Environmental groups have united against the proposal, which they say would lock Germany into greater carbon emissions, just as a government-appointed commission simultaneously debates a timeline for Germany to phase out coal.
“It should go ahead,” said Thomas Bareiß when asked by the Guardian if the Hambach clearance should proceed when the “coal exit commission” is still deliberating.
Bareiß said RWE had “a right to do this”, noted that the regional government had already agreed on the clearance and said Germany needed the mine to maintain its energy supplies in the short term. “We still need lignite [brown coal] for our reliable coal supply.”
Germany currently gets nearly 40% of power from coal.
The coal is needed as Germany is scheduled to shut its last nuclear power station in 2022. “At end of the decade there is more possibility to shut coal [plants],” he said.
Bareiß told an industry audience in London that getting off coal would be a “very expensive transition” but it was necessary and would “work in the long run”.
He cautioned that Germany could not move too fast on renewable energy projects, because of multibillion-euro upgrades required to take power from wind farms in the country’s north to the south. Those upgrades are behind the target, causing bottlenecks and “large costs”, Bareiß said at the BNEF Future of Energy summit.
Fabian Huebner of the German Climate Alliance, which is organising a demonstration this Saturday against Hambach’s clearance, said: “Scientists agree: the brown coal under the Hambach Forest will not be needed for the security of electricity supply in Germany.”
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