Reuters has reported (on material originally from newspaper Rheinische Post) that German utility RWE is expecting to be compensated with €2 billion (US$2.23 billion) by the federal government for the enforced closure of 2.5 GW of lignite-fired power generation capacity due to be closed at the end of 2022. Such an amount would be a little under what RWE had been seeking (at €1.2-1.5 billion per GW of capacity), but still quite a large amount, which could be further increased by up to €700 million to cover payments to the 3000 staff that would be retired early as a result of the closures. The German government, which is still negotiating compensation with affected companies regarding the closures, has neither confirmed nor denied the reports. Meanwhile, Uniper is said to be negotiating to the effect that it can operate its state-of-the-art Datteln 4 lignite plant until 2038 (the scheduled last year of coal firing in Germany) if it shuts other plants. The government wants to find a further 0.5 GW of capacity to close by the end of 2022.