Tour du Gas: Fossil infrastructure is not climate protection
Photo: View from Rüstringer Berg to the oil port, coal-fired power plant and the JadeWeserPort
Wilhelmshaven's industrial history is marked by destroyed hopes and broken promises. The fossil fuel industry has left large wounds in and around Wilhelmshaven. And, despite the climate crisis, new fossil fuel infrastructure is still being built. I looked at this together with conservationists on site, on the ‘Tour du Gas’ of the energy hub network.
We started at Rüstringer Berg, a small hill on the outskirts of the city, which offers a good view of the oil port, the decommissioned coal power plant of Uniper and the Jade-Weser-Port behind it. There's not much going on here. Up to four tankers can land at the oil port at the same time, no one is there right now. Almost a quarter of Germany's mineral oil demand ends up here. Oil throughput has already fallen by 20 percent and will continue to fall as fewer oil heaters, internal combustion engines and diesel vessels are in operation.
Old coal, new coal
Next to the oil port is the operating site of a former coal-fired power plant of Uniper, on which green hydrogen is to be produced in the future. But nothing can be seen of it yet.
If you are happy that Wilhelmshaven has already shut down its coal-fired power plant: Too early! Directly opposite the old Meiler, a new power plant, which was only built in 2015, continues to burn coal and is not to be shut down, but converted to biomass – not a good idea given the ecological damage and massive carbon dioxide emissions from wood combustion and not economically wise given the expected price increases for wood biomass. The power plant has been losing money for years.
Photo: Vynova's plastics factory and next to it the refinery of HES, right on the coast.
Declining industry and nature at risk
On the way to Hooksiel we pass an old chlorine factory, which went out of operation in 2013 and is now slowly decaying. Nearby, the companies Vynova and HES operate a plastics factory and a refinery, both of which are to be expanded. Instead of renovating the old factory site, they prefer to use the Voslapper Groden - a valuable nature reserve that offers protection to rare ground breeders who otherwise hardly find nesting sites. At the same time, buildings on the refinery site are already partially decaying, so there would certainly be room here. Compensation areas to compensate for the loss of the nature reserve, on the other hand, no longer exist. Nevertheless, the two companies have not yet moved away from their claim.
Photo: The nature reserve Voslapper Groden © Nabu Wilhelmshaven
Cover of energy transition, including: The fossils!
Not far from the chemical plant and refinery is the Landekai for LNG, where the floating terminal Hoegh Esperanza is currently located. There is a maximum of 80 percent capacity utilisation – already a peak among German LNG terminals – but two more landing sites are to be expanded. Even though the company TES, which will operate one of the terminals, is trying to distract from it with a questionable business model: This is where fossil gas is landed, the extraction of which leads to human rights violations and environmental destruction in the exporting countries – and which is massively fuelling the climate crisis.
Photo: We show thumbs down for the LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven. © Zukunftswerkstatt Wilhelmshaven - Hufenbach
Life over holes: The area around Etzel
Last stop of the tour: The caverns at Etzel. Its technical constructions shape the landscape. Due to the pressure changes during pumping in and out of the storage tanks, the terrain is sagging away, 70 cm to this day. This could be made worse by the new hydrogen storage tanks, which are filled and emptied much more frequently, the conservationists fear. Wide lanes are also being plowed through the landscape to build new pipelines – after all, the future LNG terminals will also be connected to the storage facilities in Etzel. Soon this will be repeated for the new hydrogen lines.
Blooming landscapes in Wilhelmshaven? Luckily, there are already, thanks to the commitment of the committed nature conservationists on site, of which I was able to get to know some this weekend. I would like to thank the Network Energy Hub and especially Stefanie Eilers from Nabu Wilhelmshaven for the exciting tour and for the energy with which they put their hometown on a climate course!
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