'No one left out in the cold' | RWE leaves on lignite plants but brings forward coal exit to 2030
German utility to keep 1.2GW in fossil generation capacity on line for two years longer but commits to moving its overall coal exit date forward by eight years
Utility RWE after an agreement with the German government will leave two lignite-fired power plants temporarily on the grid that were scheduled for shutdown, but at the same time has brought forward its coal exit date by eight years to 2030.
“Security of supply is the order of the day. At the same time, climate protection remains one of the key challenges of our time,” RWE chief executive Markus Krebber said.
“RWE supports both: in the current crisis, we are contributing to security of supply in Germany by temporarily increasing the use of our lignite-fired power plants and are thus also helping to displace gas from electricity generation.
“It was important to RWE that the German government also assured us that it would adapt the legal regulations so that no one is left out in the cold.”
Under the deal, RWE will leave its Neurath D and E lignite plants in North Rhine-Westphalia state on the grid, which were scheduled to be shuttered at the end of this year and have a combined capacity of 1.2GW. Their decommissioning is now deferred until the end of 2024.
Germany is currently facing an energy crisis since Russia has halted most gas flows to the country in response to sanctions, which has led to a dramatic rise in both gas and electricity prices and triggered fears of blackouts or lack of heating in the coming winter.
RWE at the same time is moving forward its planned coal and lignite exit to 2030, from 2038, which brings it in sync with the current government’s plan to also move forward the coal exit for the entire country to 2030 – if possible.
“At the same time, we are investing billions of euros to accelerate the energy transition and are ready to phase out lignite by 2030,” Krebber stressed.
RWE reiterated earlier pledges to spend €50bn ($49.75bn) in the expansion of its green core business by 2030, €15bn of which are earmarked for Germany.
The utility due to bringing forward the lignite-phase out by eight years will leave some 280 million tonnes of coal in the ground, corresponding to around 280 million tons of CO2 that will not be emitted.
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