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Mixed coal signals from Germany

  • 2 years ago (2022-11-03)
  • David Flin
Coal 296 Europe 1089

The German Government has approved a draft law to phase out coal-fired power plants in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia by 2030 instead of a previous date of 2038. At the same time, the cabinet approved extending the lifespan of two coal-fired plants in the same state to improve the country’s energy security as it copes with reduced Russian gas and oil supplies in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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In October, Chancellor Olaf Scholz requested that the economy, finance, and environment ministries write into law an agreement to phase out coal by 2030. The planned phase-out will take place despite the decision in July to reactivate coal-fired power plants and to extend the lifespan of those already operating.

Under the newly announced plan, the Neurath D and E lignite-fired plants, which were supposed to go offline by the end of 2022, can run until March 2024. A decision as to whether to extend their lifespan by an additional year beyond that will be made in September 2023. The two plants, run by RWE , have a combined capacity of 1.2 GW.

RWE said in October that it was bringing forward its own coal phase-out by eight years and that it would end lignite-based electricity generation in 2030.