European Green Economy Goes Down the Drain: Energy Giants Return to Coal

Energy company Orsted will continue operations or restart production at three fossil fuel plants after Danish authorities ordered it to do so, as Europe prepares for a cold winter amid an energy crisis. 

In a recent announcement from Orsted, whose largest shareholder is the Danish state, they stated that the decision was made 'to ensure the security of electricity supply in Denmark'. The company added that the order pertains to the third unit at the Esbjerg power plant and the fourth unit at the Studstrup power plant. Both units use coal as their primary fuel source, and they also mentioned unit 21 at the Kyndby Peak Load Plant, which uses oil as fuel.

The Esbjerg power plant was scheduled to be decommissioned on March 31, 2023, they added, while the other two units had already been taken offline, reported CNBC.

– To ensure the security of electricity supply, Danish authorities have today told us to continue operations at some of our oil and coal power plants – stated Mads Nipper, CEO of Orsted.

– We will, of course, comply with the order of the Danish authorities and will now begin preparing and maintaining the units and ensuring the necessary personnel for their management – he added. 

Orsted noted that all relevant units will require maintenance to be ready for operation, and 'highly specialized workers' will also need to be trained to manage the sites. They also stated that the company has been ordered to operate the three units until June 30, 2024. It is worth noting that Orsted, a major player in wind energy production, has set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2025.

'The Dirtiest Way to Produce Energy' 

The announced news will undoubtedly horrify those who oppose the continued use of fossil fuels, given that coal has a significant environmental impact. In fact, Greenpeace describes it as 'the dirtiest way to produce energy that causes the most pollution'. The U.S. Energy Information Administration lists a range of emissions from coal combustion, including carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulates, and nitrogen oxides.

– We still believe that we, as a society, must gradually phase out the use of gas, oil, and coal as soon as possible, but we are in the midst of a European energy crisis, and we will, of course, contribute by ensuring electricity supply as best we can – said Nipper from Orsted. 

A few days before Orsted’s announcement, another major European energy company, RWE from Germany, stated that three of its lignite, or brown coal, units would 'temporarily return to the electricity market to strengthen supply security and save gas in electricity production'. The company added that each of the units has a capacity of 300 megawatts, and their deployment is initially limited until June 30, 2023. 

News about these energy giants comes at a time when Europe is struggling to strengthen energy supply as the Russian war in Ukraine continues. It is worth noting that Russia was by far the largest supplier of oil and natural gas to the EU last year, according to Eurostat. The flow of gas to Europe has significantly decreased following Western sanctions, and last week unexplained leaks affected the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, the main infrastructure for directing gas from Russia to Europe across the Baltic Sea.