Whenever environmentalist Thorwald Ritter steps outside his house, he can see the cooling tower of the coal-fired power plant. Clouds of steam rise upwards. Ritter looks at the tower and says, "At least half the force." He has been observing the power plant for so many years that one glance is enough for him to tell what capacity it is running with.

Morten Freidel

Political editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung

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In a few days, the steam should actually be gone. Then Unit 5 of the Staudinger power plant in Großkrotzenburg was to run only in exceptional cases, the operator and the politicians had agreed. It would have been the day when the 76-year-old knight would have achieved his goal in life. For almost fifty years he fought against the Staudinger coal-fired power plant. As early as the end of the seventies, he campaigned for the exhaust gases to be filtered. After the turn of the millennium, he co-founded the citizens' initiative "Stop Staudinger".

He demonstrated against the planned construction of the sixth block, painted banners, gave speeches, sang songs. Wherever he could, he put up stickers of his initiative with the slogan: "Climate protection instead of E.on dirt!" Ritter fought until the energy company refrained from building another coal block in 2012. He continued to fight until Eon handed over the power plant to Uniper and the operator finally decided a good two years ago to shut it down soon. Then he took a break.

Will the power plant be shut down in 2024?

Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and everything turned out differently. Putin turned off the gas on which the entire energy transition rested. Suddenly, coal was systemically important again. It had to be burned throughout the country to save gas and have enough electricity in winter. To this end, the German government passed a law that also made it possible for Uniper to run Staudinger's fifth block at full speed again. In addition, the government adhered to the final nuclear phase-out about a month ago.

According to experts, this has increased the importance of coal, especially in the hours when there is no wind and the sun does not shine. So clouds of steam continue to rise into the sky above Großkrotzenburg.

The crucial question is for how long. Ritter assumes that it will not be longer than the legally stipulated deadline at the end of March 2024, i.e. just under a year. "Then it's over," he says on the drive to the power plant. By car it is not far, out of the village, once over the Main, turn right. Ritter still looks like an environmental activist, he wears a white beard and shoes that allow you to walk through rough terrain. He suggests parking in the power plant's underground car park, despite a sign that says "Employees Only." "Then we're employees today," he says. "There's nothing going on here anyway." But the densely packed cars tell a different story.