Germany has gone back to burning coal in a big way, as it scrambles to deal with the energy crisis causing havoc with the country’s manufacturers and crucial industries.
A full 36.3% of the electricity fed into German power grids between July and September in 2022 came from coal-fired power plants, according to German statistics office Destatis – up from 31.9 percent in the third quarter of 2021.
Corresponding to the German statistics, the International Energy Agency also said this week that demand for coal is set to grow 1.2% and top 8 billion metric tons for the first time ever this year.
The growth in coal use comes just a year after countries agreed to phase down their use of coal at the United Nations’ climate conference in Glasgow.
Crisis in the Ukraine has driven a surge in the price of natural gas and other fuels, which has led Germany and other countries to return to coal as a cheaper option.
The 1.6GW lignite-fired power plants which were scheduled to close at the end of 2022 have been issued a waiver by the German government to allow production to continue until March 2024.
The decommissioning of 2.6 GW of hard coal power capacity and 1.2 GW of lignite capacity has also been postponed.