This article needs to be updated.(January 2021) |
Niederaussem Power Station | |
---|---|
Country | Germany |
Location | Bergheim |
Coordinates | 50°59′44″N06°40′09″E / 50.99556°N 6.66917°E |
Commission date | 1965 |
Owner(s) | RWE Power |
Operator(s) |
|
Thermal power station | |
Primary fuel | Lignite |
Power generation | |
Units operational | 9 |
Nameplate capacity | 3,864 MW |
External links | |
Commons | Related media on Commons |
Niederaussem Power Station is a lignite-fired power station in the Bergheim Niederaussem/Rhein Erft circle, owned by RWE. It consists of nine units, which were built between 1963 and 2003. It is the second-largest lignite coal power plant in operation in Germany, with total output capacity of 3,864 MW and a net capacity of 3,396 MW. The plant is estimated to have been one of the ten most carbon polluting coal-fired power plants in the world in 2018, at 27.2 million tons of carbon dioxide, and its emissions intensity (kgCO2 per MWh of power produced) is estimated to be 45.1% higher relative to the average for all fossil-fueled plants in Germany. [1] According to the study Dirty Thirty, issued in 2007 by the WWF, Niederaussem Power Station is the second worst power station in Europe in terms of mercury emissions due to the use of lignite. [2]
In the autumn of 1960 the construction work for the blocks A and B (150 MW) began. The location was selected because of the possibility of an extension. The supply of brown coal was ensured by seams on a north-south course ("Garzweiler"). Before blocks A and B first produced power, the construction work for the first 300 megawatt power station block location in Niederaussem began. That block went on-line in the summer 1965. Between 1968 and 1971 three further power plants with improved technology were developed. With the building of the two 600 MW plants a large jump forward occurred. These plants were added to the grid in 1974. At that time the plants at Niederaussem produced a total of 2,700 megawatts.
In the middle of the 1990s the output was again increased. In order to reach the limit values of the new environmental protection regulations, in 1986 the work for a flue gas desulphurating plant began. That work was completed in 1988. The flue gases are fed into scrubbers and cleaned by a lime water mixture. The cleaned and cooled exhaust gases are then warmed up to 75 °C (167 °F) again and carried by the chimneys to the outside air. During the flue gas purification, gypsum from the lime water mixture, which is processed beside the power station in Auenheim by the company Pro mineral, is produced.
With the building of the block brown coal power station with optimized equipment technology (BoA) a new chapter at the power station began; between 1997 and 2002 it was the most modern brown coal power station block of the world with a gross achievement of 1,012 megawatts (950 MW net) developed with a far higher efficiency (43%) than the other plants (as low as 31%). RWE invested €1,200 million into the project. The new power station block building has a height of 172 metres (564 feet) and is the tallest industrial buildings in the world. [3] The station's cooling towers were also the tallest in the world at 200 metres (656 feet) [4] but are now the second tallest to those at the Kalisindh Thermal Power Station. By these developments Niederaussem became one of the largest and most modern coal-fired power stations in the world. The official opening of the new block took place in summer 2002. In the presence of Wolfgang Clement, the then North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister, and Gerhard Schroeder, the then Federal Chancellor, the new power station went on to the grid.
Since 21 July 2006 RWE has spent €40 million building a fluidized bed drying unit with waste heat technology (WTA) as a pilot project for the drying process of the raw brown coal. In addition the free waste heat of the power station is used. It is hoped that in the next few decades the overall efficiency of electricity production by brown coal can be increased to 50%.
In 2019, RWE cancelled a 1,200 MW upgrade. [5]
An incident in the power station Niederaussem occurred on 9 June 2006. At 1:15 a fire caught hold in block H of the coaling station. The fire spread to two further coaling station blocks. Later the flames seized nearly the entire area of the "old power station", and a large, black smoke cloud ascended, which spread many kilometres to the north-west. The power station's own fire brigade could not control the fire and sounded the alarm. About 300 rescue forces from the entire Land responded. The damage to property went into the two digit million-range.[ citation needed ] Even by the late evening of the next day the fire was not completely extinguished. The spread of the fire was contained by recently developed fire precautions in the other sectors of the power station so that only the coaling station was affected.
Drax power station is a large biomass power station in Drax, North Yorkshire, England, capable of co-firing petroleum coke. It has a 2.6 GW capacity for biomass and had a 1.29 GW capacity for coal that was retired in 2021. Its name comes from the nearby village of Drax. It is situated on the River Ouse between Selby and Goole. Its generating capacity of 3,906 megawatts (MW), which includes the shut down coal units, is the highest of any power station in the United Kingdom, providing about 6% of the United Kingdom's electricity supply.
A fossil fuel power station is a thermal power station which burns a fossil fuel, such as coal or natural gas, to produce electricity. Fossil fuel power stations have machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy, which then operates an electrical generator. The prime mover may be a steam turbine, a gas turbine or, in small plants, a reciprocating gas engine. All plants use the energy extracted from the expansion of a hot gas, either steam or combustion gases. Although different energy conversion methods exist, all thermal power station conversion methods have their efficiency limited by the Carnot efficiency and therefore produce waste heat.
The Bełchatów Power Station is a coal-fired power station near Bełchatów, Poland. It is the largest thermal power station in Europe. The power station is owned and operated by PGE GiEK Oddział Elektrownia Bełchatów, a subsidiary of Polska Grupa Energetyczna.
Plomin Power Station is a coal-fired power station near Plomin, Croatia. As of 2021, its production corresponded to 7.6% of Croatia's electricity needs.
Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Uniper at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, England. Commissioned in 1968 by the Central Electricity Generating Board, the station has a capacity of 2,000 MW. It is the last remaining operational coal-fired power station in the UK, and is scheduled to close in September 2024.
Kendal Power Station is a coal-fired power station in Mpumalanga, South Africa. It is sited in a coal-mining area; one of its sources is AEMFC's coal mine at Vlakfontein, near Ogies.
An integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) is a technology using a high pressure gasifier to turn coal and other carbon based fuels into pressurized gas—synthesis gas (syngas). It can then remove impurities from the syngas prior to the electricity generation cycle. Some of these pollutants, such as sulfur, can be turned into re-usable byproducts through the Claus process. This results in lower emissions of sulfur dioxide, particulates, mercury, and in some cases carbon dioxide. With additional process equipment, a water-gas shift reaction can increase gasification efficiency and reduce carbon monoxide emissions by converting it to carbon dioxide. The resulting carbon dioxide from the shift reaction can be separated, compressed, and stored through sequestration. Excess heat from the primary combustion and syngas fired generation is then passed to a steam cycle, similar to a combined cycle gas turbine. This process results in improved thermodynamic efficiency, compared to conventional pulverized coal combustion.
The Keystone Generating Station is a 1.71-gigawatt, coal power plant located on roughly 1,500 acres (610 ha) in Plumcreek Township, southeastern Armstrong County, Pennsylvania near Crooked Creek, just west of Shelocta, Pennsylvania.
Aberthaw Power Station refers to two decommissioned coal-fired and co-fired biomass power stations on the coast of South Wales, near Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan. They were located at Limpert Bay, near the villages of Gileston and West Aberthaw. The most recent power station on the site, Aberthaw B Power Station, co-fired biomass and as of 2008 had a generating capacity of 1,560 megawatts (MW). The power station closed on 31 March 2020.
Orot Rabin is a power station located on the Mediterranean coast in Hadera, Israel which is owned and operated by the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC). As of 2022 it is Israel’s largest power station and contains six thermal generation units capable of producing a total of 2.59GW of electricity using coal as the primary fuel. In addition, under construction at the site are two single-shaft natural gas-powered combined-cycle units capable of generating 630 MW each. The older, unmodernised four of its total six coal-fuelled units will be closed by mid-2022 in order to eliminate this major source of air pollution in the country.
Lippendorf Power Station is a lignite-fired power station in Lippendorf, which is located in the municipality of Neukieritzsch, near Leipzig in Saxony, Germany. The power plant is owned and operated by Vattenfall Europe. It has a heating capacity of 330 MWt.
Frimmersdorf Power Station, located in Grevenbroich, is a decommissioned lignite-fired power station in Germany. The power station was one of the largest lignite-fired power stations in Germany. It had fourteen units with a total output capacity of 2,413 megawatts (MW). The chimneys of the power station are 200 metres high.
The Turceni Power Station is situated in Gorj County, on the banks of the Jiu River, halfway between the cities of Craiova and Târgu Jiu.
Beryozovskaya GRES is a coal-fired power plant near the town of Sharypovo in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. The power plant is owned by Unipro. The installed capacity of the plant is 1,600 megawatts (2,100,000 hp).
The Harding Street Station is a 12-unit, 1,196 MW nameplate capacity, gas-, coal, and oil-fired generating station located at 3700 S. Harding St., in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. It is owned by AES Indiana, a subsidiary of AES. Completed in 1973, Harding Street Station's tallest chimneys are 565 feet (172 m) in height.
Neurath Power Station is a lignite-fired power station at Neurath in Grevenbroich, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located to the south of Grevenbroich, and it borders the municipalities of Rommerskirchen and Bedburg. The power station consists of seven units and it is owned by RWE. It was named as the second biggest single polluter for carbon dioxide emissions in the European Union in 2019 by the EU's Transport and Environment Group, as well as the 102nd biggest polluting asset globally by Climate TRACE.
Mátra Power Plant, is a lignite fired power plant majority owned by MVM, the Hungarian state owned power company since 2019. It is located in the valley of the Mátra mountains, in Hungary. It has an installed electric power output of 950 MW, however, one 200 MW generator has been on permanent hiatus since January 2021. According to the latest government energy strategy, most of the existing lignite-fuelled units will be shut down in 2025, and a new 500 MW gas-fired unit will be added as well as up to 400 MW in solar power.
Sasan Ultra Mega Power Plant or Sasan UMPP is one of the four Ultra Mega Power Projects awarded by the Ministry of Power, Government of India. It is located in Sasan village near Waidhan in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh. Sasan UMPP is India's largest integrated power generation and coal mine project with 3,960 MW power plant and 20 MT per year coal mining capacity. It is presently the 4th largest electricity generation power plant in India after NTPC Vindhyachal, Mundra Thermal Power and Mundra UMPP. The total project value of Sasan UMPP is ₹25,186 crores.
The Rheinisches Braunkohlerevier, often called the Rhenish mining area, is a lignite mining area or district in the Cologne Bay, on the northwestern edge of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. The mining of lignite using the open pit method has had a significant impact on the landscape here and led to the formation of several important industrial sites. The area includes the Zülpicher and Jülicher Börde, the Erft lowlands and the Ville, making it the largest lignite mining area in Europe. To a lesser extent clay, silica sand and loess are mined here. The area is the only active lignite mining area in what was West Germany during German partition and contains the mines with the largest surface area, greatest depth, and biggest annual output of coal.