Germany begins dismantling wind farm for coal
By Paul Homewood
h/t Dave Ward
German energy giant RWE has begun dismantling a wind farm to make way for a further expansion of an open-pit lignite coal mine in the western region of North Rhine Westphalia.
One wind turbine has already been dismantled, with a further seven scheduled for removal to excavate an additional 15m to 20m tonnes of so-called ‘brown’ coal, the most polluting energy source.
The demolitions are part of a deal brokered last year between Robert Habeck, the Green party’s minister for economy and climate action and Mona Neubaur, who is the economy minister for North Rhine Westphalia, to allow the expansion of the mine.
In return, RWE had to agree to phase out coal in 2030, eight years before the previous deadline. "It’s a good day for climate protection," Habeck said at the time.
But this week’s move has sparked sharp criticism from activists.
"The current climate emergency requires urgent and concerted efforts to accelerate the deployment of every single wind turbine, solar panel and heat pump that we can muster," said Fabian Hübner, a senior campaigner at Beyond Fossil Fuels, a German-based coalition of climate activists.
"Anything that diverts from this critical endeavour, especially the dismantling of renewable energy sources to extract more fossil fuels, must be unequivocally prohibited," he added.
But RWE and Germany’s government have persistently justified the expansion of the so-called Garzweiler coal fields by pointing to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing energy crisis.
According to RWE, the expansion is necessary "due to the energy crisis." The government in Berlin follows this logic. Indeed, some of the leading advocates of RWE’s coal expansion plans come from the Green Party, one of three ruling parties in Germany’s current ‘traffic light’ coalition with centre-left SPD and business-friendly FPD-party.
Habeck has defended the expansion as the "right decision." Green party politician Oliver Krischer has described the expansion and earlier phase-out as "one of the greatest advances we’ve made in recent years,"
But energy consultation firm Aurora has found that expanding the Garzweiler open-pit mine would cause the country to overshoot its climate pledges. Researchers also said lignite coal is likely to end in 2030 anyway because it is rapidly becoming uneconomical compared to other cheaper energy sources such as solar and wind.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Solar and wind are NOT cheaper!
Precisely! That was a bold faced lie (or an example of inexcusable ignorance).
By a factor of 4
At least double that if you factor in spinning backup and rotational inertia for frequency stabilisation.
Curious how that is never taken into account…
Thank you for your interesting, insightful comment. No where do we see data on the cost of “spinning reserve.” In days gone by, ISO (independent System Operators) required fossil fueled utilities to keep backup, ready to be put online as requested, significant quantities of power. These were alternators running and waiting to be connected to the power plant output, principally to maintain frequency regulation. This was expense, unused power the utility could not charge for as it was not yet in the grid. Lack of inertia in windmills and solar has necessitated the use of synchronous condensers, again very expensive, but these cost are allowed to be added to the rate for Green power. The minutia of the physics involved is tedious and boring to the low information crowd, so just keep that green energy comin’, no matter the cost–Sunlight and wind are free don’t you know. ABB has some way cool photos and videos of synchronous condensers on their website, and are drooling with anticipation of rolling these things out to the subsidy harvesters of he World. One look at the massive cooling array connected to each machine gives you an idea of how inefficient these machines are, but they are green so who cares?
Catweazle,
if you asked a thousand people what spinning reserve and rotational inertia is, would you get one single correct answer?
Generation and transmission is a little known subject, especially by the government and it’s advisors 🙂
We drove by this earlier this month – the existing mine is gargantuan and is even without this extension very close to the main autobahn to Holland. “Researchers” may well state that Lignite is more expensive, but the evidence is not in their favour viz. this expansion. There are a blizzard of wind farms in close proximity, especially to the west as it is flat; I wonder what happens when the jet stream heads north?
Possibly of interest tothe Germans
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/china-set-up-solar-wind-recycling-system-waste-volumes-surge-2023-08-17/
China to set up solar, wind recycling system as waste volumes surge
…….. The state planning agency said that China would have a “basically mature” full-process recycling system for wind turbines and solar panels by the end of the decade. …….. more
I wonder how it willwork out?
I wonder too; will they be transparent in confirming the process and where the proposed sites are to be – and will they allow independent verification of the whole deal?
China has sufficient land space to concoct a means of advancing their monopoly on some renewables components by offering a “return to base” recycling facility – given their hoarding of unsold EV vehicles has already been exposed, I remain deeply sceptical until the facts prove otherwise..
If the Germans have any sense, they will abandon this deal to shut down coal fired generation in eight years. They just might have bought enough time with this deal, to wake up from the bad dream of Windmills and Solar. Leave the current windmills in place, but do not abandon reliable base-load energy from fossil fuels.
The Germans are led by green lefties – only mass power cuts, cold related deaths, starvations and poverty will wake them up
Thank you for your comment. While I concur, this is a bad position for the citizens to be in. Let us hope the Elites dump the Green nonsense sooner rather than later for everyone’s sake.
The same could be said of most governments in Western Europe not to mention the EU Commission
>>The Germans are led by green lefties
Perhaps sanity is slowly returning. Coal and nuclear should never have been shut down in the first place.
Tell that to the Biden/Kerry “leaders” in the US. Or those at the UN.
I would add, you left out the WEF.
The alarmists/activists will never realize that nuclear is the only salvation from fossil fuels. But the economists will.
We don’t need any “salvation from fossil fuels”. What we DO need is for politcians to stop attacking them.
We need a gas transition to nuclear – but the green mobsters don’t like either – I hope when the power cuts come, it affects them first and deepest
We do NOT need a “transition”. We need both (and coal). but even more important is to get politicians and governments to stop picking winners and losers.
>>We need a gas transition to nuclear
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. I would add, I have a gifted nephew who was planning to attend MIT about ten years ago. I mentioned to him I was reading a book on Wind Turbine design and found it fascinating. He told me, essentially, windmills and solar are a flash in the Green Energy pan, and the future was in new designs of nuclear reactors. Being an old man, I related the problems associated with boiling water reactors, and asked him if he had seen the movie, The China Syndrome, but he was undeterred. “The future is nuclear” he told me.
This is again a major story which we have not seen on BBC news.
I hope once the power cuts start, the BBC is the first casualty – it will be poetic justice
Of course this will not be reported in the LSM, as it does not fit the Green Mafia’s narrative.
Don’t worry the IEA has the answer 🙂
“the single most important lever to bring about the reduction in CO2 emissions needed by 2030 is to triple global installed capacity of renewable power by the end of the decade. Expanding renewable capacity on this scale would avoid c. 7bn tonnes of CO2 emissions………..comparable to eliminating all the current emissions from China’s power sector”
They want governments to commit to this ahead of COP 28 !
“…lever…”
Where be the pivot?
Give me a long enough lever and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I will move the world.
Archimedes.
Great move – we should rebuild those in the UK destroyed by climate alarmist elites – even now, in the midst of summer, coal is having to generate some UK electricity because the wind & Sun aren’t playing
I’m willing to bet that the coal they mine here will produce a lot more consistent electricity than all the wind turbines they take down – or even the ones they leave behind.
7 months; nothing has changed.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64309628