Austria announced on Sunday that it is converting a reserve, gas-fired power plant so that it can produce electricity with coal should Russia cut the country’s gas supply.
Led by Chancellor Karl Nehammer, the Austrian government has partnered with state-owned utility Verbund to convert the Mellach power plant in the southern Styria region for renewed use of coal.
“The federal government and the energy group VERBUND have agreed to convert the Mellach (Styria) district heating power plant, which is currently shut down, so that in an emergency it can once again produce electricity from coal (not gas),” Nehammer’s office said in a statement.
It added that the government was examining further opportunities to diversify gas supplies with the aim of reducing dependence on Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been a headache for the European Union, prompting most countries to build up inventories and seek alternative suppliers.
Most recently, neighboring country Germany also announced that it will be relying more on coal for its electricity supply after Russia reduced its gas deliveries to the country.
“To reduce gas consumption, less gas must be used to generate electricity. Coal-fired power plants will have to be used more instead,” said German green party Minister Robert Habeck. “That’s bitter, but it’s simply necessary in this situation to lower gas usage.”
The country is also considering reviving its nuclear operations despite being phased out earlier this year, and while it was initially thought that some of the deactivated plants could be brought back online to fight the energy crisis, Habeck rejected the call.
“We have again examined very carefully whether a longer operation of the nuclear power plants would help us in this foreign policy situation,” the minister said at the time. “The answer is negative — it would not help us.”
Meanwhile, one of the German Green’s coalition partners has suggested re-examining the country’s ban on fracking in the hopes of remedying the current situation.
“As scientific studies show, fracking does not cause any relevant environmental damage under modern safety standards,” an official of the Freie Demokratische Partei said. “It should therefore be seriously examined whether larger shale gas production is feasible in Germany from an economic and technical point of view.”
