Datteln 4

The chain of the place

1. 01

   Delivery: Imported coal arrives by ship on the Dortmund-Ems Canal.

2. 02

   Conveying: A conveyor brings it from the harbour to the boiler house.

3. 03

   Burning: Datteln 4 burns it: 1,052 MW of power, steam from the 180 m cooling tower.

4. 04

   Traction power: Part of it goes to the railway as 16.7 Hz traction power.

5. 05

   District heat: The waste heat warms homes as far as Recklinghausen via district heating.

6. 06

   The old plant: The old units 1–3 ran until 2014 and have since been demolished.

What is shown – why – for whom

Facilities and areas in the model

• Kraftwerk Datteln 4

  1,052 MW net since 30 May 2020, built from 2007 and delayed for years by court cases. About 640 MW go to the grid, 413 MW as traction current, plus up to 380 MW of district heat.

• Kraftwerk Datteln 1–3

  Three units with about 300 MW in total from 1964, 1965 and 1969, shut down in February 2014. To the end they also supplied traction current.

• Schaltanlage 380 kV

  Here the three-phase power (50 Hz) enters the transmission grid.

• Bahnstromumrichter

  Converts up to 413 MW into 16.7 Hz traction current for the 110 kV rail grid. A converter station went into service in February 2014, when the old units went offline; that it is this one is assumed.

• Bahnstrom-Schaltwerk Datteln

  Hand-over into the railway's traction power grid.

• Fernwärme nach Recklinghausen

  About 11 km of pipe to Recklinghausen, heat for some 100,000 households. Route schematic.

Processes in the model

How a power plant site can use the model

• Operations and planning

  One plant, three customers: grid, railway and district heat on one site, with switchgear, traction power converter and the pipe to Recklinghausen. A plant’s card names capacity, years, state and the value now.

  Pour quiOperators, power plant and grid planning

• Municipality and heat

  Heat for some 100,000 households through about 11 km of pipe: the heat view on a winter evening shows the houses as a thermal image – a basis for talks about district heating and the coal exit.

  Pour quiMunicipalities, heat planning, economic development, chambers

• Schools and universities

  Where does the railway get its power from? The steps of ‘How it works’ lead from the coal ship via conveyor and boiler to the converter that turns 50 Hz three-phase power into 16.7 Hz traction current.

  Pour quiTeachers, vocational schools, electrical engineering students

• Museums and exhibitions

  Time travel shows 1975, 2000, 2016 and 2025: first units 1–3, by 2016 they are out of service, in 2025 Datteln 4 runs with district heat to Recklinghausen. The history of the place jumps to every year.

  Pour quiMuseums, industrial heritage, exhibitions

• Public communication

  Why did the coal plants run at full load in 2022? The event ‘Switch off Datteln 4’ plays the winter evening in the gas crisis – and shows who steps in when the steam disappears.

  Pour quiPublic relations, policymakers, associations

What you can change

What the model gives a power plant site

• 01

  A plant with its surroundings

  Canal, harbour, conveyor, boiler house, cooling tower, switchgear and traction power on one site in 3D, from high above down to eye level with cars, lorries and trains.

• 02

  Switch off yourself

  Tap Kraftwerk Datteln, ‘Switch off’: the model calculates without the plant, the top shows who steps in, CO₂ and imports change. ‘All on again’ takes you back.

• 03

  Power now above the plant

  Above Datteln 4 stands a stack of cubes, one cube 20 MW, the frame the installed capacity. In the stormy night and on the winter evening without wind or sun you see how it changes.

• 04

  Five views

  Power, heat, fuels, storage and CO₂: in the fuels view the world turns grey and the coal glows in its colour, and the CO₂ view names the emissions now in tonnes per hour.

• 05

  In the browser and on the big screen

  A browser is enough, and large projections work too. Eleven more places and the map of Germany are part of the same model, designed by an artist and developer.

• 

  Hamm-Uentrop

  Five decades of energy on the Lippe and the canal as a walkable model: the THTR-300 thorium reactor, the Westfalen hard-coal plant, a gas plant, a large battery – and soon direct current from Wilhelmshaven.

• 

  Wilhelmshaven

  Germany’s only deep-water port as a walkable model: crude oil for the pipeline to the Rhineland, coal for two power plants and, since December 2022, liquefied natural gas from Germany’s first LNG terminal.

• 

  Rhineland lignite district

  The Rhineland lignite district as a walkable model: from the Garzweiler mine via conveyors, boilers and cooling towers into the 380 kV grid – while wind, sun and batteries grow on the reclaimed land.

• 

  Düsseldorf Lausward

  A combined-cycle gas plant on the Rhine as a walkable model: power to the grid, heat via a 58 m storage tank and the district heating line into the media harbour and the city centre.

• 

  Bochum · MARK 51°7

  A former car plant above the Dannenbaum colliery as a walkable model: the new MARK 51°7 district is to draw heating and cooling from the water of the old mine, from 820 and 340 m down.

• 

  Lingen

  The whole nuclear era in one place as a walkable model: the Lingen nuclear plant of 1968, the Emsland nuclear plant until April 2023, interim storage and dismantling – next to them gas, a battery and hydrogen.

• 

  Germany 1975–2025

  Fifty years of energy supply on one map: 365 sites, ten grid regions and the power of every hour – from two separate grids in 1975 to wind and sun in 2025.

• 

  Herdecke

  Three generations of storage at Lake Hengstey as a walkable model: the Koepchenwerk of 1930, the pumped-storage plant of 1989 and batteries since 2017 – the level in the reservoir follows sun, wind and demand.