Overview
- Two 114‑meter cooling towers at Uniper’s Scholven coal plant in Gelsenkirchen were brought down by controlled blasts at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, tipping onto each other as planned.
- A 300‑meter safety zone was set up and nearby streets were closed, and residents were told they could stay in their homes.
- Uniper plans to build a new gas‑fired turbine on the cleared site that it says could later run on low‑carbon hydrogen.
- The plant’s remaining blocks B and C are designated system‑relevant and are expected to operate until 2031 to support the grid when wind and solar output is low.
- Scholven was Germany’s largest hard‑coal plant in the 1960s, and earlier waves of demolition in 2008, 2015, and 2025 removed other towers and industrial buildings.