Germany dismantles Nord Stream power plant at Lubmin for transfer to Ukraine

Dismantling of the Greifswald industrial power plant in Lubmin, northeastern Germany, is under way, with the facility destined for Ukraine as part of a broader EU-coordinated transfer of decommissioned energy infrastructure.

The plant, majority-owned by Germany's state-controlled Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE), heated gas arriving through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and supplied electricity to Germany's grid. It ceased operation in April 2023 after the pipelines were sabotaged in September 2022. A Naftogaz team is managing the transfer; SEFE spokesperson Adrianne Montgobert confirmed the dismantling and said all commercial sale options had been explored but that "no commercially viable solution emerged." Donating the facility was described as "the best alternative to scrapping it."

The transfer is expected to complete within the first quarter of 2027. A motion by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to halt the transfer was defeated in May; the AfD claimed removal would "impair future energy policy options." Gerold Juergens, president of the Western Pomerania Business Association, also weighed in, telling a German media outlet: "many people's impression is: First they blow up the pipeline and then they take away the power plant. You can't explain that to anyone" — an apparent reference to allegations that Ukraine was behind the Nord Stream sabotage. A trial of a Ukrainian special forces officer accused of leading the sabotage operation is currently under way in Hamburg; Kyiv has denied involvement.

The Lubmin plant sits within a wider EU initiative to redirect decommissioned energy assets to Ukraine. In December 2025, the EU completed the dismantling and relocation of a gas-fired thermal power plant from Lithuania — the Vilnius Combined Heat and Power Plant — delivered in 149 separate shipments weighing a combined 2,399 tons. It was not rebuilt but used for parts at Ukrainian energy facilities. Lithuania also pledged hundreds of tons of hardware from the decommissioned Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in September.

An EU spokesperson said more than 4 billion euros ($4.42 billion) of energy security aid had been supplied to Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion, infrastructure capable of supporting up to approximately 9.6 million people. The next facility in the transfer pipeline is the Riga CHP-2 plant in Latvia. Two decommissioned coal-fired plants in Germany are also under consideration, though a source in Brussels declined to name them citing sabotage concerns.