Germany Dismantles Wind Farms to Make Room for Coal Mines

German energy giant RWE has begun dismantling wind farms to make way for the further expansion of an open-pit lignite mine in the western region of North Rhine-Westphalia. One wind turbine has already been dismantled, and an additional seven are planned for removal to excavate an extra 15 to 20 million tons of so-called ‘brown’ coal, the most environmentally damaging source of energy.

The demolition of wind farms is part of an agreement reached last year between Robert Habeck, the Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action from the Green Party, and Mona Neubaur, the Minister of Economic Affairs for North Rhine-Westphalia, to facilitate the expansion of the mine. In return, RWE had to agree to a gradual phase-out of coal by 2030, eight years ahead of the previous deadline.

– This is a good day for climate protection – Habeck said at the time.

However, this week’s move has sparked outrage among activists.

– The current climate crisis demands urgent and coordinated efforts to accelerate the installation of every single wind turbine, solar panel, and heat pump. Anything that detracts from this critical endeavor, especially the dismantling of renewable energy sources to extract more fossil fuels, must be unequivocally banned – said Fabian Hübner, a senior activist at Beyond Fossil Fuels, a climate coalition based in Germany.

Yet RWE and the German government have persistently justified the expansion of the so-called Garzweiler coal fields, pointing to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing energy crisis.

According to RWE, the expansion is necessary ‘due to the energy crisis.’ The government in Berlin follows this logic. Indeed, some of the leading advocates of RWE’s coal expansion plans come from the Green Party, one of the three governing parties in Germany.

The energy consultancy Aurora revealed that the expansion of the Garzweiler open-pit mine would cause the country to exceed its climate commitments. Researchers also stated that lignite coal is likely to become obsolete by 2030 as it quickly becomes uneconomical compared to other cheaper energy sources such as solar and wind.

The expansion of Garzweiler has also led to significant destruction and displacement of communities in the area west of Cologne in recent years, with several municipalities having to be relocated. This culminated in January when a German court in Münster allowed RWE to demolish the town of Lützerath, which was located on the edge of the open pit. Thousands of activists flocked to the town to prevent its destruction, but military police evicted the activists after several days of protests.