Electricity from thin air? Not quite. But the Centrale Hemweg comes pretty close.
Welcome to the Centrale Hemweg in Amsterdam. It’s a power plant that has been a vital part of Amsterdam’s energy landscape for decades.
In 1948, construction began on the coal-fired Centrale Hemweg. It was intended to replace the Centrale Noord. The Dienst der Publieke Werken designed it. Four units were initially planned. Expansion to eight was possible. Each unit had an effective capacity of 52.8 MWe.
The first part of the Centrale Hemweg opened in 1952. Alderman B.C. Franke officially opened it on October 3, 1953. Prince Bernhard toured the brand-new plant the month before. Its eight chimneys reached 80 meters. Until 1980, they defined Amsterdam’s Westelijk Havengebied.
Two new units joined in the sixties. Units 5 and 6 were called “Hemweg II”. They started operating in 1966 and 1968. These units burned natural gas and oil. Each had an effective capacity of 125 MWe. The new chimney stood 150 meters tall. It was Amsterdam’s highest point back then.
The gas-fired unit 7 came in the late seventies. Officially opened December 17, 1979. “Hemweg I” was demolished the next year. Only the switching building remained. A gas turbine was added to this unit in 1988. It became a combined cycle plant. The gas turbine could run alone. It then delivered 150 MWe. Together with the “traditional” unit, it raised the maximum effective capacity from 511 MWe to 599 MWe.
The Centrale Hemweg moved from GEB Amsterdam to UNA that year. Production and distribution separated under the 1989 Electricity Act. The P.E.N. production units were placed into UNA.
Unit 8 began operating in 1994. It was then one of Europe’s most modern coal-fired plants. At full load, it burned over 60 kg of pulverized coal per second. This created an effective electrical output of 630 MW. The chimney stretches 175 meters high. Units 5 and 6 were demolished in 1996 after thirty years.
UNA’s shareholders decided to sell their shares to Reliant Energy in 1999. The plant became privately owned for the first time. Nuon acquired the plant in 2003. Vattenfall took over Nuon in 2009. This happened after the network business split off.
A DeNOx installation was added to unit 8 in 2006. It reduced nitrogen oxide emissions. The plant ranked fifth in the Netherlands for nitrogen oxide emissions in 2005. The DeNOx unit cut emissions by 80%. Nuon’s total NOX emissions fell by 35%.
Nuon decided to replace Hemweg 7 with a new gas-fired STEG plant in April 2010. The new plant is Hemweg 9. It has around 59% efficiency. This singleshaft unit provides about 435 MWe. Hemweg 9 can also supply heat. There was insufficient heat demand nearby at the time. The plant can be easily modified to meet heating needs if demand rises. Producing heat can further boost energy efficiency. The new plant became operational in mid-2012. Unit Hemweg 7 closed on January 1, 2013 after 34 years. The plant was almost entirely demolished. Only the gas turbine building remained.
The cabinet decided on May 18, 2018 to close the Hemweg power plant before 2025. The Hemweg power plant emitted 3.6 megatons of CO2 in 2018. This is almost 2 percent of the total Dutch emissions. The coal unit of the Hemweg power plant would close by the end of 2019. This was announced on March 8, 2019. Vattenfall’s disadvantage compensation was set at 52.5 million euros in December 2019. The last coal was burned on December 21, 2019. Hemweg 8 was decommissioned on December 23, 2019. After 67 years, coal-fired power production ended on the Nieuwe Hemweg.
Vattenfall owns the Hemweg power plant since 2009. Hemweg 9 is the only active plant since Hemweg 8 closed in December 2019. It is gas-fired with a maximum effective electrical output of 435 MW.
Vattenfall continues to use the site because of Hemweg 9. It also wants to develop a hub for sustainable fuels like hydrogen and synthetic kerosene.
The Centrale Hemweg stands as a testament to Amsterdam’s industrial history and its ongoing commitment to a sustainable energy future.