Vetschau power plant
| Vetschau power plant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||
| location | |||
|
|||
| Coordinates | 51 ° 46 '36 " N , 14 ° 6' 18" E | ||
| country |
 Germany
|
||
| Data | |||
| Type | Steam power plant | ||
| Primary energy | Fossil energy | ||
| fuel | Brown coal | ||
| power | 1200 megawatts | ||
| owner |
VEB power plant Lübbenau-Vetschau (until 1991) Vereinigte Energiewerke AG (from 1991) |
||
| Project start | 1960 (laying of the foundation stone) | ||
| Start of operations | 1964 | ||
| Shutdown | 1996 | ||
The Vetschau power plant was a brown coal power plant with a total output of 1200 megawatts, which was operated from 1964 to 1996 in the town of Vetschau / Spreewald in what is now the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district in southern Brandenburg .
history
The foundation stone for the power plant was laid on August 19, 1960, the construction work was carried out by the BMK Coal and Energy . On the eastern edge of the town of Vetschau, a 1.3 square kilometer plot of land, up until then mostly wooded, was made available east of Lobendorfer Weg, with the F 115 from Vetschau to Cottbus , which ran through the site, was relocated southwards. At the same time, the power plant was connected via a loop to the Berlin – Görlitz railway line to the north . At the same time as the power station was built, Vetschauer Neustadt was built with a series of apartment blocks.
The first of twelve power plant blocks was commissioned in 1964, the last was completed in 1967. The power plant was fed with lignite from the open-cast mining areas of Gräbendorf and Seese / Ost in the Lusatian lignite district . In addition to generating energy, the waste heat was used for district heating in residential buildings in the city, and the cooling water was used for carp farming. Even today the famous "Vetschauer Spiegelkarpfen" is known to many locals.
The five distinctive chimneys were symbols of the city of Vetschau, but at the same time stood for the region's considerable sulfur dioxide pollution. The power plant employed around 5,000 people, making it the city's largest employer. Together with the power plant in neighboring Lübbenau at the same time (1959–1964) with an output of 1300 MW, the Vetschau power plant formed the VEB power plant Lübbenau-Vetschau in the VE Kombinat lignite power plants . After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991, the power plant became the property of Vereinigte Energiewerke AG .
The structural change after reunification led to the end of lignite mining in Gräbendorf (1992) and Seese / Ost (1996), after 35 million and 55 million tons of coal had been mined there. In 1996 the Vetschau power plant was shut down and the dismantling of the plant began. In 1997 the chimneys were blown up. The site was then used as the Spreewald Industry and Technology Center (ITS) for the settlement of commercial enterprises. The power station building was blown up on May 26, 2013. A warehouse is to be built in its place.