Germans protest coal plants

BERLIN, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- In Germany, some 60 coal-fired power plants are in the planning stage or under construction, yet massive public opposition has delayed several projects.

Last month, some 6,000 people gathered in the states of Brandenburg and Hesse, at the sites of two planned power plants. Carrying signs and blowing whistles, the activists protested plans by Sweden's Vattenfall and Germany's Eon to build two coal-fired power plants.

Duesseldorf-based Eon, one of the world's largest energy companies, aims to replace three aging hard coal units with a new state-of-the-art 1,100 MW plant in Hesse by 2013. In Brandenburg, Vattenfall plans to add a coal plant to an already existing plant park in the area. In both states, opposition is massive, and all over the country, lawsuits and protests have delayed several power plant projects. Experts say rightly so.

"We can't afford building conventional coal-fired power plants -- they hurt the climate, are inefficient and do not fit in our times," Rainer Baake, head of the Deutsche Umwelthilfe, one of Germany's largest environmental organizations, said in a statement.

The German government thinks otherwise.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Economy Minister Michael Glos have argued in favor of new coal-fired power plants because of energy security. They want to prevent a potential electricity deficit once Germany phases out nuclear energy by 2021. Nuclear power is responsible for nearly one-third of the country's power production, and this capacity can't be replaced by renewable energy sources alone, Berlin argues. The German Energy Agency earlier this year warned of a deficit of up to 21,000 MW by 2020 once the nuclear power plants are shut down.

Energy company officials and government experts praise the efficiency of modern coal plants, and bank on the potential of carbon capture and sequestration, a technology that could pour the dirty carbon dioxide underground, instead of launching it into the atmosphere.

Despite the massive opposition to dirty coal, virtually all experts agree that coal should remain in the German mix -- at least in the short term.

Germany has significant resources of its own and thousands of jobs linked to coal, which is responsible for roughly half of Germany's power generation. Coal is cheap and, in contrast to oil and gas, its price is stable -- that's why energy companies have not thought twice about planning new coal-fired power plants.

As of October 2008, some 60 coal-fired plants with a total capacity of 14 GW were in the planning stage or under construction in Germany, according to a study compiled by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries. However, most of them have run into serious opposition, mainly because of climate protection concerns.

Coal is considered the dirtiest of all fossil fuels when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, and CCS still is far away from being researched properly -- not to mention cost-efficiency.

A new study also undermines the government's position on coal.

According to a study compiled by the German Aerospace Center (and, ironically, commissioned by the German government), Germany will have to limit the construction of coal plants if it wants to reach its ambitious climate protection targets.

Until 2020, the study says, Germany will need roughly 88.5 GW worth of new generation capacities, mainly because of the nuclear phase-out and because older coal and gas plants will have to be closed down.

Renewable energy sources are to account for 59 GW, with the remaining 29.5 coming from fossil-fuel sources. Coal-fired power plants must not exceed production capacities of 9.8 GW if Germany wants to indeed lower its carbon dioxide emissions by 36 percent below 1990 levels, the study found. Given that 14 GW are already in the planning, the opposition to some of them makes more sense.

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