23 September 2025
Gas Plant Profile: Lippendorf, Germany
PROJECT: One of Germany’s most polluting coal plants, Lippendorf will be converted to a gas plant with a capacity of 900 MW by 2027.
LOCATION: Lippendorf, Germany
UTILITY: EPH subsidiaries: EP Energy Transition and LEAG
STATUS: The gas conversion project was announced in 2022. Construction is expected to begin in 2026.
Map data: ©2025 Google, © Airbus | Power Station image: © Public Domain
The Lippendorf coal power station (1866 MW) is operated by the German energy company and subsidiary of Czech utility Energetický a průmyslový holding (EPH), LEAG. One block is co-owned by LEAG and the other by EnBW. In May 2025, EnBW sold its half of the Lippendorf power station to the Czech company EP Energy Transition. The company will take over the plant from January 2026.
With 11.1 million tonnes in CO2 emissions in 2021, Greenpeace ranked the Lippendorf coal power plant third on its list of the “most harmful coal-fired power plants in Germany“.
Under Germany’s Coal Phase-Out Act, coal plants need to be shut down by the end of 2038. To maintain operations at the Lippendorf site after coal is phased out by 2035, LEAG plans to build a “hydrogen-ready” gas plant there by 2027.
After announcing its new gas plans, LEAG held meetings with local residents, who voiced concerns that the gas plant will be noisy and lower the quality of life for the community. Despite these complaints, LEAG is still moving forward with the gas plant.
The German government is planning to add twice as much gas capacity (20 GW) as the previous government. While the previous government planned to eventually convert the new gas plants to hydrogen, Friedrich Merz’s new government has dropped this requirement, focusing instead on another false solution, carbon capture (CCU/CCS).
Germany’s energy security cannot be protected by expanding fossil gas, especially not through unproven, costly false solutions like hydrogen and CCS. Instead, the country must invest in its grid infrastructure and clean flexibility solutions, while continuing to scale up wind and solar power to strengthen its energy sector and bring down bills.
Czech utility EPH and its web of subsidiaries (LEAG, EPETr, MIBRAG) pose a threat to Germany and Europe’s energy transition. The company buys up aging fossil fuel plants from German utilities trying to decarbonise their portfolios. With seemingly no intention to phase out coal, EPH ramps up operation of the plants with the help of taxpayer money. EPH also has the largest gas power expansion plans of any utility in Europe, and has been using corporate manoeuvres to conceal its emissions, continue investing in coal, and potentially avoid paying mine recultivation costs to German villages affected by coal mining.
