Last German lignite plant to close by 2050

OREANDA-NEWS. January 21, 2016. Germany's environment minister, Barbara Hendricks, has called for a sense of proportion when debating the future of German lignite and hard coal-fired power generation.

"I do not want to get stuck in a debate on whether the last lignite-fired power plant will close down in 2045 or 2050 — although the last one would really need to close down in 2050," Hendricks told the annual Handelsblatt energy congress in Berlin today.

Germany needs to reach a "coal consensus" that must include the affected regions, she said, echoing the concern over massive job losses voiced by federal economy and energy minister Sigmar Gabriel at the same conference yesterday.

Hendricks rejected criticism of Germany's plans to end nuclear and coal-fired power generation at the same time, endangering security of supply. Germany generates a large surplus of power and is a strong exporter, she said. The last German nuclear power plant will close down in 2022 and coal-fired plants will be needed as a bridge technology towards a new renewables era. "But every bridge has an end," Hendricks said.

German energy think-tank Agora Energiewende has proposed a gradual phase-out of the country's 21GW of lignite-fired and 25.7GW of coal-fired power capacity by 2040, and its proposition is a "useful basis for debate", Hendricks said. Germany must phase-out coal if it is to achieve its ambitious emissions reduction targets, Agora said.

But it is too early to be concerned about missing the target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40pc in 2020 against 1990 levels, Hendricks said. Germany only late last year passed legislation to help reach the target and it is too early to gauge its success. The measures include the so-called climate reserve formed by lignite power plants and subsidies for energy efficiency measures.

If it appears that Germany is likely to miss the target, the country will need to tackle its transport sector in particular, the contribution of which to date has been rather neglected, Hendricks said. And the environment ministry may need to focus more strongly on the agricultural sector, Hendricks said.