The higher administrative court for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia dealt again with the controversial Datteln 4 coal-fired power plant on Thursday. A good eleven years ago, the OVG overturned a development plan for the city of Datteln for the new power plant, which has been supplying electricity since 2020.
The 10th Senate of the court in Münster is now negotiating the new development plan, against which the neighboring town of Waltrop, the environmental organization BUND and four private individuals are suing.
The issue of location is likely to be the issue again.
According to the tilted planning, the power plant was built five kilometers away from the intended location.
A judgment is expected to be announced on Thursday.
The new development plan is intended to retrospectively secure the billions in investment by the power plant operator Uniper.
In addition, lawsuits against the granted approval are pending at the 8th OVG Senate, which also concern questions of the harmful environmental influences of the hard coal-fired power plant.
Should the development plan be overturned on Thursday, this could have consequences for the pending approval decisions.
The power plant has been the subject of controversy for many years. It went into operation in 2020. Climate activists see this as a violation of the Commission's recommendations to phase out coal. The federal government and the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia emphasize that in return for dates, 4 older hard coal power plants will be shut down. This would offset the additional carbon dioxide emissions from the new power plant.