EnBW’s plans to replace coal with wood pellets in their Rostock and Altbach-Deizisau coal plants: Impacts on forests and climate
EnBW’s Rostock coal plant
Update: EnBW has since abandoned plans to convert coal plants to biomass.
Neu: EnBW hat seitdem Pläne, Kohlekraftwerke auf Holz umzurüsten fallen gelassen.
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Summary:
EnBW is working with Onyx and Enviva to try and persuade the government to grant significant new subsidies which would allow EnBW to convert their coal plants in Rostock and Altbach-Deizisau, and potentially others, too. If those conversions went ahead the extra demand for wood pellets would put forests under further pressure – most likely forests in the Southeastern USA, where pellet producer Enviva is in discussions about a possible sourcing agreement with EnBW. Enviva routinely sources wood from mature roundwood from clear-cut biodiverse hardwood forests. The climate impacts would be no less bad than those of continued coal burning. Biomass conversions would distract from the urgent need to rapidly close those and other coal plants and to invest in genuinely clean and low carbon wind and solar power.