Difference between revisions of "Niederaussem power station"

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==CO2 emissions==
 
==CO2 emissions==
 
According to the study ''Dirty Thirty'', issued in May 2007 by the World Wide Fund for Nature, Niederaussem Power Station is the third-worst power station in Europe in terms of the relation of energy efficiency to CO<sub>2</sub> emissions<ref>[http://assets.panda.org/downloads/european_dirty_thirty_may_2007.pdf The ''Dirty Thirty'' report,] World Wide Fund for Nature, 2007</ref>.
 
According to the study ''Dirty Thirty'', issued in May 2007 by the World Wide Fund for Nature, Niederaussem Power Station is the third-worst power station in Europe in terms of the relation of energy efficiency to CO<sub>2</sub> emissions<ref>[http://assets.panda.org/downloads/european_dirty_thirty_may_2007.pdf The ''Dirty Thirty'' report,] World Wide Fund for Nature, 2007</ref>.
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==History==
 
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===Initial construction===
 
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In the autumn of 1960 the construction work for the blocks A and B (150 MW) began. The location was selected because of the possibility of an extension. The supply of brown coal was ensured by seams on a north-south course ("Garzweiler"). Before blocks A and B first produced power, the construction work for the first 300 megawatt power station block location in Niederaussem began. That block went on-line in the summer 1965. Between 1968 and 1971 three further power plants with improved technology were developed. With the building of the two 600 MW plants a large jump forward occurred. These plants were added to the grid in 1974. At that time the plants at Niederaussem produced a total of 2,700 megawatts.
 
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===Mid-1990s===
 
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In the middle of the 1990s the output was again increased. In order to reach the limit values of the new environmental protection regulations, in 1986 the work for a flue gas desulphurating plant began. That work was completed in 1988. The flue gases are fed into scrubbers and cleaned by a lime water mixture. The cleaned and cooled exhaust gases are then warmed up to 75°C (167;°F) again and carried by the chimneys to the outside air. During the flue gas purification, gypsum from the lime water mixture, which is processed beside the power station in Auenheim by the company Pro mineral, is produced.
 
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===1997 to present===
 
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With the building of the block brown coal power station with optimized equipment technology (BoA) a new chapter at the power station began; between 1997 and 2002 it was the most modern brown coal power station block of the world with a gross achievement of 1,012 megawatts (950 MW net) developed with a far higher efficiency (43%) than the other plants (as low as 31%). RWE invested 1,200 million Euros into the project. Beside the new power station block, whose building has a height of 172 metres (one of the tallest industrial buildings in the world), the largest cooling tower in the world (200 metres), which serves also as the chimney of this unit, had already been built. By these developments Niederaussem became one of the largest and most modern coal-fired power stations in the world. The official opening of the new block took place in summer 2002. In the presence of Wolfgang Clement, the then North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister, and Gerhard Schroeder, the then Chancellor of Germany (Federal Republic), the new power station went on to the grid.
 
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Since 21 July 2006 RWE has spent €40 million building a fluidized bed drying unit with waste heat technology (WTA) as a pilot project for the drying process of the raw brown coal. In addition the free waste heat of the power station is used. It is hoped that in the next few decades the overall efficiency of electricity production by brown coal can be increased to 50%.
 
  
 
==2006 Fire==
 
==2006 Fire==

Revision as of 01:18, 25 May 2018

{{#badges: CoalSwarm|Navbar-Germanyandcoal}} Niederaussem power station is a 3,980-megawatt (MW) lignite-fired power station in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, owned by RWE.

Location

The undated satellite below shows the plant in the Bergheim Niederaussem/Rhein-Erft-Kreis circle.

