Replacement of coal with natural gas would benefit climate – study

Gas-fired power plants could replace their coal-fired counterparts without endangering the power supply, according to a new study commissioned by RWTH Aachen University on behalf of the German natural gas industry, Die Welt reports. According to the study, exclusive to Die Welt, replacement of lignite-based power generation with gas-fired power plants beginning in 2020 could save roughly 70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year. “With the substitution of lignite with natural gas, Germany comes closer to its climate protection targets with relatively low economic costs,” the CEO of the German Association of Gas and Water (DVGW), Gerald Linke, said of the study’s results.

Read the article in German here.

For background, read the dossier The role of gas in Germany’s energy transition and the factsheet Germany’s dependence on imported fossil fuels.