Also use Renewable energy, the climate most damaging greenhouse gas in the world. The EU Commission could ban it if they saw Alternatives.

sulphur Hexafluoride remains for 3,200 years in the atmosphere before it photo: Reuters

FREIBURG taz | What is sulphur Hexafluoride, disintegrates you have to explain only once. Here, the SF6, the chemical formula – the strongest known greenhouse gas, 23.500 times more harmful to the climate than CO2. The European environment Agency compares the effect of the annual emissions in the EU, with 1.3 million cars. Used SF6 is mainly as insulating material in electrical switchgear in which the wind turbines. A complete ban, as demanded by the environmentalists, was to date but did not prevail.

Now the Dutch company Tennet is testing in its substation Ovenstädt in East-Westphalia is the world's first transmission system operator on the maximum voltage level, a technique that avoids the greenhouse gas.

In Germany, the investments of the electricity sector are now the largest users of this synthetic substance. For earlier popular application areas, such as as a filling for soundproofing a window or a car, it should not be used tyres in the meantime.

In the high-voltage technology, it was difficult to find Alternatives. Now SF6-free solutions should be "in voltage levels up to 110 kilovolts available", as Tennet says. At higher voltages, the system was still in the testing phase of the pilot project Ovenstädt. Where SF6 is replaced as the insulation is so-called clean air. This is made of the natural components of the ambient air and is injected with extreme pressure into the apparatus.

The climate impact of the fluorinated gas is known for a long time. Already in 2005, the producer Solvay, as well as the manufacturers and operators of electrical installations had a duty to minimize emissions. In fact, the emissions in Germany declined since then, by half, to around 12 tonnes per year. However, since the degradation in the atmosphere is extremely slow – the Federal environment Agency quantified the lifetime of 3,200 years – increases the concentration in the air still.

Since last year, the Fraunhofer-Institute for energy Economics and energy system technology, to analyze the ecological and socio-economic effects of the use of SF6 in power networks and investigate Alternatives. At the same time Eon invested in the Berlin-based Startup Nuventura, the developed SF6-free switchgear.

Also in the existing plants, emissions could be reduced if leaks would be reduced according to Tennet. In the company's losses from 2016 to 2019 due to the Dismantling of old equipment, a better training of the service personnel and special tools from 0.09 per cent to 0.05 per cent lower.

next, the EU Commission asked. You must. in accordance with regulation of the European Parliament (no. 517/2014) 1 July 2020 to assess whether there are for medium-voltage systems "cost-effective, technically feasible, energy-efficient and reliable Alternative" to a ban.