On 26 May 2006, construction started on an oxy-fuel combustion process carbon capture and storage pilot plant in the Black Pump industrial area.

With a thermal power of 30 MW, the plant burned coal with pure oxygen (nitrogen-free) gas, replacing air in what is known as oxy-fuel combustion.

Vattenfall stopped carbon capture research and development at the plant in 2014 because they found that "its costs and the energy it requires make the technology unviable.

In their opinion, a greater impact on the reduction of global warming could have been obtained for the same money through investments in renewable energies and efficient power production and use.

[3] Between 13 and 15 May 2016, 3,500–4,000 environmental activists blocked the open-pit coal mine and the Black Pump power station to limit climate change in a project known as Ende Gelände 2016.