“Superfluous and can finally be taken off the grid” – Habeck is shutting down 15 coal-fired power plants
Economics Minister Robert Habeck
Source: dpa/Britta Pedersen
A total of 15 coal-fired power plants were permanently shut down on Easter Monday. This was already planned earlier, but the war in Ukraine made continued operation necessary. Now, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, this is “neither necessary nor economical”.
NAfter the shutdown of several coal-fired power plants, Economics Minister Robert Habeck believes that Germany’s energy supply remains secure and is more independent than before the Ukraine war. “Several coal-fired power plants that were still on the grid as a precautionary measure over the last two years are now superfluous and can finally be taken off the grid,” the Green politician told the German Press Agency on Monday. The prices for electricity and gas have fallen significantly and, thanks to the expansion of renewable energies, the electricity “now comes mostly from clean, climate-friendly sources,” said Habeck.
Over Easter, the plug was pulled on several power plants that, according to the original plans, were no longer supposed to be in use: At the turn of the month, several lignite-fired power plants were finally shut down. A total of seven power plant blocks were shut down in the Rhenish Revier and in Brandenburg, as the energy companies RWE and Leag confirmed on Easter Sunday. In total, these blocks had an output of around 3.1 gigawatts.
In addition, eight medium-sized and smaller hard coal plants with a total output of 1.3 gigawatts have finally been taken off the grid, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Monday, citing information from the Federal Network Agency.
These also temporarily produced electricity again in order to reduce gas consumption over the past two years. These include the Mehrum hard coal power plant in the Peine district.
“Neither necessary nor economical”
The closure of the power plants had already been planned earlier. However, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Germany had to become independent of Russian gas: the federal government allowed several units of coal-fired power plants to run longer than planned or took them out of reserve in order to use them to generate electricity and save natural gas. At the end of winter 2023/24 it will finally be over.
Due to the significant expansion of renewable energies and the stabilization of the gas supply situation, the continued operation of the power plant blocks is “neither necessary nor economical,” said the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
According to the Federal Network Agency, there were a total of 245 gigawatts of electricity generation systems on the market in Germany in November. Of this, around 159 gigawatts came from renewable energy sources.
According to a statement, Green Party member of the Bundestag Kathrin Henneberger said: “In view of the worsening climate crisis, the closure of coal-fired power plants is an important measure to reduce greenhouse gases.”
The Federal Ministry of Economics is legally obliged to check how much additional greenhouse gas was emitted by the continued operation of coal-fired power plants. It must propose measures by the end of June to offset these additional emissions. The Ministry of Economic Affairs pointed out that despite additional coal-fired power generation, it had fallen to a record low since the 1960s and that CO₂ emissions in the energy sector still fell by 20 percent last year.