Energy group RWE wants to phase out coal by 2030

Created: 10/04/2022 11:19 am

The town sign of the village of Lützerath, which belongs to the town of Erkelenz.

The village is to make way for the Garzweiler lignite mine.

© Henning Kaiser/dpa

The traffic light coalition wants to bring forward the planned phase-out of coal production from originally 2038.

An agreement has now been reached with the energy giant RWE.

But Lützerath has to give way.

Berlin/Düsseldorf - The energy company RWE wants to bring the phase-out of coal forward by eight years to 2030.

This provides for an agreement on key points between RWE, the Federal Ministry of Economics and the NRW Ministry of Economics.

At the same time, two power plant blocks, which according to the current legal situation should be shut down at the end of the year, will continue to run until spring 2024.

This is intended to strengthen security of supply and save natural gas in the electricity market, as the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Tuesday.

Despite the associated increased demand for lignite in the next 15 months, further resettlements for lignite mining can be ruled out, it said.

For various reasons, it was not possible to keep the Lützerath settlement and therefore not part of the agreements.

Environmentalists and residents in the region had hoped that Lützerath would be allowed to stay.

Now the houses are to be demolished.

Green Lang: “great success”

The Green Co-Chairman Ricarda Lang described the agreement reached on an earlier phase-out of coal as a “great success” for climate protection.

Lang told the German Press Agency on Tuesday: “The exit from coal in the Rhenish lignite mining area is a done deal, it will be brought forward by a full eight years.

The region is becoming a role model and showing that the coal phase-out in 2030 is not only necessary, it is possible.

Today's agreement must point the way for a nationwide phase-out of coal by 2030." This is currently planned for 2038 at the latest.

"By stopping burning coal earlier, 280 million tons of climate-damaging lignite stays in the ground and 280 million tons of CO2 out of the air," says Lang.

"The planned conversion to hydrogen-capable power plants gives the employees a perspective for the future."

Lang went on to say that the fact that two RWE power plant blocks will not go offline in 2022, but a few years later, is a difficult step.

However, this will ensure security of supply in the acute energy crisis.

The traffic light coalition at federal level aims to “ideally” bring forward the phase-out of coal in Germany, which was previously planned by 2038 at the latest, to 2030, as stated in the coalition agreement.

dpa