Germany sets 2038 coal power deadline

Berlin, January 20 - Neftegaz.RU. Germany has set the deadline of 2038 to close all its coal power stations. The deadline for abandoning brown coal or lignite, the dirtiest form of coal, could be brought forward to 2035, depending on the policy’s progress.

Coal currently powers approximately a 3rd of German electricity and more than half of that relies on lignite. Germany is the world’s largest lignite producer.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said a €4.35-billion package would compensate business owners for the loss of earnings. The compensation for closing coal-fired power plants in western Germany is set at €2.6 billion and €1.75 billion for those in the former East Germany.

It follows a previously agreed payout of €40 billion for 4 coal-mining states to help soften the impact of the transition from the filthy fossil fuel. Berlin has targeted that renewables should account for at least 65 % of the electricity production by 2030, compared with the current about 47 %.

According to the Fraunhofer research institute, wind power accounted for more than a quarter of electricity production in the 1st half of 2019, ahead of lignite with 20 % and nuclear power at 13 %. Solar contributed just 10 %, although this figure has subsequently risen after several intense heatwaves.