Opposition leader Friedrich Merz, who is tipped to be Germany's next chancellor, has vowed to build 50 gas-fired power plants if his conservatives win the Feb. 23 snap election, the t-online news outlet reported on Sunday. "We need to build 50 gas-fired power plants in Germany as quickly as possible, which will be connected to the grid immediately," Merz, who heads the CDU/CSU conservative bloc, told t-online in an interview. Gas-fired electricity production in Germany jumped by a record 79% in November from the month before as utilities scrambled to offset a second straight month of sharply below-normal output from wind farms.