensgen, a manager of a crematorium in Dachsenhausen, western Germany, told Reuters.

To save gas, crematorium operators like Koensgen are switching off some ovens while keeping others running 24 hours, seven days a week so they won't cool down and need to be reheated again.

"In the event of a gas failure, we would be able to continue operating the plants that are hot ... That means we could then continue to work with reduced power," Koensgen further said.

Svend-Joerk Sobolewski, Germany's cremation consortium chairman said the measure could save up to 80% of gas but that not all of the crematories have such high demand to use the model, calling for cooperation across the sector.

 

Germany's environment ministry said it was working with state authorities on issuing uniform guidelines for possible exceptions, adding that the guidelines would be available in the coming weeks.

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