HEAT & POWER Wind and solar could boost biogas in Brandenburg Despite ”Energiewende”, with continued Call for coal closure, a demonstration organised against the use of coal power in Lausitz-Brandenburg. Bioenergy International No 82, 6-2015 29 reliance on coal Germany’s clean energy implementation leadership image is somewhat sooty. Yet a thin silver lining is beginning to appear in the nation’s coal state, Brandenburg. FURTHER DEVELOPMENT IN BRANDENBURG will not be limited to the quantitative growth of bioenergy plants, but increasingly the state is going to promote energy efficiency and the intensified use of biogenic waste material, which as a result can promote the biogas industry. More than 300 politicians, energy experts and leading representatives of the German energy industry discussed the ongoing energy transition, called “Energiewende” (Energy Transition), at the 17th Energy Day of Brandenburg. The event took place in the city of Cottbus at the beginning of September. The conference, one of many German gatherings on the subject, saw Energiewende debated with particular intensity. The German energy conversion is estimated to cost EUR 20 billion. In June 2011, three months after the disaster in Fukushima, the German Government announced that it would pursue an Energiewende and phase out nuclear power. Shortly thereafter the government shut down eight German nuclear power stations. Most of the Brandenburg conference exhibition inside the auditorium comprised of booths presenting biomass and biogas innovations and new clean plant technologies in the state of Brandenburg. – Even in this coal-producing state biogas can be the intelligent link and solution between the electricity grid and the natural gas grid and as such it can play a key role, said Brandenburg’s energy minister, Albrecht Gerber in his key note speech. Several wind power presentations bore witness to strong regional ambitions to develop these renewable technologies too. But the future of the Swedish state-owned company Vattenfall and its coal business dispute in Brandenburg and Sachsen dominated the debate. Germany was one of the few countries in the world to take a no-excuses approach to developing renewable energy by creating a highly motivated set of policies to promote localised, distributed generation. But today the country is facing some harsh realities. Mounting legacy costs of feed-in tariffs, increasing electricity rates and rising CO₂ emissions are feeding a debate about the effectiveness of the country’s energy transition. Recently, Fraunhofer Institute released the latest data on Germany’s electricity production mix. It reveals that on an annual basis, coal is still winning out over everything else. Despite some impressive single-day records for solar and wind power production, these still trail coal, biomass and nuclear in monthly generation totals. The dominating position of coal generation shows that large amounts of renewables aren’t enough to quickly unroot fossil fuels, nor to compensate for a phase-out of nuclear power. Some experts argue that true energy transitions do not happen within a decade. Germany might be developing renewable power faster than other countries, but it’s also demonstrating that energy changes don’t happen quickly, no matter how dynamic the policies are. – We have decided to launch a forceful use of environmentally friendly and sustainable biomass in our Biomass Strategy. The provision of electricity, heat and fuels from biogenic materials already achieved the strategic target of a 58 PJ share of primary energy use by 2030, through an increase in the combustion of biomass in conventional power stations and an increase in processing in refineries, which have reached over 60 PJ, explained Brandenburg’s energy minister, Albrecht Gerber at the conference. Gerber said that the focus of future expansion includes combined heat and power (CHP), feeding biomethane into the natural gas network, using the potential of livestock manure and the multiple uses of biomass and bio-refineries. Seven locations Coal power today represents about 46 percent of the country’s electricity production and still dominates in Brandenburg and Saxony where Swedish state-owned utility Vattenfall operates coal mining in large pits. It remains an open question whether Germany wants to transform its energy mix to renewables at the same time as keeping its coal. – Negotiations for a new owner for Vattenfall’s lignite operations in Germany are expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year, declared Hubertus Altmann, CEO for Vattenfall Europe AG without revealing any further details. At the same time as searching for a buyer for the existing operations at 7 different locations in the states of Brandenburg and Saxony, Vattenfall is planning a new open pit in Welzow- Süd, which is located on the border between these two states and contains more than 200 million tonnes of lignite. – Vattenfall is investing at the moment in the development of new processes that significantly reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in coal mining and the production of electricity. These include various forms of dry treatment of lignite, said Hubertus Altmann during the Cottbus conference. Cleaner technology The latest regional research aims for the rehabilitation of power plants for the use of so-called dry brown coal, along with the combustion of coal dust from brown and hard coal under pressure, and the combustion of lignite, coal and biomass through pressurised steam fluidised bed drying (PSFBD). Technologies to reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂)emissions from coal power plants are very expensive. – Such renewal will however raise the end customers’ electricity costs by 10 percent, said Vattenfall’s German CEO, Altmann. Altmann also mentioned former carbon, capture and storage (CCS) projects as still being an opportunity. The method means that from the main emission points, CO₂ is separated, after which it is compressed and transported in pipelines to, for example, a storage site where it is pumped into a geological formation deep under the earth. – Unfortunately the practice has shown that it is politically unfeasible in Germany, said Hubertus Altmann. Outside the conference building in Cottbus a group of regional environmentalists demonstrated against both Vattenfall’s plans to sell its coal plants to “untrustworthy bidders” and to open new pits in Welzow-Süd and Nochten. This would, according to the activists, give rise to an additional three East German villages being displaced with residents forced to move to another location. Vattenfall’s sale of the business is also not popular with Brandenburg and Saxony’s environmental organisations. – One of the bidders is said to be a shadowy »
Bioenergy no 6 October 2015
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