Austria to close coal plants by 2025, worth up to 1.5m tCO2e

Austria’s three existing coal-fired power plant units, which in 2014 emitted up to 1.5m tonnes of CO2 equivalent, will be closed by the end of 2025, said the country’s energy industry organisation Oesterreichs Energie.

In detail:

– the 168MW Riedersbach II plant, owned by regional utility Energie AG Oberosterreich, will be closed next year. The entire Riedersbach plant emitted 0.24m tCO2e in 2014. EU data are not broken down by unit.

– the 226MW combined heat and power unit Mellach of utility Verbund will shut down in 2020. It emitted 0.85m tCO2e in 2014.

– ENV’s 398MW Durnrohr plant will close in 2025. This unit and another Durnrohr coal-fired unit owned by Verbund that stopped production in April emitted 0.44m tCO2e in 2014.

“Electricity from fossil sources will in Austria from 2025 probably be produced only on demand and for securing heat and power supply in highly efficient gas and combined cycle plants,” Oesterreichs Energie said on Monday.

The news follows the announcement that the UK government plans to restrict the use of coal for power generation from 2023 and close every coal-fired power station by 2025 (see EDCM 18 November 2015).

Austria has more than 4.5GW of gas-fired generation capacity, but the plants are usually not operating full hours as low wholesale electricity prices make them unprofitable to run most of the time.

Austria imports large amounts of electricity from Germany. Oesterreichs Energie hopes that some of Austria’s power imports will be replaced by growing renewable energy generation in coming years. laura.raus@icis.com