At the Mellach coal-fired power plant in southern Austria, cobwebs have taken over the conveyor belts and plants and flowers are sprouting up around the huge piece of land where coal was once stored.
The plant, Austria’s last coal-fired power plant, closed in spring 2020, but now the government – nervous that Russia could further cut its key gas supplies – has decided to prepare the site again if needed.
“I never thought we’d start the factory up again,” Peter Probst, a 55-year-old welder, told AFP during a factory visit.
“It’s really sad to be so dependent on gas,” he added.
Europe had tried to move away from coal in the fight against climate change.
But after Russia cut gas supplies after Western sanctions over the Ukraine war, European countries are turning back to coal.
Today, the white and red chimney of the Mellacher plant protrudes in the middle of fields of corn and pumpkins, with the city of Graz in the distance.
Inside, the walls are black, coal dust sticks to the doors and railings.
Around 450,000 tons of coal were stored at the power station before its closure as Austria’s green-green coalition pursued the goal of sourcing all electricity from renewable resources by 2030.
Site manager Christof Kurzmann-Friedl says that the system of the supplier Verbund could be ready for use again in “around four months” – just in time to counteract possible gas bottlenecks in winter.
– ’emergency measure’ –
Chancellor Karl Nehammer had insisted on Monday that the plant would only come online when needed, while Austria stuck to its emissions reduction targets.
“It’s really an emergency measure,” the conservative said at a briefing to foreign correspondents.
“It’s really something that shows how extraordinary our times are… We have to prepare for any eventuality.”
The 230-megawatt power plant would replace the nearby gas-fired power plant, which is also operated by Verbund and currently supplies 300,000 residents of Graz with heat, according to Kurzmann-Friedl.
However, he warned that the site still needs to be prepared, all equipment reconnected, qualified personnel hired and, most importantly, enough coal found.
So far, the coal has mainly come from mines in the Polish region of Silesia, which the Polish government wants to close.
Because coal prices have tripled since 2020, the electricity from the plant is also becoming more expensive, said Kurzmann-Friedl.
Criticism has already been raised when the opposition Social Democrats called the decision to restart the coal-fired power plant an “act of desperation by the Greens”.
“Will the next step be the reactivation of Zwentendorf?” asked the opposition, referring to the country’s only nuclear power plant.
The Alpine nation of nine million was firmly opposed to nuclear power, with an unprecedented vote in 1978 preventing the plant from opening.
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