MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Energy security or clean energy: Germany dismantles wind farm to expand lignite coal mine

“The three lignite units each have a capacity of 300 megawatts (MW). With their deployment, they contribute to strengthening the security of supply in Germany”

With winter around the corner and Europe giving priority to energy security over clean energy in German a wind farm is being dismantled to make way for an expansion of an open-pit lignite coal mine.

The dismantling of at least one wind turbine at the wind farm close to the German coal mine Garzweiler, operated by energy giant RWE, has already started. RWE says that lignite, or brown coal, has been mined from the Garzweiler coalfields for over 100 years.

The company also indicated at the end of September that three of its lignite-fired coal units that were previously on standby would return to the electricity market on schedule this month.

“The three lignite units each have a capacity of 300 megawatts (MW). With their deployment, they contribute to strengthening the security of supply in Germany during the energy crisis and to saving natural gas in electricity generation,” RWE said

Now the company is expanding the lignite mine at Garzweiler after a court in Münster in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia ruled in favor of the energy group in a land dispute in March this year to expand the lignite mine.

Commenting on the dismantling of wind turbines to make way for expanding a coal mine, Guido Steffen, a spokesperson for RWE, told The Guardian “We realize this comes across as paradoxical, but that is as matters stand,” Steffen added.