The German energy group RWE operates the Garzweiler opencast mine and surrounding lignite plants, 35 kilometers southeast of Roermond. A modest wind farm must now make way for the expanding lignite mine. Even before the Keyenberg wind farm was built in 2001, it had already been decided that the project would one day make way for the opencast mine. And even without the approaching lignite mine, the 8 turbines, now 21 years old, would probably have been dismantled in the coming years. Replacing such old turbines is simply lucrative. Modern turbines are 4 to 5 times more powerful and deliver much more sustainable energy in the same place. Now that the time has actually come, it also sounds tragicomic: Wind turbines making way for mining for the worst fossil fuel imaginable, in the land of the Energiewende. Prefer nuclear energy and wind turbines than natural gas and lignite The growing group of critics of Germany's energy policy naturally reveled in this news. Rightly so. Whatever you think of the decision to phase out nuclear power, shutting down nuclear power plants before you can run without lignite is never a good idea. https://youtu.be/wSJLkdyrHNM