Germany's New Coal Power Plants

Germany built over 10 GW of new coal power plants between 2012 and 2020.

Datteln 4 1100 MW coal power plant, opened in 2020.

In my previous blog post I looked at the seven European countries which already have a carbon intensity of electricity generation below 100g CO₂/kWh.

Despite over a decade of the Energiewende, Germany is nowhere near that level. In fact its electricity emissions in 2023 (381g CO₂/kWh) are by far the highest among the four largest European economies, and even higher than America's (the U.S. is at 369g CO₂/kWh).

While Britain and other European countries spent the last decade decarbonising their electricity grids, what was Germany doing?

Germany built over 10 GW of new hard coal and lignite power plants in the decade to 2020.

Starting with the opening of Neurath F & G (2×1060 MW) and Boxberg R (675 MW) in 2012, and ending with Datteln 4 (1100 MW) in 2020, Germany commissioned over 10 GW of new coal and lignite power plants over a nine-year period.

Here's a selection of the new coal and lignite power plants Germany commissioned between 2012 and 2020:

The opening of Neurath F & G gained an element of enduring notoriety thanks to the comments of the then German Environment Minister, Peter Altmaier, who praised the new lignite power plant's "contribution to our climate protection efforts"¹:

If one builds a new state-of-the-art lignite power plant to replace several older and much less efficient plants, then I feel this should also be acknowledged as a contribution to our climate protection efforts.

— Peter Altmaier, 2012

Neurath F & G aren't due to close till 2038², after a 26-year operating life. Datteln 4 is also due to close in 2038. Rather than close it now, Uniper is selling it as a way for the company to exit coal³.

Despite the 10 GW of new coal build, the German grid has gradually started to reduce its coal share, mainly thanks to a ramp-up of gas and wind power. This has allowed the load factor of Germany's lignite plants, for example, to gradually reduce:

Even with these reductions in output, Germany still has the largest share of coal power in the EU, 39%⁴, and isn't planning to close its coal till 2038, long after the 2030 coal-free date in the Paris Climate Agreement⁴.

The net result of Germany's approach is that it managed to cut coal generation by just 82 TWh between 2010 and 2022, a rather modest amount in view of its 145 TWh growth in renewables. This was because the increased renewables output was mostly offset by a 104 TWh cut in nuclear.

Summing Up

In the decade when Britain was eliminating coal from its electricity mix, Germany replaced its older coal power plants with over 10 GW of new coal. It's now gradually reducing the load factor on its remaining coal plants, but Germany still accounts for 39% of the EU's coal power output, and it isn't planning to shut its last coal plants until 2038, a policy incompatible with the 2030 coal-free date in the Paris Climate Agreement

Related posts

• European Countries With the Lowest Electricity Emissions

References