Energy

Brown Coal: A Dirty Business

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02 Brown Coal

Nature and villages give way to climate killer No.1

The use of brown coal is a dirty business. It starts with mining – new open-cast mines drive people out of their homes, and villages and land-scapes are destroyed. When it is burned, brown coal releases a huge amount of carbon dioxide that is harmful to the climate. Not last is the fact that the use of brown coal blocks the technical and commercial expan-sion of renewable energies. A desert in the middle of Germany – a five-kilometre stretch of dusty brown crater-like landscape opens out before the eyes from a viewing point on the edge of the brown coal open-cast mine at Jänschwalde in Lausitz. Anyone familiar with the Lord of the Rings films will be reminded of the dark realm of Mordor – except that here there are no living monsters, just monstrous machines

causing mayhem. Day and night, gigantic bucket-wheeled excavators tear up the ground, gouging deep until the ‘brown gold’ is exposed

Climate killer No. 1Visible on the horizon is a total of nine cooling towers at the Vattenfall power plant Jänschwalde, where coal is burned to generate electricity. White clouds of steam rise out of chimneys along with an invisible danger: vast quantities of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). Around 20 percent of all CO2 emissions in Germany are from brown coal-fired power plants. Burning brown coal harms the climate more than any other fuel. Its use has negative impacts regionally and at the global level. In many parts of the world today people are already suffering from the effects of climate change.

High on dirt, low on performanceYet for all the dirt emitted by these power plants, the output is alarmingly low. According to Vattenfall, Jänschwalde’s degree of effectiveness amounts to just 36 percent. About one-third of the coal’s energy is converted into electricity, while two-thirds escapes unused from the cooling towers in the form of steam. Nevertheless, Germany remains committed to brown coal – in no other country is as much brown coal mined and burned as here. This dirty business is profitable because brown coal is highly subsidised (despite the German government‘s assertions to the contrary). Energy companies indirectly receive tax breaks or free CO2 certifica-tes as part of emissions trading.

Vattenfall’s open-cast mine Jänschwalde eats its way across Lausitz in the State of Brandenburg, wiping out landscapes and villages.

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CCS is not a solution Another argument put forward by politicians and the industry is a recent technology intended to make coal climate-friendly: carbon capture and storage, in short, CCS. Carbon dioxide is supposed to be collected in power plants, compressed and then disposed of underground (for example in depleted natural gas fields).

But this technology is coming too late to save the climate. Apart from the fact that it would take decades to use CCS on a large scale, it is questionable whether this would ever happen. Retrofitting power plants would be very expensive, but more importantly, the storage of CO2 would be extremely risky. If the gas were

to leak and come back up to the surface, people and animals would be in danger, and soil and groundwater could be contaminated.

Open-cast mining wastes waterBrown coal open-cast mining has a massive impact on the regional water balance. The ground needs to be drained, and the draining process lowers the level of groundwater. Lausitz is slowly drying out; it will take centuries for the water balance to return to its former state.

Open-cast mining destroys homes Brown coal is mined extensively on the surface. Open-cast mining in the Lausitz

Pastor Berndt is fighting for his home town of Atterwasch and giving comfort to some 240 villagers.

Ghost town Haidemühl – inhabitants were resettled by 2006 to make way for the Welzow-Süd open-cast mine; before bulldozers arrived, nature began reclaiming the land.

Homes being lost one by oneThe Jänschwalde-Nord open-cast mine planned by Vattenfall is a threat to the village of Atterwasch and other villa-ges. Pastor Mathias Berndt on the situation there:

Most inhabitantsfind thedemolitionof our villages unthinkable. They inherited their houses and farms, some people can even trace their ancestors on the same farm back to before the Thirty Years‘ War. Now they want to take the ground from under our feet, in the truest sense of the word, they want to uproot us. Many younger people are turning their backs on their villages because they see no future there. Our villages are ageing. Some farms are already abandoned.

Feelings of helplessness, disappoint-ment and real anger are spreading; some people are becoming depressed, can‘t sleep, and are plagued by night-mares. One pensioner told me: “We’re too old to stand up against this mad-ness.” A man who is seriously ill asks: “Where will they bury me now?” A neighbour says: “My parents were driven out of their home in 1945 and built themselves a new life here. Are they going to be driven out once again? Another village woman says: “First they take away our livelihoods (when the level of groundwater is lowered), then they destroy our houses. It’s worse than in the war, we’re dying bit by bit.” It‘s hard to give people pastoral support in this situation. Even at celebrations that should be joyous, such as birthdays and anniversaries, talk inevitably turns to ‘the issue’. Nevertheless, I try to be a source of courage.

Stripping away Lausitz – brown coal open-cast mining has already claimed more than 830 square kilometres of land.

necessary to switch off wind turbines because the power generated by nuclear and coal plants blocks the grid.

The future belongs to renewable sources. They are clean, climate-friendly and will never run low. They also create and secure millions of new jobs worldwide. Greenpeace‘s Climate Protection: Plan B 2050 concept shows how Germany can secure 100 percent of its electricity from clean sources by 2050. But this is possible only if we stop the coal age as quickly as possible. You can leave coal behind by switching over to a green power supplier now, such as Greenpeace Energy. www.greenpeace-energy.de

Greenpeace calls for: No new brown coal open-cast

mining Nonewcoal-firedpowerstations Expansion of renewable energies

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Impressum Greenpeace in Germany, Grosse Elbstr. 39, 22767 Hamburg, Phone: +49 40 30618-0 Political Unit in Berlin Marienstrasse 19 – 20, 10117 Berlin, mail @ green-peace . de, www . greenpeace . de Legally responsible for content Anike Peters Editor Nicoline Haas Photos Daniel Rosenthal (title – Greenpeace protest at Jänschwalde open-cast mine in December 2008), Henry J Fair (p. 2), Jörg Glaescher (pp. 3+4), Gordon Welters (p. 4); Map Gregor Zoll, © all Greenpeace

November 2010

brown coal area alone has already claimed 830 square kilometres of land, approximately the size of the City-State of Berlin. As a result, 135 villages have been wholly or partly removed in the past 100 years, and some 27,000 people forced to resettle. People‘s houses, even churches, have been torn down. Gardens with old trees, graveyards, sports facilities and playgrounds have been destroyed. And the new villages? They feel artificial – they are places without a history.

Vattenfall operates five brown coal open-cast mines in Lausitz as well as the Jänschwalde, Boxberg and Schwarze Pumpe power plants. To make sure its business continues well into the future, the Swedish company has declared interest in more mining fields. Starting in about 2020, this would affect the villages of Atterwasch, Grabko, Kerkwitz, Proschim and other districts, with altogether 3,500 inhabitants. The state

has not protested so far – the government is keen to keep Vattenfall as an employer in the structurally weak region. This is a risky dependency since Vattenfall could pull out at any time. It is the renewable energy sector that will generate jobs now and in the future.

Brown coal puts a brake on renewable energy development Clinging to outdated energy forms like coal and nuclear fuel puts a hold on the development of renewable power generati-on. From an economic standpoint, it removes the pressure needed to invest in new power plants and to extend the grid. Moreover, coal-fired and nuclear power stations are designed to run continuously and cannot be flexibly adjusted up or down to meet demand, unlike gas-fired power plants. They are difficult to align with the fluctuations of wind and solar power. On windy days it is sometimes

Potsdam, June 2010. At the end of a two-week tour protesting against a CO2 storage site in Branden-burg, Greenpeace activists displayed signatures collected on long banners.

Wind turbine before the Jänschwalde power plant: coal versus the future.