Energy Transition: The wind has turned – Tagesspiegel

The April 2016 will be remembered as a special month in the history of the German energy industry. Or rather, the German coal industry. The largest consumers of lignite and hard coal in Germany, RWE and Vattenfall experience in these weeks a break. At RWE, Eon to the second largest German energy company, went from April 1, the new subsidiary for renewable energies, networks and distribution at the start. “RWE launches future business”, the Essen-based group proclaimed the decision by which management believes to come out of the crisis. And at the Berlin-based Vattenfall GmbH, a subsidiary of the eponymous Swedish state company, located in mid-April, the competent bodies dealing with the sale of the brown coal business in the Lausitz, where in and around the open-cast mines and power plants around 8,000 people earn their livelihood with the lignite.

in the GDR there were 38 open pits

For decades, the coal a lucrative business: Mining costs in opencast mining are low, and since the power plants were built in the immediate vicinity , also the transportation costs remains limited. And lignite were (and are) there is plenty in the Rhenish mining area, in the Lausitz and central Germany. In the GDR were 38 open-cast mines in operation, of which 17 in Lausitz; today there are still a handful.

The brown coal is the only fossil fuel, which is located in the German soil in appreciable extent. But he has one big disadvantage: the relatively wet lignite blows during combustion significantly more CO2 than coal or even gas in the air. This has the business of corporations not particularly hurt in recent years because the price of CO2 emission allowances had crashed. But now, with the growing share of electricity from wind and sun, the stock price is in the basement, so that the lignite power plants are inefficient. The Fukushima proclaimed by the government energy policy has to corporations that based on conventional energy business model destroyed .

Eon and RWE give new structures

market leader Eon has therefore divided into two companies: in the new company called Uniper the conventional power plants are summarized. At Eon renewables, the network business and distribution remain. The share of renewables in the Group stood at 14 percent. RWE is only about five percent, this coal comes to around 60 percent. Am “greenest” is number four in the German market, the Baden-Württemberg EnBW, majority owned by the government, whose power now comes to around a quarter from renewable sources. Vattenfall (Swedish for waterfall) in this country has operated the margins-AKW Krümmel and Brunsbüttel (the longest of the network are) and created with the acquisition of the lignite company Veag and Laubag 15 years ago a stable and lucrative German foothold. So company bosses in Stockholm at the time thought.

Vattenfall wants to get out quickly from the coal

But in Sweden, the wind has turned, coal is there as popular as in Germany nuclear power. The policy has therefore decided that the lignite to be sold so that the problems caused by Vattenfall CO2 emissions drop significantly. Two Czech companies are interested and the German power plant operators Steag. Germany chief Tuomo Hatakka has a clear mandate from Stockholm. As soon as possible to get out of the coal, the most in April

Whether or Hatakka Peter Terium at the RWE-top – the crash of Market electricity prices to only slightly more than 20 euros per megawatt hour they charged all. Good 30 euros will be needed to operate a lignite power plant profitable. The low price is explained by the enormous capacity for generating electricity that have been set up in Germany: Around 160 000 megawatts, distributed roughly equally between conventional and renewable energy sources. That’s about twice as much as is needed. And the capacity of renewable further expanded vigorously. The amounts press in the market and they push the current price down – to the detriment of the operators of conventional power stations. For the green power hand there are still largely fixed compensation rates. Last year, renewable electricity on the stock market was worth about five billion euros. But the producers of this stream not only got five billion euros, but 24 billion euros over the EEG surcharge, which is (almost) borne by all electricity consumers. As a result of the non-subsidized electricity is urged from subsidized electricity from the market increasingly. And hence a company like RWE.