Germanys Next Topmodel: Coal (a status report)
Power generation from coal has long served German industry, and despite Germany’s reputation as an ecological role model, the cheap, carbon-intensive, fossil fuel has recently seen a revival. After many scientists, activists and politicians, including the Environment Minister, warned that Germany would miss its target of cutting CO2 by 40 percent by 2020 (over 1990), the government adopted a plan to cut the share of coal in the mix. The Climate Action Programme stipulates that the energy sector must save an extra 22 million tonnes of CO2 by 2020. While the government has not detailed where the savings will have to come from, it will be hard to achieve without affecting coal. Because of its highly political role – industry and unions alike are unhappy about the cuts – the government has not specifically outlined how much coal will need cutting. A decision on that is expected in the first half of 2015. But several recent events indicate the future direction: Besides the government standing firm on climate targets and enacting the Climate Action Plan, the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) recently published future grid plans, assuming up to seven gigawatts less lignite capacity by the year 2025. Those replaced previous assumptions that more lignite power would be added. Nevertheless, utilities like RWE, MIBRAG, Vattenfall and E.ON, as well as some trade unions, portray lignite as an essential “bridging” technology, which provides jobs in otherwise economically weak areas. They believe that recent modernisations and abundant lignite resources in Germany will enable the technology to prevail in the coming decades.
Status of hard coal
The post-war economic boom in Germany (Wirtschaftswunder) was fuelled by hard coal mined in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Saarland, which powered the industries of West Germany. But hard coal has since lost its competitive edge: Of the 83 billion tonnes of hard coal still in the ground, 36 million tonnes are considered minable, but their extremely deep and complicated geological location makes mining too costly to compete on the world market (the average cost for mining one tonne of hard coal in Germany is 180 euros; the average price for imported hard coal was 79 euros per tonne in 2013). The output of hard coal in Germany in 2013 shrank to just 5 per cent of what it was in 1956. With 14,500 jobs still connected to the coal mining sector, the government supported hard coal mining with 1.65 billion euros in 2014. However, subsidies are planned to end by 2018 in a “socially acceptable” way. There are three remaining hard coal mines in North Rhine-Westphalia. Only a fraction of hard coal used in German power stations is mined locally. Instead, coal is imported from Russia (29.3 percent), Columbia (21.2 percent), the United States (20.3 per cent), Australia, South Africa and Poland. In 2013, imports of hard coal increased by 15.2 percent compared to 2012.
Status of lignite
Germany has been the largest lignite producer in the world since the beginning of industrial lignite mining. It still is, followed by Australia, Russia and the United States. Lignite (also called brown or soft coal), mined in Eastern-German Lusatia (Lausitz) and Saxony-Anhalt, was indispensable for the industries of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany). Ninety villages were lost to mining expansion in Lusatia alone. After reunification in 1990, many mines and power stations were closed within a few years as they were not profitable anymore. Today, unlike hard coal, the remaining opencast lignite mining operations are still a profit-making business, with most of the coal being used in power stations that are close to the mines. There are four coal-mining districts where RWE, Vattenfall, E.ON and MIBRAG operate mines and/or power plants. 5.6 billion tonnes of soft coal are accessible via existing or planned opencast mining – total reserves of minable lignite amount to 34.8 billion tonnes. In 2013, 182.7 million tonnes were mined in the whole of Germany – compared to 169.8 million tonnes in 2009. Exports – mostly to other EU member states – grew by 21.6 per cent in 2012 compared to 2011 but only increased slightly in 2013. The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) reported 16,410 employees in the lignite mining business in Germany in 2013. The trade union IG BCE wants to sustain these jobs even if this means further exploration and destruction of villages. The government of the state of Brandenburg — home to Germany’s second largest lignite mining region — ruled in June 2014 that Vattenfall may continue mining in Welzow-Süd beyond 2026, even though 810 people will have to be relocated. But in October 2014, Vattenfall announced its intention to sell all its lignite operations in Germany, in a move to improve the company’s CO2 footprint. In North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) – traditionally another stronghold for coal mining in Germany – the state government decided in March 2014 to cut future lignite production by 1.3 billion tonnes, saving 1,400 people from relocation. But at the same time, the NRW government stressed that coal mining will continue until at least 2030. Read the entire reprint ... // empowered by wolframscharnhorst.blogspot.com).
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