Czech coal production rose in 2022 despite phase-out plans

The Czech Republic’s goal of phasing out coal by 2033 seems out of reach as coal production in the country rose last year amid an energy crisis sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Czechia produced 35.2 million tonnes of hard coal and lignite in 2022, up a tenth compared to 2021. According to analyses published by Europe in Data, the increase in coal production was mainly due to the energy crisis and the industry’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The situation escalated in early 2022 after the start of the military conflict, when concerns arose about the sufficiency of natural gas supplies from Russia.

“COVID brought a dramatic drop in demand. However, this was followed by Asia’s economic awakening combined with the energy crisis and gas shortages. This brought an unprecedented increase in lignite production in the Czech Republic,” said Václav Matys, CEO of Czech coal-fired power plant Chvaletice.

The spokeswoman of Czech coal-mining company Sokolovská uhelná, Jana Pavlíková, confirmed that the company took measures “to change the trend of gradually reducing the volume of extraction” and “returned to the technological maximum of the possible extraction volume”.

However, coal production is falling again this year and is likely to return below 2021 levels.

Europe’s three mining champions include Germany, Poland and Bulgaria, with respectively 133 million tonnes, 108 million tonnes and 36 million tonnes of coal mined last year. The Czech Republic is fourth with 35 million tonnes.

According to the Czech government programme statement, the country plans to shut down its coal-fired power plants by 2033, though the government claims that the complete phase-out would happen “under the condition of ensuring sufficient backup capacity”.

(Aneta Zachová | EURACTIV.cz)