In 2021, the Grohnde nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony on the Weser River was shut down. Now, immediately next to it, the Emmerthal energy cluster is growing with three very large battery storage systems, ground-mounted photovoltaic systems, and a new substation for several 380-kilovolt high-voltage lines.
No those are dismantled first because they are the most visible iconic thing that also outputs scary big white smoke! /s Nice idea but i really think those are gone first because they are the biggest virtue signal. Humans are weird.
Yeah people always seem to get hung up on pictures of coal fired plants with no smoke coming out of the stacks but heaps of steam coming out of the cooling towers. Not that coal generation should be defended in any way.
For these they totally wouldnt be wasting a huge amount of energy knocking down and hauling away two massive concrete towers. I wonder if anyone did the math on how long the batteries would need to be in operation to offset the carbon from that demolition.
That said, I have no idea if there’s even any way to utilise them, it’s a nice thought though.
They can quickly and easily be torn down by explosives (video). In fact, they are huge but not that massive.
And concrete can be re-used which saves carbon. With new technology (combination with electric blast furnaces), the cement can even be recycled, saving even more carbon. Which is huge, since it is a very important but extremely carbon-intensive material.