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Germany to build gas-fired power plants to be operated with hydrogen - Scholz

Closed German cabinet meeting at the government's guest house in Schloss Meseberg, near Gransee

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany will build new gas-fired power plants to be operated with hydrogen as Europe's biggest economy looks to boost its climate-friendly energy sources, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday.

"We are not losing sight of the goal of decarbonization: in order to stabilise supply, we will build new gas-fired power plants which can be operated with hydrogen in the future," Scholz said in a speech to the VKU local utilities association.

In a prepared text of the speech, he said the capacity of the new plants would be 17-21 gigawatts.

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Miranda Murray)