Germany reopens two of Europe’s most polluting coal plants

Germany has decided to reopen large numbers of unused coal plants this winter to ensure the country is not left without power when demand reaches seasonal peaks. The Council of Ministers approved an order allowing the reactivation of many units that will be part of the supply reserve, which will remain on standby until the end of March 2024. These include the Leag and Germany’s Jaenschwalde lignite reactors. Nrw’s Niederaussem companies are ranked sixth and third among the most polluting companies in Europe by the British NGO Ember in 2021 due to their enormous Co2 emissions.

Last year’s energy crisis, caused by the war in Ukraine and the halt of Russian supplies via Nord Stream, has forced the country to become more reliant on burning coal to generate electricity. The phasing out of Germany’s last nuclear reactors will further limit electricity supplies this winter, leaving the country in a potentially difficult situation without further support. Restarting coal power plants will increase carbon dioxide emissions at a time when the country is trying to move closer to its climate targets and the Greens in government are keen to stick to their commitments. Berlin is building more infrastructure to receive liquefied natural gas and also plans to build new gas plants that can then be converted into hydrogen.

The decision for this winter concerns two coal blocks of the Niederaussem plant (blocks E and F) and block C of the Neurath plant. Leag is expected to restart blocks E and F of its Jaenschwalde lignite plant in the eastern part of the country. The facilities, which were put into operation last winter, were put on hold in July and can be fully re-commissioned by March 2024 at the latest. Separately, the decision to extend the operation of RWE’s two lignite units Neurath D and E until spring 2025 is still pending.

Last year, Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Robert Habeck once again described the return of climate-damaging coal-fired power plants as sad but inevitable news due to the consequences of the war in Ukraine. He has now emphasized that the target of “ideally” completing the phase-out of coal by 2030 will not be affected by this measure. The same goes for climate targets. For the Rhine mining region, the federal government and Rwe agreed to bring forward coal phase-out by eight years, to 2030. However, this has not yet been decided for the East German regions.

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Source: Today IT

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