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Germany’s Coal Plants May Be Converted to Giant Batteries

Germany’s Coal Plants May Be Converted to Giant Batteries

(Bloomberg) -- Germany’s dirtiest power plants may avoid the scrap heap in the nation’s coal exit by getting refashioned as giant batteries for storing wind and solar power.

The Energy Ministry proposal is being weighed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition to help ease the phaseout of coal-fired generation in two regions where the fossil fuel is a major prop to the economy and jobs. Her administration promised in February some 40 billion euros ($45 billion) in aid to smooth coal’s 18-year wind down that starts next year.

Germany’s Coal Plants May Be Converted to Giant Batteries

The Rhine lignite belt in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia and Lusatia in Brandenburg and Saxony host eight big power plants owned by RWE AG and LEAG GmbH. The plants and mining operations support thousands of jobs and Merkel is seeking a smooth transition to a clean-energy economy for both areas.

The storage units “could be converted from the mid-2020s to innovative, long-term power plants storing surplus wind and solar power,” the Economy and Energy Ministry said in its 32-page report on coal phaseout planning. No particular storage technology has been selected for the switch yet, according to the April 4 report.

Germany’s Coal Plants May Be Converted to Giant Batteries

Demand for energy storage is expected to jump to as much as 50 gigawatts by 2030 in step with the expansion of wind and solar generation, according to the Fraunhofer research group. Last year, just 314 megawatts of capacity was on line, mainly linked to balancing the intermittent flows of renewables to the grid. One gigawatt, or 1,000 megawatts, is enough to power 2 million European homes.

The demand is set to prod job growth. The four builders of a new national clean-power grid plan power-to-gas converters for mid- and long-term storage and utility-scale “battery boosters” for short-term balancing of the grid.

Germany’s Coal Plants May Be Converted to Giant Batteries

Clean-energy developers Baywa r.e. GmbH and Swedish utility Vattenfall AB are interested in transforming Lusatia into a massive green power generation zone, using the region’s grid infrastructure, redundant power plants and qualified workers.

“Strategically, we’re not fixed on any particular region in Germany but we’d certainly be interested in assessing the feasibility of supporting the switch to clean power” in Lusatia, said Vattenfall Chief Executive Officer Magnus Hall in an interview this month. The utility previously owned LEAG’s holdings in the region.

LEAG declined to comment on the power storage proposals. LEAG’s plants aren’t due for closure until late in the phase-out plan.

To contact the reporters on this story: Brian Parkin in Berlin at bparkin@bloomberg.net;William Wilkes in Frankfurt at wwilkes1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Andrew Reierson, Rob Verdonck

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