Neurath Power Station

Neurath Power Station is a lignite-fired power station near Neurath in Grevenbroich, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located to the south of Grevenbroich, and it borders the municipalities of Rommerskirchen and Bedburg. The power station consists of seven units, of which two are currently operating, and it is owned by RWE. It was named the second biggest single emitter of carbon dioxide emissions in the European Union in 2019 by the EU's Transport and Environment Group, as well as the 102nd biggest polluting asset globally by Climate TRACE.

The Neurath Power Station serves mainly as a base load power station. It consists of seven units (3 x 300 MW, 2 x 600 MW, and 2 x 1,100 MW nominally). The five older units were built between 1972 and 1976, and together had a gross electrical generation capacity of 2,200 MW. These units were decommissioned on 31 March 2024.

On 15 August 2012 two new 1,060 MW lignite-fired units – F and G, also known as BoA 2 and 3 – were added for a total generation capacity of 4.4GW, around 1/4 more than the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant. BoA stands for Braunkohlekraftwerk mit optimierter Anlagentechnik (Lignite power station with optimized system technology). The new units have an efficiency of 43% and the capability to adjust quickly to changes in energy demand. Both of the new units are 170 m (558 ft) tall which makes them amongst the tallest industrial buildings in the world, possibly second only to the BoA block at the nearby Niederaussem Power Station. Its engineering was carried out by Alstom, which was also the supplier of the steam turbines. The consortium that supplied steam generators was led by Babcock-Hitachi Europe GmbH. GEA Group built the cooling towers. Construction costs were €2.6 billion.

The lignite used to fuel the plant is delivered by rail from open pit mines in the Rhenish lignite district (Rheinisches Braunkohlerevier), in particular from the Garzweiler and Hambach mines.

In the 1980s, a complete flue gas cleaning facility was installed for all blocks. Since then, the exhaust gases have mainly been expelled through the cooling towers instead of through dedicated chimneys. The facility has two flue gas stacks used to bypass the cooling towers, of which one belongs to units A, B and C and the other to units D and E. The first one is 194 metres (636 ft), the latter 196 metres (643 ft) tall. These allow the facility to still generate power in case of a fault in the flue gas cleaning facility, however, as this rarely occurs, such chimneys do not exist at most other power stations.

Note: Net nominal capacity has reduced since inauguration - the capacity listed above is the current, not initial capacity (total 4,211 MW as of August, 2017)

The new power station is often criticised by environmental associations and physical custodians as part of discussions about climate change, because electricity generation from lignite as fuel, in spite of advanced technology, is considerably less efficient than other generation sources and makes the plant the second biggest source of carbon dioxide among plants in EU. The facility, with a planned lifespan of 40 years, is seen as inconsistent with Germany's and Europe's plans to counter climate warming, particularly after COP21. According to Climate TRACE, the power station is the 102nd largest point-source emitter of greenhouse gas globally.

It is criticized furthermore that the investment efficiency is not maximized by additional measures like using of waste heat. One of the suggested projects is the establishment of a wide greenhouse park to use the waste heat from the plant and to create other jobs. However, the area planned for it was instead planned for industries with large electricity demand.^{[citation needed]}