NYTimes: Volatility of Renewables Pushes Europe Back Toward Dependence on Coal

On Aug. 15, with much fanfare, RWE, the big German utility company, inaugurated an ultramodern power station built for €2.6 billion in Grevenbroich-Neurath, near Cologne. RWE called the plant “superlative,” and in many respects it is. RWE showed off one remarkable aspect: The plant’s output can be dialed way down in the space of minutes, then quickly increased again. That flexibility is designed to mirror the ebb and flow from the wind and solar installations that form a large and growing portion of German power supplies.

The $3.4 billion plant, for which Chancellor Angela Merkel laid the cornerstone, is emblematic of a little-noticed trend. The new station burns coal. Indeed, it was built to run on lignite, or brown coal, which is extracted from a vast nearby strip mine with an operating surface of 31 square kilometers, or more than 12 square miles — an area that touches three counties.

Coal has a primitive, passé image, but it is actually enjoying an Indian summer. In 2011, it was the fastest-growing form of energy outside of renewables and accounted for 30.3 percent of all energy consumed globally — the highest proportion since 1969 — according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy report.  MORE