This coal-fired power plant was built regardless of massive protests, environmental concerns and ever-increasing climate change.
After massive delays it was opened in 2015 and was the biggest most efficient power-plant in Germany.
Despite that it never reached full capacity and was eventually shut down in July 2021.
What lead to this catastrophic failure, what role plays the CDU in it and what does its future look like?
Sources:
[0] https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/info/dossiers/kohlekraft/Kraftwerk-Moorburg-Eine-Chronologie,moorburgchronologie100.html
[1] https://www.neidhardt-grundbau.de/referenzen/kraftwerk-moorburg-hamburg/
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjcEGw7-EPo
[3] https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/article117287656/Stinkende-Wolke-ueber-Moorburg-es-war-das-Kraftwerk.html
[4] https://www.welt.de/print/wams/hamburg/article135098349/Das-Paradox-von-Moorburg.html
[5] https://www.power-technology.com/projects/moorburg-coal-fired-power-plant-hamburg/
[6] https://www.leifiphysik.de/uebergreifend/fossile-energieversorgung/grundwissen/kohlekraftwerk
[7] https://energy-charts.info/charts/percentage_full_load/chart.htm?l=de&c=DE&source=fossil_brown_coal_lignite_unit&interval=year&year=2020
[8] https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/schwerpunkte/klimaschutz/kohleausstiegsgesetz-1716678
[9] https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/topics/climate-energy/renewable-energies/renewable-energies-in-figures
[10] https://www.hamburg.de/energiewende/hamburgs-energienetze/10958532/fernwaermekonzept/
[11] https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/schleswig-holstein/Wie-Windkraft-zu-Waerme-wird-Habeck-besucht-Anlage-in-Wedel,wedel518.html & https://www.welt.de/regionales/hamburg/article218624682/Treibhausgase-So-will-Hamburg-das-Kraftwerk-Wedel-entschaerfen.html
[12] https://unternehmen.hamburger-energiewerke.de/projekte/energiepark-hafen & https://www.hamburg.de/contentblob/12957152/7374b07373873dce6dd7af51f012383c/data/d-waermewende.pdf
[13] https://www.hafen-hamburg.de/en/press/news/moorburg-power-plant-sold-to-hamburger-energiewerke/
[14] https://www.hghh.eu/
[15] https://www.gasnetz-hamburg.de/content/dam/revu-global/hh-netz/web/index.html
Basis for the CO2 emmision calculations of cars: https://www.quarks.de/umwelt/klimawandel/co2-rechner-fuer-auto-flugzeug-und-co/
Some other great english sources:
Moorburg CHP Plant – one of Germany’s most modern and efficient power plants
Why Is Germany’s Greenest City Building a Coal-Fired Power Plant?
https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/moorburg-power-plant-last-dying-breed-or-future-coal-germany
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Thanks to these archives for providing historic shots:
Aerial photographs and videos have been provided by Wikimedia under a creative commons license: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kraftwerk_Moorburg
Satellite Imagery by Google, Landsat / Copernicus, Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, IBCAO, U.S. Geological Survey, INEGI, TMap Mobility, Data LDEO-Columbia, NSF, NOAA, GeoBasis-DE/BKG (©2009), Mapa GISrael, Inst. Geogr. Nacional, TerraMetrics, CNES / Airbus, Maxar Technologies, Airbus
32 Comments
the downsizing of the power produced in europe, food produced in europe, and things manufactured in europe continues.
It should've been converted into biomass PP – fuel pellets, for example.
German should turn off old coal power plants first and leave operating this new one, they shouldn't turn off remaning nuclear reactors. They shouldn't get dependance on Russian natural gas. Too many big mistakes.
Steam leave the cooling stack……."Da Thmoke givesss meeee headaches."
lol
I say cut the power. Let em live in the dark. Wouldn't have to listen to them complain then.
a coal burning plant ? WTF ? They're as bad as the United States
So Germany went Woke ( R – word) and it's energy – Economy end up Broke !
