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Germany decommissioned the Bottrop mine, its last bituminous coal mine at the end of December 2018. The closure happened eleven years after government’s decision of 2007 to phase out the aid and shutter the last black coal mines by 2018. According to RAG Foundation, the only hard coal producer in Germany in charge of the black coal phase-out, hard coal producing costs in Germany (€250/t) are significantly above the market price of €80/t. Consequently, most of the black coal consumed in German coal-fired power plants comes from Russia, the United States, Australia and Colombia. The Hard Coal Mining Financing Law (Steinkohlefinanzierungsgesetz, 2007) defines the conditions of termination of subsidies to the coal industry by end-2018: the €20bn financial burden for the period 2009-2019 was split between the Federal Government (€15.6bn), the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia (€3.9bn) and RAG AG (€965m as from 2012). A government-appointed commission is to announce in February 2019 a roadmap for exiting coal as part of efforts to make Germany carbon-neutral by 2050.. However, the government plans to adopt a gradual phase-out of coal-fired power to safeguard jobs and ensure power supply stability, alongside the planned exit from nuclear power by 2022. The persistently low wholesale electricity prices worsen the profitability of large conventional power plants but this is expected to improve after the nuclear phase out.

German Uniper (E.ON group) has entered into exclusive negotiations for the sale of its activities and assets in France with Czech EPH’s (Energetický a průmyslový holding), subsidiary EP Power Europe that is focusing on buying coal-fired power plants in Europe.

China commissioned two 500 MW solar PV parks at the end of December 2018 in northwest China’s Qinghai Province. The two projects located in Delingha and Golmud municipalities were connecte to the grid and will be both directly managed by the National Energy Administration (NEA).

NV Energy has decided to decommission its 254 MW Valmy North-1 coal-fired unit in Nevada (USA) four years ahead of schedule, in 2021. At its place, the company intends to purchase 1,001 MW in solar capacity with associated 100 MW in storage. The conversion will boost NV’s RES generation to 32% by 2023 (14% in 2017).

The Swedish company Vattenfall has connected the first turbine of the 406 MW Horns Rev 3 offshore wind park (off the Danish west coast). When fully operational – scheduled by the end of the first semester of 2019 – the facility will consist of 49 wind turbines rated 8.4 MW each and supplied by MHI Vestas Offshore Wind (MVOW) and is expected to supply 1.7/TWh/year.

Mozambique Rovuma Venture, the joint venture of ExxonMobil, Eni and CNPC (70%), Galp Energia, Kogas and Mozambique’s Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) (10% each), has secured offtake commitments from buying entities. This milestone will allow for a FID for the first phase of the Rovuma LNG project to take place in 2019.

Russian state-run nuclear energy firm Rosatom has withdrawn the 925 MW Leningrad I-1 nuclear reactor in Sosnovy Bor (Russia) from service after 45 years of operation. Construction started in 1970 and entered commercial operation in 1974.