The Tagebau Garzweiler () is a

surface mine Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

() in the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. It is operated by

RWE RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States. In July 2020, RWE completed a far-reaching asset swap deal with E.ON first ...

and used for mining

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

. The mine currently has a size of and got its name from the village of which previously existed at this location. The community was moved to a section of

Jüchen Jüchen () is a municipality in the Rhein-Kreis Neuss, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The municipality of Jüchen consists of 17 villages and several hamlets. The most important villages are Jüchen itself (6600 inhabitants) and Hochneukirc ...

with the same name.

The open-pit mine

The mine is located west of

Grevenbroich Grevenbroich () is a town in the Rhein-Kreis Neuss, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Erft, approximately 15 km southwest of Neuss and 15 km southeast of Mönchengladbach. Cologne and Düsseldorf are in a ...

and exploitation is progressing towards

Erkelenz Erkelenz (, ) is a town in the Rhineland in western Germany that lies southwest of Mönchengladbach on the northern edge of the Cologne Lowland, halfway between the Lower Rhine region and the Lower Meuse. It is a medium-sized town (over 44,000) ...

. Mining was originally limited to the Garzweiler I area located east of the A 44 motorway. Mining in the Garzweiler II area started in 2006 and is estimated to take until around 2045 to fully exploit both sectors. The lignite is used for power generation at nearby power plants such as Neurath and

Niederaußem Niederaußem (, , in contrast to ":de:Oberaußem, Upper Außem") is a section of the town of Bergheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bergheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, located 18 km west of Cologne. It has 6000 inhabitants and is well known for its N ...

. In 2015, 1500 protesters took part in civil disobedience against the mine on the basis that it is Europe’s biggest source of CO₂ emissions. Around 1000 people entered the coal mine and all of the diggers in its pit were brought to a standstill. It is not yet known what effect the plan to phase out all coal-fired power plants in Germany by 2038 will have on the Garzweiler lignite mine system.

Traffic

The A 44 and A 61 motorways that crossed the planned mine area were affected as well. The A 44 was closed in 2005, dismantled in 2006 and traffic rerouted to the widened A 61 and A 46 motorways. In 2017, as the mine expanded to the west, the A 61 was closed with traffic diverted onto a stretch of newly built A 44n to the east of its original route. As of January 2023, there will be no restoration of previous traffic infrastructure efficiency as stated before, as the part of A 61 which served as connection between two major motorway junctions ( Mönchengladbach-Wanlo and Jackerath, respectively) won't be rebuilt after mining efforts are set to come to an end in 2030.

Displacement of people

In the early 1980s, it is estimated that more than 30,000 people had to be moved for the Garzweiler mine.Aben, T.T., Kroonen, K.J., Piket, J.J. & Puts, P.J.P. (2021) Make a little space for the human race. Retrieved 8 December 2021. These people had to leave their houses and move. Plans for Garzweiler II required that 12 more towns would have to be removed, with around 12,000 more people being relocated. This has caused many controversies, resulting in residents protesting to save the respective towns from demolition.

References

External links

Information on ''Tagebau Garzweiler'' on the RWE website (German)
{{Authority control Coal mines in Germany Geography of North Rhine-Westphalia Open-pit mines RWE

The open-pit mine

Traffic

Displacement of people

See also

References

External links