Coal
Latest Update: September 2023
Hard coal
Interesting facts about hard coal
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History
The hard coal industry in Germany gained in economic importance during the industrial revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries. Production increased steadily, reaching an annual peak of more than 200 million tonnes at the beginning of the Second World War. After WW2, German hard coal was used in the electricity, steel and heat supply industries. In the mid-1950s, more than 600,000 employees in 170 mines extracted 150 million tonnes of hard coal every year. This situation changed at the end of the 1950s.
German hard coal could no longer compete efficiently in the world market since its extraction was carried out exclusively through underground mining. It still needed subsidies from public authorities right up until 2018. In recent decades, imported coal and, above all, cheaper crude oil have replaced domestic hard coal. The current situation of the German hard coal industry is the result of a continuous adaptation process which started with the founding of the Ruhrkohle AG – a merger of 51 Ruhr area mines – in 1969.
Review
On 7 February 2007, the German Federal Government, the Federal States of North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland, the RAG AG and the Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union (IG BCE) agreed to end the subsidised production of hard coal in Germany at the end of 2018 in a socially-acceptable manner.
The phase-out process is governed by the “socially acceptable phasing-out of subsidised hard coal mining in Germany” framework agreement of 14 August 2007 and by the German Hard Coal Financing Act, which came into force in December 2007. For more on this, please refer to chapter 6 on state subsidies and tax concessions. See chapter 8 on the energy transition for more information on the end of hard coal power generation.
Economic importance
Consumption of hard coal in Germany was significantly higher in 2021 compared with 2020 and increased by more than a quarter to around 37.9 million tonnes SKE (SKE: hard coal unit, a unit that is mainly used in central Europe). In 2021, hard coal in Germany therefore still covered 8.9% of primary energy consumption and contributed 9.3% to German gross electricity generation. The last two German hard coal mines closed at the end of 2018. Germany now has to meet all its hard coal requirements through imports because German hard coal mining had been phased out. In 2021, Germany imported around 20.5 million tonnes (49.9%) from Russia making Russia again the largest supplier, followed by the US (17.2%) and Australia (13.4%). Imports from Poland, the only remaining significant coal exporting country in the EU-27, slightly increased to 1.6 million tonnes. Of this, around 1.3 million tonnes was coke. Overall, Germany imported 41.1 million tonnes of hard coal and hard coal products (primarily coke) in 2021. At the end of 2021 (2022), 1,034 (1,011) persons were employed in German hard-coal mining.1
Extraction
Internationally, hard coal is mined both in underground and open-cast mines. In Europe, coal is mined almost exclusively underground and that was the case in Germany until the end of 2018. Coal was mined underground in Germany down to a depth of up to 1,400 m, exclusively using the “longwall mining” technique. Longwall mining involves removing the coal along a coal face up to 450 m long with a coal plough or cutting it with a longwall shearer between two extraction lines. Several thousand tonnes of coal can be mined from a longwall every day. The process is widely used today, with around 50% of the world’s hard coal being extracted using this method. The most important German deposits were in North Rhine-Westphalia in the Aachen coalfield, the Ruhr and the Saarland. In addition to these, there are a large number of smaller hard coal mining areas in Germany.2
Uses
In 2021, power stations accounted for roughly 46% of the total consumption of hard coal, the steel industry accounted for 49%, while other producing industries, the domestic heating sector and small consumers accounted for some 5%.
Lignite
Interesting facts about lignite
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History
As early as the 17th century in Germany, lignite was being produced as a replacement fuel for wood, which was becoming increasingly scarce. With increasing industrialisation and the development of new deposits, the 19th century saw an increase in lignite production from 170,000 tonnes in 1840 to 40 million tonnes in 1900. This trend continued unabated in the 20th century until production reached an all-time peak in 1985 with 433 million tonnes produced that year. Much of this increase in overall German lignite production was attributable to the East German lignite coalfields. Following German reunification production of lignite in the East German lignite coalfields fell by 67 % between 1989 and 1994. Total German production fell from 410 million tonnes to 207 million tonnes during this period. Reserves of lignite totalling 3.7 billion tonnes are accessible via developed and definitely planned open-cast mines. Further reserves total around 32 billion tonnes.
Economic importance
Lignite is still one of the most important sources of energy in Germany, accounting for a share of around 9.1 % of primary energy consumption. This is behind oil, natural gas and renewable energies but ahead of hard coal. The amount mined annually was around 126.3 million tonnes in 2021, which represents an increase of 17.6% over the previous year. Germany covers nearly 100% of its lignite requirements from its domestic reserves. The value of the lignite extracted in Germany in 2021 amounted to €1.87 billion. Lignite accounted for around 14% of the total value of natural resources mined in Germany in 2021. This means that lignite was the third most important natural resource in Germany, in terms of the value of production. In 2021, Germany’s share of global lignite production was 11.9%. Germany is Europe’s largest producer of lignite and the world’s second-largest producer of soft lignite after China, but it is continuing to reduce lignite production in the context of the European climate targets, the compromise found by German society on the coal phase-out as a result of the Commission on “Growth, Structural Change and Employment” KWSB 2019 and the entry into force of the Act to Reduce and End Coal-Fired Power Generation (Kohleverstromungsbeendigungsgesetz – KVBG) in 2021. In October 2022, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Action and Energy of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and RWE AG agreed on key points for bringing forward the coal phase-out by eight years to 2030 in the Rhenish coalfield area. The law to accelerate the lignite phase-out in the Rhenish coalfield area, which came into force in December 2022, made the early phase-out binding. Germany has the third largest reserves after Russia and Australia. In 2021, exports of lignite increased by 15% to 1.23 million tonnes of lignite (including products). With the decline in lignite production in the wake of German reunification, the number of persons directly employed in lignite mining fell from 130,000 in 1990 to 6,670 in 2021, then slightly increased to 6,899 in 2022 2 (exclusive of persons employed in coal-fired power stations).
Extraction
Lignite is extracted in three areas (the Rhenish, Lausitz and Central German coalfields), where mining is only carried out in open-cast mines today. Lignite is currently mined in ten active open-cast mines in Germany. The lignite deposits in the Rhenish coalfield are in the Lower Rhine Basin in the triangle between the cities of Aachen, Mönchengladbach and Cologne. The Lausitz lignite coalfield, which also used to be called the east Elbe lignite coalfield, is a coalfield in south-east Brandenburg and north-east Saxony. Since German reunification, the Central German lignite coalfield is generally assigned to Saxony-Anhalt as well as the north-western part of Saxony and the extreme eastern part of Thuringia.
Uses
Around 90% of the lignite Germany produces is used to generate electricity and district heating. Due to the lower energy and higher water content of soft lignite as compared to hard coal, the economic benefits of lignite result from the combination of the open-cast mine and power plant being near the location of the lignite deposits. Around 10% of lignite produced is refined into solid or pulverised fuels for commercial use and private households (e.g. brown coal briquettes, pulverised lignite, fluidised bed lignite and lignite coke). Lignite contributes 18.8% (2021) of power generation in Germany. The domestic production of lignite covers the country’s annual consumption.
1[BA 2022] (Statistics of the coal industry), for a detailed source reference, see final note i.
2[BA 2022] (Statistics of the coal industry), for a detailed source reference, see final note i.
3In the Rhenish mining area, the lignite phase-out was brought forward to 2030. URL: https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/aktuelles/kohleausstieg-2030-2139228 (Accessed on 26 July 2023).
