First Unit Up at Moorburg Coal-fired Power Plant

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - Vattenfall AB (Stockholm, Sweden) has fired up the first block of its controversial Moorburg coal-fired plant near Hamburg, Germany.

Delayed by environmental protests, political squabbling and technical hitches the first of two units, Unit B, went live over the weekend, seven years after construction started. Unit B has a generating capacity of 827-megawatts (MW), and can generate enough power for approximately 1.8 million homes.

The plant is one of many coal-fired projects that have run into opposition as Germany focuses on making cleaner, renewable energy the key supplier of electricity in the coming decade. The country began implementing its Energy Transition, or 'Energiewende', last year. Renewables now supply around a quarter of the country's power and the government has enacted legislation to boost that to 40-45% of the total by 2025, and by up to 60% by 2035. For additional information, see April 14, 2014, article - German Energy Reform Approved.

"With an efficiency of 46.5%, the power station Moorburg is one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly coal-fired power plants in Europe and will make an important contribution to grid stability in Northern Germany," said Dr. Karsten Schneiker, Director of the power plant Moorburg.

Vattenfall said that compared to older coal-fired power plants, Moorburg emits around 2.3 million tons less CO2 per year.

Schneiker added: "The power of the block can be raised or lowered within 15 minutes up to 300 MW. Weather and daytime-dependent fluctuations in the grid by the supply of renewable energy can be compensated for quickly by the power station.

The first unit was due to go live last Spring but was put off for almost a year when small cracks were found at welding seams in the boilers of the units. Vattenfall said the new steel it was using, called T24, could expand and contract more readily with changes in temperature than traditional steel allowing for faster powering up and down, but that it had proved difficult to work with.

The second unit, Unit A, will be commissioned this summer. When fully operational the plant will have a total generating capacity of 1,645 MW.

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