delocx t1_j6s11oa wrote on February 1, 2023 at 2:20 PM

Reply to comment by daOyster in No coal comeback: Europe’s renewable energy transition is in hyperdrive by Straight_Ad2258

Yes:

>To prepare for winter, the EU imported 51 per cent more thermal coal last year, at 65 million tonnes, up from 43 million tonnes in 2021. Russian coal imports were banned last August, resulting in an even larger pickup in coal imports from other countries such as Indonesia and Australia, which rose from a small base to 6 million tonnes each. The panic buying turned out to be unnecessary. Two-thirds of the extra coal imported by the EU remained unused.
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>During winter, 26 coal units across seven countries (most of which were in Germany) were reactivated to provide a safety cushion, which in the end was not needed. These units added less than 1 per cent to the EU’s coal power generation.

VeronciaBDO t1_j6u0qav wrote on February 1, 2023 at 9:48 PM

Used and bought are two different things though

delocx t1_j6u2e3b wrote on February 1, 2023 at 9:58 PM

"Two-thirds of the extra coal imported by the EU remained unused."

Basically Europe panic bought coal earlier in the year, people looking at EU coal consumption assumed the significant increase in coal bought would lead to a correlated increase in consumption and thus created headlines based on that assumption, but in the end it did not, according to this article.

The last paragraph was included as it clarified that expanded coal generation contributed an increase of less than 1% of to the EU's total coal generation, essentially a non-story. The article states further on that it's likely EU coal imports this year will drop off substantially owing to all the extra coal purchased but unused this winter resulting in abundant stockpiles.