North Rhine-Westphalia key to Germany’s energy transition – report

In order for Germany to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target, a rapid phase-out of coal-fired electricity generation is needed across the country, but especially in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), according to a report published by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) on 15 August. Of all federal states, industrial and heavily populated NRW is “by far” the largest emitter, as it is home to 50 percent of the capacity of Germany’s lignite-fired power plants and a third of the capacity of the country’s hard-coal-burning power stations, the report says. Against that backdrop, NRW should completely phase out lignite-fired power generation by 2030 and stop burning hard coal “by 2040 at the latest,” as well as much more rapidly expand renewable energy deployment, according to the report.

Read the report in English here.

For background, read CLEW’s “Commission watch – Managing Germany’s coal phase-out” and the factsheets Germany’s coal exit commission and When will Germany finally ditch coal?