Lignite Power Plant Prunéřov II

The state-owned monopoly energy company ČEZ is pushing through a plan to extend the life of the largest lignite power plant in the Czech Republic.

Independent experts revealed that the project is overpriced and the investor plans to use technology that will not meet the minimum legal requirements on efficiency. This means that large amounts of coal would be ineffectively burned and for at least another quarter of a century. Massive amounts of emissions would be emitted by the power plant into the environment.

• Since 2008 we have been running a campaign to stop this plan and phase out the power plant by 2023.
• The Ministry of Environment used our arguments regarding the low-level energy efficiency and ordered ČEZ to supplement and rework the EIA documentation while obliging the investor to suggest an alternative technology with higher net efficiency.
• As a result of our actions, the investor was obliged to partially compensate for the CO2 emissions generated by the power plant.
• We revealed and challenged the fact that there are insufficient coal deposits in the mine supplying Prunéřov II, and that huge coal transports would be needed to supply the power plant for the projected time period, thus making the project economically irrational.