Power plants go offline again: the surprising result of Habeck's coal emergency plan
Thursday, March 28, 2024, 11:32
Later this week, the seven lignite blocks that were allowed to operate for longer due to the gas crisis will be removed from the grid. In reality, they were rarely necessary; Therefore, despite the additional capacity, less lignite was used to generate electricity than in previous years.
It was a controversial decision among climate protectors: to reduce the use of gas to generate electricity, in view of the lack of gas supplies from Russia, seven lignite-fired power plants were allowed to operate longer than planned. At the end of this extension, it is clear that the operation of the power plants has hardly caused any additional greenhouse gas emissions.
For this measure, the operator Leag in Lusatia had removed blocks E and F of the Jänschwalde power station from safety status; In the Rhineland, RWE reactivated blocks E and F of the Niederaußem power station and block C of the Neurath power station. In addition, the decommissioning of blocks D and E scheduled for the end of 2022 in Neurath has been postponed.
The extended deadline ends at the end of this week. It was legally limited until March 31, 2024. In view of the relaxed supply situation, the Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWK) has refrained from proposing an extension. The installed capacity of German lignite-fired power plants will therefore be reduced by 3.1 gigawatts to 14.6 gigawatts. Security of supply remains “guaranteed at a high level”, a BMWK spokesperson said upon request. “Due to the significant increase in renewable energy and the stabilization of gas supply, the continuous operation of power plant blocks is neither necessary nor economical.”
Underutilized performance
The Energy Industry Act obliges the federal government to determine the CO₂ emissions caused by the operation of the additional lignite blocks and to submit proposals by the end of June on how to offset them. There are currently no figures on the climate impact of the revival, BMWK explained upon request.
However, data on electricity generation in Germany, presented among others on the website energy-charts.info, already suggest that the impact of the additional power plant blocks on the climate balance was small. The maximum installed lignite capacity was almost never fully utilized in the last two winters; The additional blocks often replaced other lignite power plants and not gas or coal power plants, which emit less CO₂ per kilowatt hour of electricity produced.
FOCUS online Earth is dedicated to the climate crisis and how to overcome it.
Focused on facts. Well founded. Constructive.
Every week as a newsletter.
*Fields marked with an * are required
Data on the use of power plants also suggests that they were rarely needed: in the two Niederaußem blocks, this represented only a good 20 percent in 2023. In Neurath it was a good 30 percent, in Jänschwalde around 35 percent. At the same time, the utilization of the remaining blocks in these locations decreased significantly compared to most previous years, so that overall, despite the additional production, less electricity was produced from lignite in the affected locations than in previous years.
Controversial emergency plans
With the closure of the seven power plant blocks, Germany returns to the agreed timetable for phasing out coal. In 2020, a phase-out until 2038 was enshrined in law; An agreement was concluded for the Rhineland in 2022 that brings it forward to 2030; This has not yet been possible for Lusatia. However, experts expect that coal-fired power generation will also become unprofitable in the early 2030s due to the rising price of CO₂. To ensure security of supply, gas-fired power plants with hydrogen capacity are planned for some of the current coal-fired power plants; RWE aims for a capacity of at least three gigawatts in its facilities.
Get free access for 30 days to more exclusive insights from Table.Media Professional Briefings – the crucial information for decision makers in business, science, politics, management and NGOs.
The basis for the reactivation of coal power plants was the declaration of the alert level in the gas emergency plan in the summer of 2022 due to the cessation of gas supplies from Russia. Although the Federal Ministry of Economy justifies the closure of coal-fired power plants with the “stabilization of gas supply”, the alert level should be maintained. This is probably because this is the prerequisite for accelerating the construction of LNG terminals on the German coast. And so far the federal government has stuck to these plans, despite protests from environmentalists and several studies that doubt their necessity.
+++ Don't miss more climate news: subscribe to our WhatsApp channel +++