German utility Uniper has been given the green light to start commercial operations at its new 1.5-billion-euro Datteln 4 coal-fired power plant despite recommendations to not link it to the grid, government and industry sources told Reuters Newswire.

Talks about compensation payments keeping it offline are no longer being pursued because the modern plant would have relatively low CO2 emissions and it would make more sense to switch off older units first instead of paying millions of euros in compensation, a government source told Reuters journalist Markus Wacket. The Datteln 4 plant with a capacity of 1,100 megawatts (MW) is Germany’s largest hard coal plant. It is scheduled to be operational by mid-2020, according to the article.

Germany’s coal exit commission recommended earlier this year not to start up the Datteln 4 plant, and to compensate Uniper. Germany aims to phase out coal-fired power plants by 2038 at the very latest, according to CLEW.