We will now have to buy more: faced with the lack of Russian gas, the Austrian government has decided to reopen the site.
"I never would have imagined that we would restart the factory," says Peter Probst, a 55-year-old welder, still in shock at the announcement.
"It's really sad to be so dependent on gas," he breathes during a site visit, in the town of Fernitz-Mellach (south).
Before the closure in the spring of 2020, quite a symbol for a country aiming for 100% electricity from renewable sources by 2030, 450,000 tonnes of coal were stored there.
In the middle of a bucolic landscape, dotted with cornfields and pumpkins, with the city of Graz in the distance, stands the white and red chimney.
Inside, the walls are black, the dust clings to the doors and railings.
The spiders have taken their ease, weaving their webs on the conveyor belts previously used to transport coal.
Peter Probst, welder, at the coal-fired power plant in Fernitz-Mellach, on June 24, 2022 in Austria JOE KLAMAR AFP
If the other power plants in Austria have already been dismantled, this one is almost intact and can be ready in "about four months", according to Christof Kurzmann-Friedl, manager of the site operated by the supplier Verbund.
Just in time to tackle winter.
Emergency solution
From Germany to the Netherlands, coal, in sharp decline in Europe in the name of the fight against climate change, is experiencing renewed interest in the face of the drop in Russian gas deliveries and the risk of shortages in Europe.
A trend that arouses the concern of environmentalists.
Christof Kurzmann-Friedl, site manager of the Fernitz-Mellach coal-fired power plant, on June 24, 2022 in Austria JOE KLAMAR AFP
In the case of Austria, it is a measure that will only be implemented in the event of an "emergency", conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer told the foreign press on Monday, a week after taking this decision in consultation with its environmental partners.
"It shows how extraordinary we are living in times," he said.
In the event of a supply problem, this 230 megawatt power plant would take over from the adjacent gas-fired plant, which currently supplies heating to the 300,000 inhabitants of Graz, explains Mr Kurzmann-Friedl.
The Fernitz-Mellach coal-fired power plant, June 24, 2022 in Austria JOE KLAMAR AFP
He warns, however, that the task will not be easy.
The site must first be "modernized", additional personnel "equipped with the know-how" hired and above all find enough coal.
This generally came from the mining basin of Silesia, in Poland, but "now it will have to be obtained" in more distant countries and at a much higher price than in 2020, warns the manager.
In the opposition, criticism flared, the Social Democrats castigating "an act of desperation by the Greens".
"Will the next step be the reactivation of Zwentendorf," quipped the parties, referring to the country's only nuclear power plant, which was to come into service in 1978.
The Fernitz-Mellach coal-fired power plant, June 24, 2022 in Austria JOE KLAMAR AFP
Eventually Austria banned the atom and it never worked.
© 2022 AFP