Germany restarts coal plants ahead of winter
The German government has decided to restart several coal -fired units for the current winter in a bid to save natural gas and avoid energy supply shortages, the Ministry of Economy and Climate Action said on Wednesday .
Several coal-fired generation units operated by RWE and LEAG at the power plants in Niederaußem, Neurath and Jaenschwalde will be temporarily reactivated until March 2024 as a precautionary measure to safeguard the electricity supply next winter, the ministry said, referring to the government's decision to put the coal-fired units back into operation.
These coal-fired units were already operational during the winter of 2022/2023, when Germany was hit by a severe reduction in gas supplies as supplies from Russian gas pipelines ended. Reserve coal capacity was put on standby this summer until the government decided to reactivate it for next winter.
The German Economic Ministry said the coal reserve will be reactivated to save gas in electricity generation and thus avoid gas supply bottlenecks in the 2023/2024 heating season, adding that Germany's goal of phasing out the coal in 2030 remains unchanged, as do the nation's climate goals.
After March 31, 2024, the German Ministry of Economic Affairs will evaluate the extent of additional greenhouse gas emissions that the reactivated plants would have emitted.
Coal acted as an energy reserve in Germany last winter and, of course, will play an important role in keeping the lights on again this winter, especially after Germany completed the phase-out of nuclear power this spring. 'year.
Germany abandoned nuclear power after mothballing its last three nuclear power plants in April, ending more than six decades of commercial use of nuclear power.
The country continues to ask consumers to conserve gas and expects natural gas prices to remain high until at least 2027.
INES, the group of German gas storage operators, said in its August gas update that Germany will continue to be at risk of natural gas shortages until the 2026/2027 winter season unless it takes measures to add LNG terminals, additional gas storage capacity or pipelines.
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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-germania-riavvia-le-centrali-a-carbone-in-vista-dellinverno/ on Thu, 05 Oct 2023 07:00:46 +0000.