Germany has an opportunity to phase-out coal power plants almost a decade ahead of schedule — but it will require a fleet of natural gas plants to do it, a new study by Wartsila Oyj shows. Adding as much as 12 gigawatts of gas-fired, combined heat and power plants to a mix of renewable energy sources would help the country replace existing coal facilities by 2030, according to the Finnish company. Germany plans to close all of its coal plants by 2038 at the latest. The bigger question is whether Germany would go for replacing one fossil fuel with another. Local utilities have said they need the government to guarantee an adequate return on investment for building more gas plants. The country’s newest coal plant , a Uniper SE facility that opened last year, has a net output of about one gigawatt. Throughout the European Union, climate policy has […]