The Zolling power plant is reacting to the planned phase-out of coal - and is converting.
This is how you want to secure the location and jobs.
Zolling
- The exit from coal is a done deal.
The Zolling power plant is adapting to this and is planning the construction of a modern thermal power plant.
The thoughts on the major project were presented to the Zolling municipal council on Tuesday evening.
The operator of the plant, the power generation company Onyx Power, expects costs between 75 and 100 million euros - an investment that is intended to secure the location and preserve the jobs on site.
(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)
The "Energiepark Zolling" has already gone through many changes in the past decades, stressed power plant manager Lothar Schreiber.
The owner used to be called GDF Suez, then it was renamed Engie, now Onyx Power.
The coal block, which can be seen from afar, stands on the site, and in recent years the biomass cogeneration plant, sewage sludge drying, and two gas turbine systems have been added.
Commissioning planned for 2024
Now the next change: With the coal phase-out decided by the federal government, the days of the coal-fired power plant will soon be numbered, but the supply of district heating will have to continue anyway. The solution: a modern thermal power plant, which is to be operated initially with methane and later, more CO2-friendly, with biogas and hydrogen. The new thermal power plant is to be built on the coal storage area to the southwest and will have an efficiency of 92 percent. Commissioning is planned for 2024, biomethane and hydrogen are to be used from 2026, according to the Zollinger municipal council. Although offers to build such a new power plant have already been obtained, Onyx Power has not yet made the final decision to build the power plant.Even if the input planning is not to take place until the beginning of 2022, the "neighbors" wanted to be informed about the plans beforehand, stressed power plant manager Schreiber.
As the representatives of the Zollinger power plant emphasized on Tuesday when asked by the local councils, gas, biogas and hydrogen are "under no circumstances" delivered by truck.
The new thermal power plant will be connected and supplied exclusively via the high-pressure gas pipeline network that runs past the power plant.
Carbon block for the purpose of emergency care
And then there was the question of what will actually happen to the existing coal block.
According to Schreiber, it will not be demolished, but will remain in place for the purpose of emergency care.
However, it will then no longer be operated commercially.
A date for the final shutdown of the coal-fired power plant could not yet be given, emphasized the power plant manager.
But he could name the year from which the "Energiepark Zolling" wants to work climate-neutrally: it should be so far in 2035, after CO2 emissions had already been "massively" reduced in recent years.
