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Datteln-4: Controversial German coal-fired power plant to start this week

28 May 2020
Cogeneration
energynomics

Germany’s latest coal plant will enter service this week, angering environmentalists who say it threatens to derail the country’s attempts to slash carbon dioxide emissions.

Uniper’s Datteln-4 will start feeding electricity into the grid on a commercial basis on Saturday, a spokesman for the utility confirmed by email. The 1.5-billion euro ($1.3 billion) facility is already nine years late and over budget because of defects that delayed its connection to the grid, according to Bloomberg.

The plant is the latest flash point in a fractious debate over Germany’s exit from coal, a fuel that still provides about half the country’s electricity. German Chancellor Angela Merkel last year brokered a deal to wean Europe’s biggest economy off coal by 2038, an agreement that allowed Datteln-4 to open.

Environmental protesters have said they’ll target the plant and demand the government close it, underscoring the challenge facing fossil fuel operators.

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