Cologne-Merkenich power station is a 75 MW coal power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is operated by Stadtwerke Köln GmbH (100% City of Cologne). Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 94k homes (estimated). It ranks #300 of 1,442 Germany power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2010, it is around 16 years old — relatively modern. Its annual emissions of 279,642 t CO₂/yr (EU ETS verified (EUTL 2023)) are equivalent to about 65k cars driven for a year. In context, coal supplies about 20.6% of Germany's electricity; the national grid averages 330 gCO₂/kWh (59.1% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1005800.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and fuel fields on this page are source-record values from the upstream open dataset. They are useful for identification and ranking, but they have not been upgraded to a 2026 registry/GEM-location verified value.
capacity: WRI Global Power Plant Database source-record (legacy); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 75 MW, Cologne-Merkenich power station is below the median coal plant in Germany (296 MW). Technically it is described as subcritical. Coal plants burn pulverised coal to raise high-pressure steam for a turbine; they run as baseload but are the most carbon-intensive mainstream source and the first targeted for retirement or efficiency retrofits.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:
Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies; emissions per EU ETS verified (EUTL 2023) (measured for US EPA/EU ETS, modelled for Climate TRACE).
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Stadtwerke Köln GmbH (100% City of Cologne).
This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 51.0°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 14% above the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 57/100 — this site sits in the mid third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a mild atmospheric environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C2 — Low), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #91 largest coal power plant of 124 in Germany by capacity.
Germany has 124 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 64,920 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 51.0178, 6.9643 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Cologne-Merkenich power station is a 75 MW source-record coal power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, commissioned in 2010.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 94,232 homes (estimated).
Cologne-Merkenich power station is operated by Stadtwerke Köln GmbH (100% City of Cologne).
Cologne-Merkenich power station has measured emissions of about 279,642 tonnes of CO₂ per year (EU ETS verified (EUTL 2023)).
