Germany to Bring Back Coal-Fired Power Plants

The country’s energy supply woes continue following the political war against fossil fuel energy and shutting down of nuclear power plants.

Electricity company RWE’s wind power stations stand in front of its brown coal-fired power plants northwest of Cologne, Germany, on March 18, 2022. Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters

Germany is bringing back some of its coal power plants online ahead of the winter season amid concerns about a potential shortage of natural gas supplies.

Germany has cracked down on its coal power plants as part of transitioning out from fossil fuel energy. However, as the Russia-Ukraine war dented gas supplies from Moscow and nuclear power supplies from France got affected, Berlin last year decided to keep 1.9GW of lignite coal power online. Lignite, referred to as brown coal, is the lowest grade of coal. On Oct. 4, the German government announced that lignite coal plants would remain on standby into the winter, until the end of March 2024. This is expected to help offset the scarcity of natural gas during the season.