In Keyenberg on the edge of the Garzweiler II opencast mine, Barbara Ziemann-Oberherr is out and about with her two dogs. She rarely meets other walkers. Almost 200 people still live in the village, it used to be around 900. But for people from the Lower Rhine region, Keyenberg is still a “village of the future”, as are Kuckum, Unter- and Oberwestrich and Berverath. the to erkelenz belonging places should actually give way to the lignite excavators. But then became in Berlin and Dusseldorf an early phase-out of coal had already been negotiated for 2030, and the villages seemed saved. “Now the war is in the Ukraine everything was called into question again,” says Barbara Ziemann-Oberherr. “The cards are remixed.”
Even with the charcoal generator RWE it had apparently been assumed that the five villages would be preserved. Because the federal government’s coalition agreement states that these villages should not be demolished for coal mining if possible, and that the courts would have to decide on Lützerath. There the farmer Eckhardt Heukamp is still fighting for the existence of his farm. The case is currently before the Higher Administrative Court Muensterwhere a decision is expected in March.
Source: Infographic WORLD
RWE had previously expected a massive expansion of renewable energies and new gas-fired power plants in the Rhenish mining area. So far, they have been propagated as a bridging technology until sufficient electricity from wind and solar systems as well as “green” hydrogen would be available. However, due to the stop of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and other imponderables in gas deliveries from Russia, these calculations are no longer correct. Who still wants to build gas-fired power plants when gas is becoming scarce and expensive? At federal and state level, a possible extension of lignite mining and firing was therefore no longer ruled out. “All options must be on the table,” said NRW Economics Minister Andreas Pinkwart (FDP).
RWE is waiting for now
Regarding the chances of the five villages that founded the association “Zukunftsdörfer”, RWE says that all projects are currently being examined. “We can understand that the federal government is examining all supply options in this serious situation,” explains a spokesman. One possibility could be to reuse coal-fired power plants that are on reserve or on security standby. “It can also be checked whether systems that have already been shut down can be brought back to the grid.”
At one of its largest locations in Neurath, the energy company is still planning to shut down Block A on April 1st. The lignite block B was shut down at the end of 2021, block C is on standby until autumn 2023. The operation of blocks D and E, which went online in the 1970s, was actually supposed to be phased out at the end of the year. According to previous plans, only the most modern system with an output of around 2.2 megawatts should run longer, possibly until 2038. Most recently, RWE had already identified parts of the site as a possible construction area for projects that are being developed in a real estate company with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for the to be developed after coal-fired power generation.
Against the background of the Ukraine war, the Essen-based energy company Steag announced a few days ago that it was planning to convert the coal-fired power plant unit herne 4 to be deferred to natural gas by spring 2023. Until then, the system will remain connected to the grid “and thus make a contribution to ensuring price stability and security of supply, especially beyond the winter of 2022/23,” says Steag. One also has the waiver of an early shutdown of the power plants in mountains and Volkklingen in Saarland to the transmission system operator Amprion and the Federal Network Agency. Because of the uncertain situation, the Evonik Group is also considering moving its coal-fired power plant to the chemical park marl to continue operating longer than planned.
In erkelenz Mayor Stephan Muckel is hoping for an early decision on the future of the villages. “Every square meter that is preserved is desirable,” emphasizes the 41-year-old CDU politician. Before the Ukraine crisis, Berlin and Dusseldorf signals that there should be clarity by the turn of the year 2022/23. In addition to the local people, the city must also be able to plan for the future. An early decision should also lead to lasting peace in the region, where there are repeated protests by opponents of lignite. “Of course, none of this is made any easier by the terrible war in Ukraine.”
So far, more than 80 percent of the owners in the villages have decided to sell their houses and land to RWE. “I also know some who want to go back,” says Barbara Ziemann-Oberherr. According to Mayor Muckel, only one resettler has reported so far who wants to return to his old house.
Many people have already moved to new housing estates in the region. In Keyenberg, however, Barbara Ziemann-Oberherr and 60 other residents have invested massively in renewable energies despite the approaching RWE excavators. They had photovoltaic systems with an output of 75,000 kilowatt hours installed on the roofs of five houses. In mathematical terms, that covers the current electricity requirements of the shrunken village, says Ziemann-Oberherr. “I have Keyenberg to save – but we all have one planet.”
space for refugees
Since hundreds of houses are already empty, refugees from the Ukraine can also be accommodated, according to Keyenberg, and the villagers were also involved in taking in the victims of the flood last year. Mayor Muckel has already spoken to RWE about accommodation in houses, some of which have not been empty for long. “So far we have around 20 refugees from Ukraine in Erkelenz who initially found private accommodation.”
Meanwhile hopeful news is coming from Düsseldorf for the people in the villages near the Garzweiler II opencast mine. Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) declared a few days ago that, despite all the unanswered questions about the energy supply caused by the Ukraine war, he basically wanted to stick to an earlier phase-out of coal.
However, the hope of being able to temporarily replace coal with Russian gas has now been dashed, he said after a visit from the finance minister Christian Lindner (FDP) in the state cabinet. “This bridge will not support.” However, the prerequisites for a premature end to coal-fired power generation are security of supply and affordable energy prices, emphasized Wüst.
RWE recently announced that mining area his opencast mine Garzweiler II by around ten square kilometers shrink. In return, you will get around 400 million tons Leave lignite in the ground and do without the associated added value.