Vattenfall’s lignite business sector in Germany will be sold to the Czech EPH group in the end of August 2016.
The owner of the energy company, the Swedish state, has agreed to the acquisition plans last week. Therefore the winner of the bidding procedure for Vattenfall’s lignite activities in Brandenburg and Saxony from 18th of April 2016 has been confirmed. The deal is planned to be concluded by 31st of August 2016.
Declining power prices in Germany also have put pressure on Vattenfall, the Swedish Minister for the economy, Mikael Damberg, said. Under present conditions, the Czech EPH group will acquire assets with a value of EUR 1.6 billion, as well as debts and provisions for the renaturation of open pit mines amounting to EUR 1.9 billion.
Nature conservation associations such as Greenpeace and WWF criticize the decision of the Swedish government. “By consenting to the sales, the Swedish government wasted an historical opportunity to take climate protection responsibility for the lignite activities of its state-owned company and to set an example for a responsible exit from coal”, Regine Günther, director general of politics and climate protection at WWF Germany, commented. Greenpeace spokesman Karsten Schmid also found fault with the decision: “By latest 2030 Germany has to exit coal. With EPH as a new investor this will not be feasible.”
The concerned federal states do not share the sentiments of the associations and do not see any danger that in the end the public domain has to bear the costs for the mining damage. Consequently, the governments of Brandenburg and Saxony welcomed the sales decision of the Swedish government. The future operating company EPH also announced that there will not be any forced redundancies for all of the 8000 employees until 2020.
If EPH’s plan of economical lignite mining and its conversion into electricity after Germany’s phase out of nuclear plants in 2022 and subsequent high electricity prices will prove to be right, cannot be foreseen as of now. In order for Germany to reach its ambitious climate protection goals and to lead the way as a worldwide pioneer, rather an exit from coal is necessary.