Background

The power station was planned in the 1960s as a 900-MW plant called Fortuna IV, following on from the now closed Fortuna I, II and III plants which produced electricity from 1912 until 1988. The project name was later changed to Niederaussem. The plant consists of nine units totaling 3,980 MW. The first eight are subcritical units commissioned between 1963 and 1974, and the ninth is a 1,012 MW ultra-supercritical unit commissioned in 2002. The first two units of 136 MW each were deactivated in 2012, meaning they can potentially be turned back on.[1]

CO2 emissions

According to the study Dirty Thirty, issued in May 2007 by the World Wide Fund for Nature, Niederaussem Power Station is the third-worst power station in Europe in terms of the relation of energy efficiency to CO2 emissions[2].

2006 Fire

An incident in the power station Niederaussem occurred on 9 June 2006. At 1:15 a fire caught hold in block H of the coaling station. The fire spread to two further coaling station blocks. Later the flames seized nearly the entire area of the "old power station", and a large, black smoke cloud ascended, which spread many kilometres to the north-west. The power station's own fire brigade could not control the fire and sounded the alarm. About 300 rescue forces from the entire Land responded. The damage to property went into the two digit million-range.[citation needed] Even by the late evening of the next day the fire was not completely extinguished. The spread of the fire was contained by recently developed fire precautions in the other sectors of the power station so that only the coaling station was affected.

New unit L

RWE is considering to construct a new unit at the Niederaussem site, north of the previous site. In October 2011 the company applied for the necessary amendment of the regional plan with the district government of Cologne. In July 2013 the regional council of the district government approved the amendment.[3] In September 2012, Bergheim City Council decided to draw up a development plan and change the land use plan.[4] In November 2014, the Council approved land-use plan No. 261/Na and the 125th amendment of the land use plan.[5]

RWE has been preparing the permitting procedure under German emission control law since June 2015. On July 14, 2016, the company submitted the necessary documents to the district government of Cologne. At the same time, on 22 July, it submitted an application for a water permit. The decision to start construction will only be made once all permits have been obtained and the economic viability of the power plant has been assured.[6]

If the planned 1100 MW unit is commissioned, four older units of Niederaussem with a total capacity of 1200 MW will be decommissioned.[7]

Plant Details of units A-K

  • Sponsor: RWE Power AG
  • Parent company: RWE AG
  • Developer:
  • Location: Bergheim, Rhein-Erft-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
  • Coordinates: 50.996883, 6.667549 (exact)
  • Status: Operating
  • Capacity: 3,980 MW
  • Start date: 1963-1974 (Units A-H), 2002 (Unit K)
  • Type: Subcritical (Units A-H), Ultra-supercritical (Unit K)
  • Coal Type: Lignite
  • Coal Source: Domestic
  • Source of financing:

Project Details of unit L

  • Sponsor: RWE Power AG
  • Parent company: RWE AG
  • Developer:
  • Location: Bergheim, Rhein-Erft-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
  • Coordinates: 50.996883, 6.667549 (exact)
  • Status: Pre-permit development (Applying for permits)
  • Capacity: 1,100 MW
  • Start date:
  • Type: Ultra-supercritical
  • Coal Type: Lignite
  • Coal Source: Domestic
  • Source of financing:

References

Sources

  1. ↑ Niederaussem power plant, RWE, accessed Dec 2017
  2. ↑ The Dirty Thirty report, World Wide Fund for Nature, 2007
  3. ↑ "Regionalrat: Weg für neues Kohle-Kraftwerk ist frei," Kölner Stadt, July 5, 2013
  4. ↑ "Stadtplanung," Kreisstadt Bergheim, accessed May 2018
  5. ↑ "BoAplus: RWE Power begrüßt Ratsbeschluss der Kreisstadt Bergheim zur Anpassung der Bauleitplanung," RWE, Nov 25, 2014
  6. ↑ "RWE treibt Kraftwerks-Neubau voran," RP Online, Sep 27, 2017
  7. ↑ "Braunkohlekraftwerk: RWE schafft Voraussetzungen," Kölnische, Oct 8, 2011

Related SourceWatch articles

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Other Countries and Coal

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