Swedish power provider Vattenfall has withdrawn its plans to set up a CCS demonstration project in Germany. Some German environmentalists are pleased about the decision.It was a bad day for Germany's coal lobby. Because Germany's CCS legislation remains up in the air, Vattenfall has abandoned its plans to build a CCS demonstration project in Jänschwalde, Brandenburg, thereby also abandoning the prospect of keeping coal power in Germany for the long term. "We have unfortunately been forced to accept the current lack of commitment by the German government to implement the European directive that would enable a CCS demonstration project in Germany," says Tuomo Hatakka, head of Vattenfall Germany.
The firm was planning to invest some 1.5 billion euros in the facility, which would have filtered carbon dioxide out of the waste gas from coal plants for storage underground in a process known as carbon capture and storage. Funded by the EU, the plant would have gone into operation in 2016 as the first CCS project the size of a power plant. Up to now, there are only smaller systems. In stepping away from the project, Vattenfall also forgoes funding from the EU.
The first German legislation on CCS failed to come about in 2009, and a second attempt also proved futile in September 2011. Hatakka says the decision to mothball CCS is a tremendous setback for innovation, climate protection, and German industry. "Politicians may be right in saying that CCS is not decisive for Germany's climate protection targets in 2020," says Thorsten Herdan, energy spokesperson for German engineering association VDMA, but he believes that CCS may be indispensable for the targets for 2050.
In contrast, German environmentalist organization Deutsche Umwelthilfe is pleased about the decision, as its policy spokesperson Gerd Rosenkranz told Renewables International. "The decision was not made because the firm changed its mind, but rather because legislation to promote CCS does not have enough support in Germany," he argues. While his organization did support the demonstration plant in Jänschwalde, he also believes that coal plants are not a good complement for renewable power because they are inflexible. He says Vattenfall will have to look for other ways of reducing its emissions from power production in Germany. Back home in Sweden, Vattenfall is a major producer of hydropower, and its name means "waterfall" in Swedish.
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