Politicians from the city and the district as well as a few citizens from Schongau West received first-hand information on the expansion plans for the combined heat and power plant in Altenstadt on Thursday.
Even the fiercest opponent of the plan to burn substitute fuels (ESB) was allowed to have a say.
Schongau
- While the demonstrators were still drumming and whistling outside in front of the Ballenhaus, their mouthpiece, Hans Schütz, was allowed to take a seat in the visitor seats in the hall.
The Green District Council was surprisingly among the invited guests of the closed information event.
District Administrator Andrea Jochner-Weiß as well as the mayor and parliamentary group leader of the surrounding communities accepted the invitation.
They were not only informed about the plans, but were also allowed to ask questions to power plant boss Siegfried Schuster and his experts.
The government of Upper Bavaria could soon give the green light
As expected, Hans Schütz did not stop at questions.
He attacked Schuster again and again: he accused the power plant operator of "half-truths", throwing smoke candles and "covering up tactics".
As is well known, Schuster no longer only wants to burn wood in his plant in future, but also so-called substitute fuels (RDF) in order to primarily generate electricity.
The non-public approval process is running, the government of Upper Bavaria could soon give the green light.
Visitors agree: Legally nothing wrong, but there is a lack of transparency
There was broad consensus in the Ballenhaussaal that there was nothing wrong with the procedure from a legal point of view.
"But people are not interested in whether you are legally correct, they want transparency," said Herbert Salzmann, the SPD councilor in Peitingen, to Siegfried Schuster.
“You missed that,” he accused the HKW boss.
"The citizens no longer believe you."
+
He spoke to the head of the company: Peiting's SPD councilor Herber Salzmann lacked transparency.
© Hans-Helmut Herold
Thomas Elste (Green Peiting) wanted to know from Schuster whether he could envision scientific support for the project;
similar to what happened at UPM.
It is well known that the Schongau paper mill also burns substitute fuels that are sorted out from the garbage in Erbenschwang.
The application for approval is published on the Internet
“It is state of the art,” said Schuster.
The approval process had been worked on for two years.
It had been checked by the legislature, "and it was not done in a secret room," emphasized Schuster.
In the coming weeks, the approval application will now also be published on the Internet, according to the information event.
Fewer trucks than before
Kornelia Funke (CSU Schongau) wanted to know how many trucks with ESB can be expected in the future.
“107 less than with wood”, explained the physicist Bernd Zellermann with a view to the higher calorific value of the materials.
The physicist had already assured the Altenstadt municipal council in July that all limit values would be observed when the RDF was incinerated.
The councils approved the project with a narrow majority.
Schütz: Garbage that is processed into fuel
Hans Schütz persevered.
"It's rubbish that is turned into fuel," he grumbled once more.
And of the substitute fuels there are high quality and inferior ones, he said.
+
Heat and power station boss Siegfried Schuster resisted the attacks by Hans Schütz in particular.
© Hans-Helmut Herold
Schuster didn't let that sit on him.
He assured that no hazardous waste would be accepted in Altenstadt.
"The facility is mine and I will not do anything to ruin it," he said.
It is not a waste incineration plant, "then it would be junk in six months".
Due to hygiene regulations: The event will end after one and a half hours
Without Corona it would have been a long evening.
Because of the hygiene regulations, the discussion had to be broken off after an hour and a half and the visitors had to leave the hall.
While Kornelia Funke wanted to sleep for a night after hearing what they heard, Schongau City Hall chief Falk Sluyterman felt well informed.
But it would have been better to introduce it to the whole population, he said.
That would have led to more satisfaction.
The mayor left it open whether the city of Schongau will file a lawsuit against the expected approval of the business expansion: "That will be decided by the city council."
Citizens feel duped
"Mr. Schuster is duping us, we don't want waste incineration", it was echoed before the information event on Marienplatz in Schongau.
Around 60 demonstrators vented their displeasure that substitute fuels (ESB) should also be burned in the former biomass cogeneration plant in Altenstadt in the future.
+
Before the invited guests were allowed to take a seat at the information event in the Ballenhaus, opponents of the expansion of the thermal power station on Marienplatz demonstrated against the plans.
© Hans Helmut Herold
The specially founded action group complained that substitute fuels are mainly plastics that are made from crude oil.
“The electricity generated in this way also comes from fossil fuels and contradicts our climate goals.” The system's lack of cogeneration was also criticized.
"70 percent of the energy used is lost as waste heat."
Renate Müller from the Pfaffenwinkel environmental initiative asked the power plant boss to withdraw the application for expansion: "Get back to biomass!"
Also read:
Demo against plans of the thermal power station:
"We don't need this system"
At the thermal power station:
building permit for the Garnelenhof extended
Read more news
from the region here.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KMEYMJKESBAZBE4MRBAM4TGHIQ.jpg)
