The German government has agreed to restart several standby units at three coal-fired power plants by March 2024 to avoid energy shortages amid a cut in Russian natural gas imports.
Despite a similar energy crisis in the winter of 2022-2023, in the spring the country completed the phased decommissioning of the last nuclear power plants, reports Balkan Green Energy News.
It is noted that in winter In 2022-2023, coal-fired power plants were built about 1.9 GWh of electricity. In the summer of 2023, these capacities were put into standby mode.
The material added that in addition to closing the NPP, the country also dismantled the wind farm in order to expand the nearby lignite mine of the RWE company.
The German government has said it will make proposals by the summer of 2024 on how to offset carbon emissions from increased coal-fired generation. By 2030, the country must completely abandon the use of coal.
"The decision of European countries to put energy security as the main goal and resort to coal-fired electricity production was criticized as a defeat for the energy transition and the fight against the climate," the article says.
Balkan Green Energy News added that Great Britain and France are also counting on coal for energy security amid the crisis caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the country will not resume the use of its closed nuclear power plants and will not return to nuclear energy. Germany will meet its energy needs through renewable sources.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, the report of the Statistical Review of World Energy showed that the record growth of the capacity of renewable energy sources to 266 GW did not affect the dominance of fossil fuels in 2023.
