Bonn, 28 September 2017. The Higher Administrative Court of Lower Saxony rendered a judgement on 27 September 2017 according to which the project‐based binding land‐use plan no. 603 of the city of Stade was lawful. The plan sets out the planning requirements for the construction and operation of an industrial power plant at the Stade site of Dow Deutschland Anlagengesellschaft mbH. The subsidiary of Dow Chemical (now DowDuPont Inc.) was represented by Redeker Sellner Dahs (Prof Dr Olaf Reidt, Dr Julian Augustin).
The land‐use plan no. 603 was enacted by the municipal council in 2014. It lays out the planning requirements for the construction and operation of a mainly coal‐fired power plant with a firing thermal capacity of up to 2,100 MW. The power station will mainly serve the local chemical production site of Dow Deutschland with electricity and steam. With a share of 1.1 % of Germany’s total demand for electricity, the chemical plants at Dow’s Stade site represent the biggest electricity costumer in Germany. The investment volume for the construction of the power plant amounts to € 1.6 billion.
In their claim, the BUND, an environment association, as well as a private resident had raised various objections against the land‐use plan. These objections did not convince the Higher Administrative Court. The court found that the city of Stade had fulfilled the noise prevention requirements. Neither aspects of major‐accident prevention law, the European Water Framework Directive nor national water law conflicted with the plan. The court also confirmed the Flora Fauna Habitat compatibility survey. Finally, to the conviction of the court, the city of Stade correctly considered the regional planning targets as well as the plan’s impact on the global climate.
The judgment has not yet become final.
