Mines become power plants / The problem with network expansion
North Rhine-Westphalia government
The government in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) promotes the development of a coal mine into a pumped storage power plant after the mine's closure in 2018, it said in a press release. NRW environment minister Johannes Remmel said during a visit to the RAG mine Prosper Haniel in Bottrop that NRW and the federal government will spend 850,000 euros to jumpstart the project. 鈥淣orth Rhine-Westphalia is an energy state and we want it to stay that way in the future,鈥� he said. 鈥淟arge storage areas must be a considerable part of the future renewable energy system.鈥� He noted that: 鈥淭he vision of an underground pumped storage facility can be an important building block for the transformation of our energy system.鈥� The decision comes on the heels of a study by the Universit盲tsallianz Ruhr (UA) showing that the mine is suited to the technology. Further studies are needed ahead of a final decision on the conversion.
Find NRW's press release in German and read more about the study .
Read an article in German the Sueddeutsche Zeitung about the plans .
Read a 威力彩玩法 dossier about new technologies for the Energiewende here
Handelsblatt
Power lines to carry wind power from Germany鈥檚 north to its industrial south have been delayed over and over, creating problems for the Energiewende, writes Klaus Stratmann in the Handelsblatt. The current power network is reaching its limits in dealing with the volume of electricity produced by wind parks in the north, he says. Grid operators must continuously interfere with operations, shutting down power facilities in order to keep the network stable, Stratmann writes. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like juggling five balls at the same time,鈥� he quotes one operator as saying, noting that the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) President Jochen Homann recently predicted annual costs of around 4 million euros related to this issue, paid for by consumers.
Read the article (behind paywall) in German .
Read a 威力彩玩法 dossier on the Energiewende and the German power grid here.
Read a 威力彩玩法 factsheet on re-dispatch costs for grid stabilisation here.
Read a 威力彩玩法 factsheet on the grid here.
Handelsblatt
In an interview with the Handelsblatt, the head of power network operator Tennet, Lex Hartmann, says that the company will invest 22 billion euros in the next 10 years, with the lion鈥檚 share in network expansion in Germany. Regulatory hurdles for approving new power lines are holding up many projects, Hartman told the Handelsblatt鈥檚 Klaus Stratmann. In addition, putting lines under ground, as agreed in some regions, will create additional costs 鈥� amounting to around 10 million euros more per kilometre. He said that due to the delays in expanding the network, it is good that the expansion of renewables is slowed somewhat until a sufficient network can handle the power.听
Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUB)
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) with the support of the German environment ministry (BMUB) is holding a workshop on integrating higher shares of renewable energy in the island nation of Cuba in the country鈥檚 capital Havana. According to a BMUB press release, 鈥渒eeping global warming to well below 2掳C, even to below 1.5掳C, means decarbonising the world economy. Helping developing countries expand renewable energies is therefore of high priority鈥�. Cuba aims at generating 24 percent of its power from renewable energy by 2030. "Cuba has excellent technical potential for renewable energy to meet its ambitious government targets, particularly for solar, wind and biofuel," said Dolf Gielen, Director of IRENA鈥檚 Innovation and Technology Centre.
Read the press release in English .
Frankfurter Rundschau
Germany is struggling with 鈥榗ognitive dissonance鈥� in agreeing on the details of its climate protection plan, writes Hermann Falk of the German Association for Renewable Energy (BEE) in a guest commentary in the Frankfurter Rundschau. Various competing elements of government and business in Germany are weakening climate protection efforts, meant to help the country decarbonise and meet goals set out in the Paris climate talks last year. Falk argues that Germany is currently in a great economic position to take measures. 鈥淲hen, if not now, should the transformation to a climate friendly economy begin?鈥�
Read a 威力彩玩法 factsheet on the government鈥檚 Climate Action Plan 2050 and the 威力彩玩法 article CO2 targets and coal deadline omitted from Climate Action Plan draft.
Handelsblatt Online
Lithium-ion batteries, currently used in electric cars, are reaching the limits of their technical capabilities and companies around the world are looking for alternatives, write Lukas Bay, Martin K枚lling and Franz Hubik in a report in Handelsblatt Online. What electromobility needs is a 鈥渟uper-battery鈥�. To cut costs, developers need to make batteries that can hold much more energy with marginally higher material costs, they write. But developing these new batteries is difficult, and the efforts to do so are global 鈥� including among German industry. The authors quote Roland Berger expert Wolfgang Bernhart as saying German investments over the next 15 years would have to amount to a figure in the鈥渄ouble-digit billions鈥�.
Read the article (behind paywall) in German .
Read a 威力彩玩法 dossier on the energy transition and transport here.
Read a 威力彩玩法 factsheet on the subject here.
die tageszeitung (taz)
For the first time, union leaders from Germany's mining unions met with representatives from the annual 鈥渃limate camp鈥� and local environmentalists in the Rhenish lignite coal mining region, reports Leonie Sontheimer in taz. While all agreed that protests against climate-damaging brown coal should be peaceful, they remain in different camps on the coal exit. Unionists want more time for workers to adjust to the structural change, in order to cushion the social and economic effects on the region, they write.
Read a 威力彩玩法 factsheet on coal in Germany here.听
