E.ON’s German Power Plant Project Put On Hold

The local government in Muenster announced Wednesday that they would be placing a partial stop order on construction at the site of E.ON AG’s power plant project. The utility giant is currently building a new coal-powered facility in Datteln but will have to halt some of the ongoing construction.

Earlier in the month, a regional area court over turned Datteln city’s approval for E.ON to go ahead with plans to construct the coal-fired power plant. The regional court said that Datteln had failed to take a sufficient look at public and climate protection standards before approving the plans for the plant. The ruling could potentially cause the project to be scrapped, however currently there is some construction continuing at the site.

After the ruling came down from the regional court several residents and environmentalists have come forward asking for construction to be halted in light of the new ruling. Chief executive of E.ON Energie AG, Klaus-Dieter Maubach, said that E.ON has already consumed over 50 percent of the budget for the project, which in total received investments for EUR1.2 billion for the Datteln plant.

If the Datteln plant goes ahead after all, it is scheduled to be fully operational by sometime in 2011. The coal-fired power plant would have supplied 1.1 GW of electricity to the area when operating at full capacity. To date it is not known whether construction will recommence or if the project will be shut down permanently.