You could be forgiven for dismissing as misinformation a social media post that declares “Germany detonates its most modern coal-fired power plant after just six years. The Moorburg plant in Hamburg cost €3 billion and produced 1,654 MW, enough to power the entire city. They demolished it because Greta said so. Putin & Xi are laughing.” Yes, we know the Energiewende has been a disaster. But surely not that bad? Aren’t the people behind it starting to come to their senses? Well, no. Perhaps they have none. Instead newspapers from India to Russia are chortling at the way Moorburg actually, truly blowed up real bad.

Putin may well be unable to believe his luck. Pravda scoffs that:

“Germany detonates its most modern coal-fired power plant after just six years. The Moorburg plant in Hamburg cost €3 billion and produced 1,654 MW, enough to power the entire city.”

Who does that? And just how gullible are they? Well, we’re glad you asked, sort of.

See Review Energy reports that:

“The Hagedorn Group successfully detonated the chimneys of the flue gas desulfurization unit (FGD) at the Moorburg power plant, marking a major milestone in the ongoing decommissioning process that began in fall 2023. The demolition, which significantly altered the silhouette of the former coal-fired power plant, is part of efforts to clear space for green hydrogen infrastructure.”

Yup. They really blew up the pollution reduction unit to let unicorns graze. Green hydrogen being, you’ll recall, the kind that is separated out from water without using nasty evil methane or coal. And how well is this or any form of hydrogen doing in the real world? Um uh gosh well see… (As we recently learned, hydrogen presents a range of scary engineering challenges including ones like “Low ignition energy” to “High flame velocity” that fit under the “Blowed up real good” heading, which is why it’s been the fuel of the future for very nearly 200 years.)

Germany still has gas plants, and a good thing too as they are needed because wind isn’t reliable. But they burn Russian gas and, who knows, maybe they’re next for the Zerstörers to target.

Meanwhile the story of Moorburg gets worse. India Today shows footage of the detonation and says:

“The collapse, a grim visual reminder of the country’s energy shift, came just six years after the plant first went into operation. The building of the 1,654 MW Moorburg plant was a massive investment, worth more than 3 billion euros. Its capacity was large, with the ability to provide electricity for about 1.5 million homes. But despite its cutting-edge technology and potential, Moorburg’s life was suddenly cut short. The early closure was a direct result of Germany’s plan to shut down coal power as part of its overall approach to fight climate change.”

So yes, Greta told them to. But it was a grim visual reminder of something else too. It might be unkind to Germany to suggest that it has something of a reputation for applying world-class efficiency to dubious goals. But in this case only the latter was visible:

“The demolition of the plant was scheduled in March, but the process did not unfold as planned, according to German news outlet Bild. The demolition, intended to collapse both boiler rooms of the plant, was partially unsuccessful. When the explosion occurred, only one of the two boiler rooms collapsed, leaving the other intact.”

The people who brought you the Blitzkrieg can’t even blow up their own factory now?

So the unicorn pasture wasn’t even cleared. But the shiny new extremely expensive factory is unusable, just as Germany realizes it needs to rebuild its military and reduce energy dependency on Russia without bankrupting itself.

Boom!