Renewable energy is making coal redundant in Germany – so why are lignite plants still being held as a reserve? The costs of keeping them on standby are massive, and the emissions are even worse. L. Michael Buchsbaum takes an in-depth look. In early March, German coal fired plant operators Steag and Enervie announced they will close three more lignite burning units with a combined capacity of 817 MW. These announcements came on top of the recent shuttering of three other Steag units (Voerde 1 and 2, and Herne 3) that were also recently determined to no longer be system-critical and came offline in 2017. Additionally, Steag announced that it will mothball its 195 MW Voelklingen plant in the Saar region from April through September both this year and next due to falling demand. All these decisions were reviewed and approved by grid regulators who deemed the plants redundant. Germany now has so much renewable energy coming on line that keeping older coal fired power plants running no longer makes any economic sense. Simultaneous to … Continue reading A dirty deal: Germans paying billons for coal power that will never be used