The new block B was reliable for the team from the power plant. For friends from balls. For 50,000 people-adolescent city of Ibbenburen in the Northern Rhine-Ostam. The region fought for the construction of this Meyler against all resistances in order to give the future to the northern coals in the northern part of Germany. Even RWe-Illy Energy Giants 1990 Rheinisch-Westfälische Elektrizitätswerk – If you had to knock softly at first.
In September 1982, a new object with a 120 -meter boiler -House and a 275 -meter castle was still under construction when he suddenly saw that Goliath RWe saw an outstretched middle finger. In the neighboring Mettingen there are three -the Vinger was happy to turn on the 25 -meter steel mast. And he produced electricity, which the energy giant reluctantly took away from the bold David. For the first time in Germany, a private operator was allowed to submit Windstrom to a public network.
The person was called Dietrich Koch, he taught biology as a high school teacher and was convinced that alternatives to coal and atomic energy were possible. For 67,000 points, the then 44-year-old bought a wind generator from the Dutch manufacturer Lagerwey and placed it on the hill next to his house. The rotor with a diameter of only five meters brought it up to 20 kilowatts -maximum performance. This was enough to supply five households with electricity, but, like the maximum, a compassionate smile made up the people of RWe from a neighboring Shaffberg.
In the 1980s, the entire energy system was based on coal and nuclear impulses. Even the green still considered the overcoming of fossil age to a distant illusion. But progress came faster than expected. In 2024, six out of ten kilowatt -hours came from renewable sources in Germany. Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency Magate expects that half of global energy consumption will disappear from renewable energy sources in 2030.
Teacher of secondary school Dietrich Koch is one of those who laid the train on the energy transition on the highway
Teacher of secondary school Dietrich Koch from Mettingen is one of those who put on the track on the highway. His motive was to preserve the planet for his children, his grandchildren and the next generations. With passion, perseverance and humor, he took this question in his hand. To get to the goal, he often had to go with non -traditional ways. The fact that someone with the wind wanted to generate electricity caused an official suspicion in the early 1980s. To prevent a rotating monster, the responsible construction body continued to invest stones in its path to the annoying world. But the teacher’s teacher handed over to the bureaucracy with her own means. He applied to the building on the atomic bunker, which was supposed to be approved as a privileged project. And the wind generator must supply it with electricity. So this question has finally passed. And he picked up the speed. So fast that the bunker was suddenly no longer needed.
With passion, endurance and humor: Dietrich Koch in front of his wind generator in Mettingen
Photo:
Yang Oelker
In Koch there was enough electricity, not only from the windbreet, later from the solar system. To absorb so much of this, a decisive amateur built a heater for his greenhouse and a small pool for his grandchildren. Then with a heat pump.
Dietrich Koch was one of the first to bend an electronic car over Shaffberg. In 1984, he was noticed behind the wheel of a double American design, similar to a UFO, and then in a converted trab, later in a lively electrician Tazzari from Italy. To refuel along the road, the electricity pioneer founded a network with other friends from the wind and solar energy, whose members were allowed to use green electricity from the blocked nests for reciprocity.
With his enthusiasm, Dietrich Koch stuck others in order to also participate in regenerative energies. His family also had to intervene when there were brochures for folding or distributed leaflets. With current people, he founded the internal community of Windrochat (IWB), one of the predecessors of the Federal Association of Boroenergetics (BWE). He was often in Dusseldorf and Bonn to convince politicians and bureaucrats of his mission.
Energy giants as the largest enemy
The largest opponent of Dietrich Koch were energy giants, who at that time still had their own areas of monopoly. He did not leave the opportunity to put RWe on a pillar that only two funny Pfennigs per kilowatt -they gave him, although the clients had to pay more than ten times. For a teacher from Mettingen, it was Battle of Gall against the Romans. And every moment when his view of a coal power station looked like a potion.
At that time, the fact that the private person intervened in the concert of the great suppliers of energy was perceived. But the teacher of bioles put a lot in motion on the cheek. Even large bicycles. Dietrich Koch wrote a story with mesh food, says Wilfried Winkelmann, the founder of the German Museum of Boroenergetics in Steadeda. Since this led to the dynamics, which led to the Law on renewable energy sources (EEG), a solar boom and funds of the company, such as the manufacturer of Enercon wind turbines.
Ultimately, also to the coal phase -ut. And at the end of the Ibbenburen power plant. In July 2021, the boiler shone for the last time. In the neighborhood in Colliery has been in the mine since 2018. In Ibbenbüren, you have now made peace with the coal phase. “It was clear that this would not continue forever,” admits Werner Luke, who, as the former head of the power plant technology, switched to demolition. He saw that the system needs to be disconnected more and more, because the network had enough wind and solar energy. The energy transition was there, the big dream of Dietrich Koch.
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The power plant on Shaffberg, which was even considered as a landmark on the horizon from a distance of 50 kilometers, is now a story. In early April, explosive charging collapsed around the boiler house. The tower 125 meters high fell together after the demolition workers pressed it with a steel cable. The 275 -meter chimney should also fall in October. At the site of the power plant, the operator of the Amprion network wants to build a converter -station for sea wind energy from the North Sea. After 380 -kilometer, energy should appear as a direct current in the ibbenburen and continue to flow as an alternating current. The Minister of Environment of the Northern Rhine-Ustfal Oliver Krishe (Greens) speaks of “green nests for the NRW”, which should supply two million people. Significantly more than the powerful block B of the power plants. Without Co₂ without sulfur, without nitrogen oxides.
Dietrich Koch no longer experienced an explosion. After a long illness, he died in October 2024. But his friends are sure: he had a big role in the fact that it went so far.