Jänschwalde Power Station

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Jänschwalde Power Station

Jänschwalde Power Station is located near the village of Jänschwalde in Brandenburg on the German-Polish border. The installed capacity of the lignite-fired power station amounts to 3,000 megawatts and consists of six 500 MW blocks, where two units form a plant. It is the largest brown coal power plant of Germany in operation. It is owned by Vattenfall.

The power station was built between 1976 and 1989. From the time of German reunification up to middle of the 1990s modern environmental technology was adopted, so that a more efficient use became possible. Nevertheless the power station is today, according to a study of the WWF, the fifth-worst power station in Europe in terms of the relation of energy efficiency to CO₂ emission^[1].. As regards absolute carbon dioxide emissions (25.02 million tons per year) the power station at Jänschwalde is the most environmentally harmful power station in Germany.

In Jänschwalde power station raw brown coal from nearby open-pit mining in Jänschwalde and Cottbus to the north is predominantly used to generate electrical power. Per day with a full load the power station needs approx. 80,000 tons of brown coal. From one kilogram of brown coal about one kilowatt-hour of electrical energy is produced.

Since conventional demolition was not possible on this site for space reasons the three old 300 m high chimneys, which have not been used since the modernisation of the 1990s, are being gradually dismantled in a complex process between 2002 and 2007. A procedure unique in the world has been introduced for this task: the chimneys are being broken down from the top to a height of 50 m by a special mechanism equipped with excavators which works round the edges of the chimneys, after which the remaining 50 m are being demolished by conventional means.

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Coordinates: 51°50′05″N, 14°27′37″E

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