Ensdorf Power Station Expansion

Ensdorf Power Station Expansion at Ensdorf, Saarland in Germany was a proposed 1600 MW expansion of the Ensdorf Power Station in Saarland, Germany. The project was cancelled in 2007 after strong local opposition.

Background
The project was proposed by RWE in November 2006 with an estimated cost 2 billion euros to construct. RWE listed it as one of its major capital investments and anticipated that it will be constructed between 2008 and be commissioned in 2012. RWE proposed that new 800 MW coal units would replace, in part, an existing 400 MW coal unit on the site. By August 2007 RWE had decided to proceed with the project but encountered strong local opposition. In November 2007, Power in Europe reported that 70% of local residents had rejected the project and that RWE planned to “withdraw application for consent” and that talks were “lined up with Saarland. This is the fifth coal plant project to be abandoned or put on ice in Germany in 2007, bringing the total abandoned to 4,100 MW.”

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