Schwarze Pumpe power station is a modern lignite-fired power station in the "Schwarze Pumpe" district in Spremberg, Germany consisting of 2 × 800 megawatts units. It came into service in 1997–1998 and was built by Siemens. The power station was sold by Vattenfall to the Czech energy group EPH and its financial partner PPF Investments on 30September 2016.The steam generator is 161m high and has an observation deck on its top.New [[Carbon capture and storage|CCS]] pilot plantOn 26 May 2006 in the Schwarze Pumpe industrial area, construction work started on the world's first "carbon-dioxide free" oxyfuel test facility in pilot scale. The details below are excellent for understanding the pilot plant, but Vattenfall stopped carbon capture R&D at the plant in 2014 because they found "its costs and the energy it requires makes the technology unviable."http://www.thelocal.se/20140507/vattenfall-abandons-research-on-co2-storage This is a facility with a thermal power of 30 MW, following the so-called Oxyfuel method to burn the coal with pure Oxygen and Nitrogen-free exhaust. The resulting carbon dioxide will be compressed and liquefied. It will then be put into geologic formations and stored so as not to contribute to global warming. Aim of the plant is not to produce electricity but steam which is then used by the nearby industry. The facility will be commissioned in summer 2008 and serve as a prototype for larger power plants. Environmentalists have criticized the facility, because of the high level of carbon dioxide it emits in comparison with other fossil fuels. In their opinion a greater impact on the reduction of global warming could have been obtained for the same money through investments in more on renewable energies, and efficient power production and use. On May 14 2016 Vattenvall reported that environmental campaigners tried to force the power plant to shut down by occupying the coal transport railway tracks into the plant. 120 people were arrested. 2,000 climate activists occupied different areas of the nearby mine Welzow-Süd and the rails of the coal transport trains in order to stop the fuel supply to the power plant Schwarze Pumpe and thereby enforce a stop of plant operation.