Germany to offer less cash to close coal plants than utilities expected – Bloomberg

Germany’s government has allocated less money for closing coal-fired power plants than the utilities that own them expected, reports Bloomberg. A government official told the news outlet that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration has earmarked one billion euros to pay for closing five gigawatts of coal capacity by 2023. “That fund is a fraction of the 1.2 billion to 1.5 billion euros per gigawatt that utilities such as RWE anticipated to offset investments that they will be forced to write off early,” writes Bloomberg.

A recently leaked draft of a planned hard coal exit law indicates that the economy ministry plans to hold tenders to remunerate hard coal plant operators for taking units off the grid early, but only until 2030. Lignite plants will not be required to enter the auctions. Their owners will negotiate on a plant-for-plant basis for government compensation. An expert commission set up by the government recommended shutting down the last coal-fired power plant by 2038 at the latest. It is now up to the government to turn that proposal into draft legislation before parliament gets the final say.