Gas Power Plants: a critical fight we can’t afford to ignore
The fight against gas power plants is ongoing but missing sufficient visibility. There are a number of problematic gas power plants that shouldn’t be built. There are important developments around these plants that are not sufficiently heard, understood and contextualised.
Nijmegen, the Netherlands
New 500 MW fossil gas plant on a former coal plant site, which it intends to operate until 2045, in contradiction with the Dutch government’s commitment to decarbonise its power system by 2035. Plans to eventually convert it to hydrogen are vague, failing to identify when the switch will be made and where the hydrogen will come from.
Peterhead, Scotland
New 900 MW combined cycle gas turbine on the site of an operational 1180 MW fossil gas plant, already Scotland’s biggest polluter. Promises to capture at least 90% of CO2 emissions through CCS, an unproven and expensive technology.
Rybnik, Poland
Rybnik gas plant includes a 882,9 MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT), the largest single gas unit in the country. It will replace four former 225 MW hard coal units. Construction began in 2023, and the plant is expected to be operational by the end of 2026.
Kozienice, Poland
Two new 700 MW combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) (earlier plans included three 750 MW or two 1100 MW blocks) on the site of a 4 GW coal power plant, the largest hard coal power plant in the country and one of the biggest in Europe. The new gas blocks are to replace the oldest 200 MW coal units.
Mintia, Romania
According to Romania’s national energy and climate plan, the country plans to add 2.6 GW of gas-fired capacity by 2030. However, announced projects total nearly three times this planned capacity, exceeding 6 GW. One of the mega projects contributing to this goal is the Mintia gas-fired power plant.
A former coal plant, the Mintia gas-fired power plant will be the largest installation in the EU, with a capacity of 1.77 GW.
Lippendorf, Germany
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“.Â
Brindisi Sud, Italy
Since the 1990s, Italian power utility Enel has operated one of the largest coal plants in both Italy and Europe: Brindisi Sud. The plant was made up of four coal units with a total capacity of 2,640 MW, three of them still active today. In 2017, the Italian government announced plans to phase out coal power by 2025, which required Enel to begin planning the closures of Brindisi’s coal units.
Roskovec, Albania
The local government approved the plant’s construction permit in May 2024, but the project has not moved forward due to incomplete documentation. In Sept. 2025, the Albanian Energy  Regulatory Authority suspended the plant’s license.