Moorburg coal plant not deemed crucial for grid stability, can go offline for good
Clean Energy Wire
The Moorburg coal plant in Hamburg will be taken offline completely in July 2021, after Germany's four grid operators declared the plant, which opened only in 2015, is not "system relevant" for grid stability in the region, operator Vattenfall said. "This means the decommissioning can take place as scheduled and the use of coal be ceased," the company announced. The plant had successfully taken part in the first round of Germany's hard coal plant decommissioning auctions, where operators demanding the least money per avoided tonne of CO2 had been awarded. The Moorburg plant already stopped selling power on the market at the turn of the year, but had been kept in reserve to balance possible power supply shortages.
Moorburg's operators already have plans to convert the plant into a production site for hydrogen. Vattenfall signed a letter of intent with oil major Shell, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), municipal heat supplier Wärme Hamburg for the construction of an electrolyser with a 100-megawatt (MW) capacity at the site. Uniper and Siemens Energy also plan a renewables-based heating and hydrogen project at the site.
