The government of the Netherlands has confirmed plans to shut down its remaining five coal-fired power plants by 2030. The two oldest plants, namely Nuon's 650 MWe Hemweg-8 hard coal-fired unit and RWE's 600 MW Amercentrale coal-fired power plant that have been in operation since 1994, will be shut down by 2024. The three most recent units, namely RWE's two-unit 1,560 MW Eemshaven power plant and Uniper's 1,100 MW Maasvlakte-3 unit, that were commissioned in 2015 and 2016, will have to stop operations by the end of 2029.
RWE has criticised this decision, claiming that it invested €3.2bn in its newest plants at the request of the government, which will not offer any compensation for the closure. Phasing out coal-fired power plants will be the first step towards achieving the Netherlands' target to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25% cut by 2020 and by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 CO2 levels.
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