Key figures gathered at the Coal Innovation Centre of RWE Power in Niederaussem, Germany, earlier this week to officially put into operation the pilot scrubbing plant for power station flue gases.
The project’s aim is to advance the development of a technology that is key to achieving climate-friendly power generation.
Forty percent of the €9m project is being financed by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Dr Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg represented the Ministry at the inauguration and said, $quot;Modern technologies enable us to use coal, one of the important energy sources, while at the same time meeting our climate protection goals. The CO2 scrubbing plant brings us one step closer to a ‘coal-fired power plant of the future’.”
In his words of welcome, Dr Juergen Ruettgers, State Premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, stressed the importance of further optimising existing power generation technologies to support climate protection. He said it is the State Government’s aim to reduce CO2 emissions in North Rhine-Westphalia by 81m tons by 2020, adding, “North Rhine-Westphalia already is the No. 1 energy state in Germany. And we are set to become the No. 1 State for climate protection as well. We can get there, step by step. Together with BASF and Linde, RWE has taken such a step today.”
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