Analysis of power plant closure plans for Germany’s Lusatian mining district

Documents have been made public from the sales process of the lignite-fired power plants and lignite open-cast mines in the Lusatian mining district of Germany, which include detailed information on the closure of the different power plant units. In relation to these documents, the following questions arise:

• To what extent can it be assumed that this information on power plant closures can be considered reliable for the business plans that were pursued prior to the agreements on power plant closures made in the course of Germany’s national and state governments’ agreement on the phase-out pathway for lignite-fired power plants (Annex 2)?
• How do these business plans compare to the above-mentioned agreement of Germany’s national and state governments?

In the following, these two questions are analyzed based on the existing literature and on plausibility checks.