Joint press release by NABU, Biofuelwatch, ROBIN WOOD, BUND Berlin, PowerShift, Greenpeace Berlin, Gesellschaft für Klima und Demokratie, Fridays For Future, Berliner Energietisch, Landesverein der UmweltberaterInnen in Berlin und Brandenburg (LAUB) e.V.
New wood heating plant planned in Berlin: Heat up the Tiergarten three times a winter?
Approval application submitted for Reuter West - cost of almost a quarter of a billion euros
Berlin, 19.11.2025 – On 10 November, Berliner Energie und Wärme AG (BEW) announced public participation in the Application for authorisation for the planned wood-fired power plant at the Reuter West site. Numerous environmental organisations, including the signatories, criticise BEW's plans as a climate-damaging bad investment. They are calling on the state-owned energy supplier to stop the plans for the new wood-fired power plant.
With the repurchase of Vattenfall’s heating networks, the Land of Berlin had initially taken over its ‘decarbonisation roadmap’. This provides for the construction of at least two new large-scale plants in addition to the existing wood-fired power plant Märkisches Viertel: One in Reuter West and another in Klingenberg. The first permit application for a 110 MW power plant in Reuter West is now on the table, even before the new decarbonisation timetable (announced for early 2026) is available. The district heating output is expected to be 90 megawatts (MW), the electrical output is expected to be up to 20 MW. Until January 9, 2026, environmental associations and stakeholders can now comment on the plans. The investment amount is 248 million euros.
“BEW relies on an energy source for heat supply that is extremely damaging to forests and the climate”, says Almuth Ernsting from Biofuelwatch. “The now submitted permit application creates facts even before Vattenfall’s plan has been revised and before it is clear how high the geothermal potential in the city is.”
According to the permit application for Reuter West, 130,000 to 250,000 tonnes of wood per year could be burned there, depending on the product range (old wood/fresh wood) and the corresponding humidity of the wood. For comparison: The wood of the entire Berlin Tiergarten would only be enough for about five weeks of full operation.
“When wood is burned per unit of energy, no less CO2 is released than when coal is burned. The planned wood-fired combined heat and power plant in Reuter West is thus making a contribution to exacerbating the climate crisis. With a rated thermal input of 110 MW, approximately 250,000 tonnes of CO2 are emitted per year, assuming that the plant will run at full capacity for nine months per year and will stand still for three months", adds Eric Häublein from NABU.
BEW is also considering the construction of further wood-fired power plants. A possible project in Klingenberg would devour twice as much wood as in Reuter West. The BEW combined heat and power plants alone would thus need at least 800,000 tons of fresh wood per year for combustion. In addition, there is the wood-fired CHP plant of the company BTB in Neukölln, which burns about 250,000 tons of wood per year. In addition, the Berliner Stadtreinigung (BSR) is planning a district heating plant that will burn over 100,000 tons of bulky waste and waste wood annually from 2030.
“The supply of wood in the Berlin-Brandenburg region is limited. Many wood processing companies and (old) wood recyclers as well as existing power plants compete for the raw material. Recyclable wood waste is incinerated and is therefore not available for re-environmentally friendly material use in durable wood products. The construction of new wood-fired power plants such as those in Reuter West exacerbates this competition and will bind Germany to CO2-intensive energy sources such as wood for decades. Forests will come under pressure and heat prices will rise if fuel becomes scarce for the foreseeable future", warns Tobias Quast-Malur from BUND Berlin.
Jana Ballenthien, forest officer at ROBIN WOOD, added: “In the drought summers since 2018, we have lost around 600,000 hectares of forest in this country. Due to its poor condition, our forest now emits more climate-damaging CO2 than it binds. The raw material wood must be used more sparingly. For our survival, we depend on intact forests.”
The environmental organizations warn of the fatal misinvestment and call on the state of Berlin and the state-owned BEW to ensure a heat supply based on combustion-free heat potentials.
For content-related questions, statements and interviews, press contacts are available:
- NABU: Eric Häublein, Bioenergy Officer, Mobil +49 (0) 162 269 4781, Eric.haeublein@NABU.de
- BUND Berlin: Tobias Quast-Malur, Waste and Resource Policy Officer, Tel. 030 78 79 00 55, quast-malur@bund-berlin.de
- Biofuelwatch, Almuth Ernsting, Co-Director, Mobil +44-7930227525, E-Mail biofuelwatch@gmail.com
- ROBIN WOOD, Jana Ballenthien, Specialist Forest, Mobile +49 (0)40-38089211, E-mail wald@robinwood.de
Further information can also be found in the joint information document: 250116-infopapier_holzverbrennung_berlin.pdf
