Portugal’s Last Coal Power Plant Shuts Down, Fourth Country in Europe to Stop Burning Coal

The 628-MW Pego power station was shut down on Nov. 20, 10 days ahead of schedule, marking the end of coal-fired power generation in Portugal. The country joins Belgium, Austria, and Sweden, as the fourth European nation to discontinue the use of coal.

“Portugal is the perfect example of how once a country commits to quitting coal, the pace of the phase out inevitably accelerates. The benefits of transitioning to renewables are so great, once started, it only makes sense to get out of coal as fast as possible,” Kathrin Gutmann, Europe Beyond Coal campaign director, said in a press release on Nov. 22. “Coal’s dire economics and public desire for climate action are driving faster and faster phase outs across Europe. The challenge now is to ensure utilities do not make the mistake of replacing coal with fossil gas, or unsustainable biomass.”

However, reopening on biomass fuel may be exactly what the Pego plant (Figure 1) ends up doing. Biofuelwatch, a group that “provides information, advocacy and campaigning in relation to the climate, environmental, human rights and public health impacts of large-scale industrial bioenergy,” reported that TrustEnergy, a joint venture between ENGIE and Marubeni, and the majority shareholder of the Pego power station, wants to convert the plant’s coal-burning unit to burn wood pellets. The group claims in an open letter that “with the plant operating at full capacity, Pego would need closer to 5 million tonnes of wood” annually and that “the increased demand for raw material would far exceed available resources.”