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Germany To Phase Out Coal Use By 2038, Says Report (abs-cbn.com)
Germany has laid out a $91 billion plan to phase out its use of coal by 2038, a government-appointed commission said Saturday. "Under the plan, half of the up to $91 billion will go to the regions shuttering plants in the west and east of the country, while the other half will be spent on preventing electricity prices from rising," ABS-CBN News reports. From the report: The commission agreed to the deadline after months of bitter wrangling as pressure mounts on Europe's top economy to step up its commitment to battling climate change. The panel, consisting of politicians, climate experts, unions and industry figures from coal regions, announced the deal after a final marathon session ended on Saturday morning. The commission's findings will now be passed on to the government, which is expected -- barring a surprise -- to follow the recommendations of the panel it set up. The plan will be discussed at a meeting between Chancellor Angela Merkel, Finance Minister Scholz and regional leaders on Thursday, national news agency DPA said.
Several plants using lignite or brown coal, which is more polluting than black coal, would be closed by 2022. Other plants will follow until 2030, when only 17 gigawatts of Germany's electricity will be supplied by coal, compared to today's 45 gigawatts. The last plant will close in 2038 at the latest, the commission said, but did not rule out moving this date forward to 2035 if conditions permit. The affected regions, where tens of thousands of jobs directly or indirectly linked to brown- and black-coal energy production, will receive 40 billion euros as compensation over the next two decades. Two billion euros will also be spent each year over the same period to stop customers from facing rising electricity prices.
Several plants using lignite or brown coal, which is more polluting than black coal, would be closed by 2022. Other plants will follow until 2030, when only 17 gigawatts of Germany's electricity will be supplied by coal, compared to today's 45 gigawatts. The last plant will close in 2038 at the latest, the commission said, but did not rule out moving this date forward to 2035 if conditions permit. The affected regions, where tens of thousands of jobs directly or indirectly linked to brown- and black-coal energy production, will receive 40 billion euros as compensation over the next two decades. Two billion euros will also be spent each year over the same period to stop customers from facing rising electricity prices.
Germany is increasing its consumption of imported natural gas, mostly from Russia. The Nord Stream II pipeline is under construction at the moment, to bypass/supplement the trans-Ukranian pipeline currently feeding Western Europe as well as increasing supply capacity generally by about 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year. It's pretty certain that capacity will find eager customers in various European countries that are nominally pro-renewable but don't want to freeze to death in the dark.
If the Germans had any sense they would have kept their nukes running and shutdown these coal plants long ago.
As an American living in Germany, I never understood that decision either. It was definitely not based on sense at all . . . it was more like fear, emotion and almost religious in nature. The Chernobyl experience also most certainly played a role. It was most certainly not based on logic or science.
I've always been curious if the crew of Markus Wolf - "The Man Without a Face" - had their fingers in this. The East German Stasi tried to stir up trouble and discontent in West Germany. Much like what the Russians are very successfully doing in the US right now.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Interesting: that article mentions the coal plant Datteln: in Datteln 3 blocks were already shutoff in 2014. Construction of the fourth block began in 2007 but was haltet by court in 2013. Since then block 4 in Datteln is the only coal-plant "under construction" in whole western Europe! Uniper (the owner of the plant) is fighting to complete it, and maybe will be able to complete that plant - but it will be the only one.
Meanwhile Uniper shut off other plants in Shamrock (2013), Knepper (2014), Veltheim (2015) and Irsching (2016). New plants are not in sight!