Coal
Hard coal
Interesting facts about hard coal
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History
The hard coal industry in Germany gained in econom- ic 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 elec- tricity, 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 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.
Outlook
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 lower in 2019 compared with 2018 and reduced by more than one fifth to around 38.7 million tonnes SKE (SKE: hard coal unit, a unit that is mainly used in central Europe). In 2019, hard coal in Germany therefore still covered 8.5% of primary energy consumption and con- tributed 9.4% to German gross electricity generation. The last two German hard coal mines closed at the end of 2018. Germany now had to meet all its hard coal requirements through imports because German hard coal mining had been phased out. With around 19.4 million tonnes (45.8%) Russia was again the largest supplier, followed by the USA (19.2%) and Australia (11.3%). Imports from Poland, the only remaining significant coal exporting country in the EU-28, fell to 1.4 million tonnes. Of this, around 1.2 million tonnes was coke. Overall, in 2019 Germany imported 42.24 million tonnes of hard coal and hard coal products (primarily coke).
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 1400 m, exclusively using the “longwall mining” tech- nique. 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. Today this method is widely used, with around 50% of hard coal production worldwide being mined 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.
Uses
In 2019, power stations accounted for roughly 51% of the total consumption of hard coal, the steel industry accounted for 46%, while other producing industries, the domestic heating sector and small consumers accounted for some 3%.
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 and natural gas but ahead of hard coal. The amount mined annually was around 131.3 million tonnes in 2019, which represents a reduction of 21% 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 2019 amounted to EUR1.9 billion. Lignite accounted for around 16% of the total value of natural resources mined in Germany in 2019. This means that lignite is the most important natural resource in Germany, in terms of the value of production. In 2019, Germany’s share of global lignite production was 12.6%. Germany is the largest producer of lignite in Europe but is reducing its lignite production substantially in the context of the European climate targets. A comparison of global lignite production is currently not possible because of differences in the databases used for comparisons, particularly in the USA, Russia and China. Germany has the third largest reserves after Russia and Australia. In 2019, exports of lignite fell by –10.8% to 1.32 million tonnes of lignite (incl. 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 8,581 in 2019.
Extraction
Lignite is extracted in three areas (the Rhenish, Lausitz and Central German regions), where today mining is only carried out in opencast mines. Lignite is currently mined in ten active opencast 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. The eco- nomic advantages in using lignite result from the combination of the opencast mine and power plant being near the location of the lignite deposits. Around 10% of lignite produced is refined into solid or pulver- ised fuels for commercial use and private households (e.g. brown coal briquettes, pulverised lignite, fluidised bed lignite and lignite coke). Lignite contributes 18.7% (2019) of power generation in Germany. The domestic production of lignite covers the country’s annual consumption.