The closed this Power Plant in 2021 , hope nothing happens to the Natural gas that was going to replaced it as energy source .. then 2022 and EU Economic war against Russia !
Germany, the first country to have $2/kWh electricity?
Minor nitpick: Germany's electricity production from any kind of coal was on a record low in 2023. Most of the coal plants are not only inefficient in production, but also increasingly bad economically, thus operating them isn't that attractive anymore. We even mothballed 7 more plants in the past week, that had been reactivated after scaremongers created a panic of blackouts after the end of nuclear power production among the more gullible part of the population. They had never been needed and did only produce minimal amounts of power by wasting taxes on them.
Just a side note: if you allow Camorra to build something, then you should not complain that nothing works
"Following the Ukrainian war…". It's wrong. It would have been more correct to say "The Russian invasion of Ukraine". Thanks
Aluminium, not aluminum. If English is not your native language there is no reason to choose the word derived as an error due to the ignorance of the British who emigrated to the "new" continent when you can comfortably use the original, correct and less ambiguous word. And the same goes for that "TweNNy-tweNNy-three", the ghetto-drunk version of the English language.
This is an example of the catastrophic failure of truth.
Germany should not have shut down the nuclear power plants – and should have refurbished. Get the most out of the capital equipment in place.
Nuclear bad, coal good that must be the German thinking. How stupid is that.
Billiges -Russengas wollt ihr ja auch nciht.
Also, Atomstrom aus Frankreich…
Aber es gibt ja die Klimaerwärmung.
Es ist nicht mehr so kalt.
Und einer eurer Pfeifenköpfe aht ja gesagt, 18 Grad ist warm genug.
Es ist noch keiner erfroren.
Also zieht euch eine Pullover zu Hause an.
If it comes to Stupidity, the Germans are “Weltmeisters”
They love these projects that fail.
The US does them ALL THE TIME.
Whether or not intentional – some are – some aren't.
But they LOVE them.
They initiate many of them.
Think the Baltimore bridge collision was an accident.
Those barges have redundant power systems built in.
One fails the other takes over.
But why? keeps the people working and under the wealthy's control…
Depressing how many people just go "should have kept nuclear around" without looking into the "how".
Maybe make a comparison video to the Sizewell C nuclear power station in the UK, just for giggles.
Olaf Scholz is such a worthless…
He has to suffer overwhelming pressure every damn step along the way, in order to allow support for ukraine, like a corrupt coward
but he proudly hosts a grand opening for a europe-leading polluter like this damn power station.
Germany is a Marxist country with a deep nostalgia for the old Soviet Union. We should offer Vladimir a trade… You can have Germany and in return just get out of the Ukraine. And by the way you have to take Ursula with you as well.
People rejecting coal power plant… almost like there is a consequence to cancelling nuclear power, what did they expect?
And these are the same people that have a plan to save the world.
No nuclear, no coal, no gas… maybe leave the "greens" without heat and electricity for a while and see how they like it…
“Following the Ukrainian war … “ is being blind to causation: The Russian invasion was a direct consequence of the “green movements” insanities of Germany, moving political powers and energy powers out of Europe. Poverty, unrest and violence have landed all over Europe as a result of Germany being led by the international socialist extremists feeling good when totally unaware of their destructive evilness.
As a Swede I would like to apologise for Vattenfall’s involvement in this. They should never have tried to become a European player. All they have done is fuck up.
nothing more stupid than removing coal ( a bit) while the non oecd countries massively increase their use of coal. Weaker economies with an expensive energy base will fail while making zero difference to climate change. Wake up. The West is killing itself.
You closed down 6+GW of usable nuclear plants prematurely…
Its crazy that htey stopped Nuclear.
Don't feel bad this Germany. The UK can waste just as much cash of projects as well.
An inconvenient truth is, stable supply of affordable energy was more important then reducing carbon emissions or protecting bio-diversity of local rivers, for the most of people.
isn't it #RIDICULOUS how Big Companies + Politics just so stuck in the past that will kill the future.