Coal facility to be built despite ‘no’ vote

Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden the power plant operator of Germany has revealed that it will go on with plans to build a new coal-fired power generation facility on the Rhine even though the plan was voted against.

A Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden spokesperson admitted that they had learnt of the no vote and even though they would have preferred a yes vote, they would still go ahead with their plans since the no vote had no binding obligations.

In Germany debate over the Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden scheme is just one of the many campaigns targeted against the use of coal to generate power. Already one RWE project has been cancelled and another one by Vattenfall Europe postponed.

Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden intends to commence the operations of a coal-fired power plant which will have a capacity of eight hundred and twenty three megawatts by the end of 2012. The plant will be located along the Rhine river peninsula near Mainz. The plant will require an investment of 1.2 billion Euros and the construction is scheduled by next year, at the latest.

The Mainz city council which is sixty-members strong demonstrated its opposition to the plan by voting against it. There was also strong influence from environmental groups.

Mainz and Wiesbaden city utilities are the joint owners of the Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden power plant operator. Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden presently provides approximately half a million people with electricity.

At present Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden is operating a gas-fired plant which has a capacity of four hundred megawatts. The plant has gas feedstock which could last for the next six years.

www.rwe.com