By Markus Wacket
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany should shut down its coal-fired power plants by 2038 at the latest, a government-appointed commission said early on Saturday as part of a roadmap laying out an accelerated phase-out of the polluting fuel.
The commission's plans are at the centre of Germany's strategy to shift to renewables, which accounted for more than 40 percent of the energy mix last year, beating coal for the first time.
The proposals of the coal commission, which were finalised after more than 20 hours of last-round talks, will serve as a guideline for the government in its effort to turn the planned exit from coal into law.
Commission sources told Reuters the body agreed a total of at least 40 billion euros ($45.65 billion) should be provided in aid for states affected by the coal phase-out up to 2040, less than the roughly 60 billion euros that they had asked for.
In a first step, plant operators including RWE, Uniper, EnBW and Vattenfall will be asked to shut down about 12.7 gigawatts of capacity by 2022, equivalent to about 24 large power station units, the report, seen by Reuters, said.
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"The commission recommends a mutual agreement with the operators on a contractual basis with regard to the shutdown," the report said, adding this would include agreeing on the exact size of compensation.
This should apply to plants in operation and those that have not yet entered service or are still being built, including Uniper's Datteln 4 plant, the report said.
Ways to determine compensation could include capacity tenders or keeping plants on standby, similar to existing reserve payments for operators that have totalled as much as 600 million euros ($685 million) per gigawatt in the past, it added.
The committee's proposals, if implemented, would be the second major intervention in Germany's energy market within a decade after a landmark decision to shut down all nuclear power stations by 2022. The decision to switch away from nuclear was taken in the wake of Japan's Fukishima disaster in 2011.
While the 2038 exit date seems broadly in line with estimates, the report said there is a chance that the phase out could be completed by 2035, adding it would be decided in 2032 whether this was feasible.
Compensation for companies and consumers experiencing higher electricity prices resulting from the coal phase-out should be 2 billion euros per year, with the exact amount to be fixed in 2023, the report said.
($1 = 0.8763 euros)
(Writing by Paul Carrel and Chistoph Steitz; Editing by Caroline Copley, Simon Cameron-Moore and Kirsten Donovan)