E.ON Stops Work on Datteln Power Plant

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--E.ON (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany) has been ordered by the German courts to stop working on the almost-complete Datteln coal-fired plant in northern Germany.

The owner of the 1,050-megawatt (MW) power plant has been told by the Higher Administrative Court in Munster to halt construction work on the disputed power plant. The court has refused to allow E.ON to use two partial construction permits that had been given earlier. An urgent request by E.ON to continue with the construction work on the basis of these partial permits was rejected by the court. The court has said that its decisions are "final and incontestable."

This is another serious blow for the energy company, as the decision follows a recent ruling by the same court that ordered E.ON to stop work at Datteln because the plan submitted by the Datteln local authorities did not comply with conditions laid out by the state parliament for the use of renewable energy. For additional information, see related news item from September 1, 2009 - Farmer Blocks E.ON's New Coal-Fired Plant in Germany.

The Datteln plant was scheduled to start operation in 2011 at a cost of 1.2 billion euros ($1.75 billion). E.ON is understood to have spent about 600 million euros ($874 million) to date. The company declined to comment on the situation when contacted by IIR Europe. Stephan Kohler, head of the German Energy Agency, speaking with Spiegel Online, said the court's decision was wrong.

"Those who object to a new coal-fired power plant with a 45% efficiency factor are acting in favour of less efficient, older plants' running for longer. At the end of the day, this leads to higher CO2 emissions. Aside from the development of sustainable energy sources, we also need power plants to guarantee a constant supply of electricity. Where should 70% of our electricity come from if, by 2020, we have only managed to obtain 30% from sustainable energy resources? Bearing in mind that we are also aiming to switch off nuclear power plants and get rid of old, inefficient coal-fired plants, that's one question I would like to have the judges answer."

Datteln is home to three older power plant blocks that are approaching the end of their lives. Construction of the 1,050-MW Datteln 4 unit started in 2007 and, according to E.ON, will have a 45% efficiency rating that will boost the region's environmental rating by 20%. Hitachi Power Europe GmbH (Duisburg, Germany), a subsidiary of Hitachi Limited (NYSE:HIT) (Tokyo, Japan), was selected to build utility steam generators for the new power plant as part of a four-generator order worth 1.2 billion euros ($1.75 billion).

New coal- and gas-fired plants are running into increased funding problems and local opposition in Germany. Last week, E.ON admitted that the company has all but given up on plans to build a planned 1,200-MW gas-turbine electric power plant with OAO Gazprom (OTC:OGZPY) (Moscow) in the area of Lubmin in Germany.

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