Niederaussem Power Station
Niederaussem Power Station is a lignite-fired power station in the Bergheim Niederaussem/Rhein Erft circle, owned by RWE. It consisted of nine units, which were built between 1963 and 2003. It is the largest lignite coal power plant in operation in Germany, with total net capacity of 2,220 MW. The plant is estimated to have been one of the ten most carbon-polluting coal-fired power plants in the world in 2018, at 27.2 million tons of carbon dioxide, and its emissions intensity (kgCO2 per MWh of power produced) is estimated to be 45.1% higher relative to the average for all fossil-fueled plants in Germany. According to the study Dirty Thirty, issued in 2007 by the WWF, Niederaussem Power Station is the second-worst power station in Europe in terms of mercury emissions due to the use of lignite.