News

Coal plants in Germany see funding dry unless they employ CCS

wikimedia.com

Publish date: September 13, 2009

Written by: Martina Novak

BRUSSELS – A string of legal and economic challenges to unabated coal-fired power plants is spreading in Germany, as opposition grows to power stations that emit CO2 and thus contribute to global warming.

Recently, banks have withdrawn from lending to the construction of coal-power plants. A higher administrative court has also ruled in favour of a farmer who had challenged the construction plans for a power plant.

The result is a far-reaching stoppage of coal-power plant construction in Germany, which will mean and environmental boon as more plants will be required to work carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies into their construction plans.

Ingelheimer Aue, near Mainz
As banks are reluctant to loan the money to continue with the construction of a 823-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant, worth €1 billion, the project is facing serious risks of being halted.

Barclays PLC, the British financial institution, has already withdrawn from the project. Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden AG (KMW AG), the utility company on whose power plant site the new station is being built, expressed serious concerns about the continuation of the project unless further financing can be secured anytime soon.

The plant was scheduled to be completed in 2013. Its construction began in May 2009, despite more than 45,000 individual protests.

North Rhine-Westphalia
A farmer who challenged E.ON, Germany`s largest utility company`s plans to build a 1,050 MW coal-fired power plant in Datteln, northern Germany, was proven right by the Higher Administrative Court for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

According to the court, E.ON`s plan failed to meet two essential criteria:

•    There was no sufficient consideration of dangers stemming from the power plant for the local population
•    The construction location was not envisaged for the construction of such a power station

As the plan for the plant from the city of Datteln likewise did not meet the prerequisites from the Parliament of Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia for a sustainable use of energy, the court finally declared it as invalid.

“Coal-fired power plants with unrestrained CO2 emissions are climate bombs. They will typically operate for 40-50 years, but retrofitting CO2 capture and storage – CCS – will be far more expensive than equipping the plants with it from the outset,” says Eivind Hoff of Bellona Europa.

“Yet none of the halted coal-fired power plants had serious plans for CCS. I think the recent developments are very encouraging to make utilities understand that no more coal-fired power plants will be accepted in the EU unless they are built with CCS and respect the most stringent limits for local pollution,” he says.