Episode 145 | Coal Comeback | Euracoal





Who would have ever imagined Europe using more coal? That’s exactly the situation the region finds itself in, struggling to supplement Russian oil and gas.

Euracoal represents the coal industry in Europe. My guest, Euracoal president Vladimír Budinský, gives several examples of nations across the continent making an about-face:


“They continue saying this is temporary. They stick with the coal phaseout dates,” says Vladimír. “But the actual reality is different. They are burning more coal and they are using closed and stopped power stations.”

In many ways, Europe was lucky. Many of these coal mines and power plants had recently been shut down. What a crisis like Ukraine had happened five or ten years from now?

I was curious if this pivot to coal was giving the fuel source newfound respect in Europe. Vladimír believes the region may continue to proceed with a phaseout after the latest crisis subsides.

Even efforts to make coal more sustainable have been mixed. For instance, Europe’s largest carbon capture and storage project, Jänschwalde, was abandoned in 2011. In this case there was no solution for carbon storage, however, there has been forward progress on an effort to sequester CO2 below the North Sea.

Carbon gasification (converting coal to gas) has made little progress. In Vladimír’s own Czech Republic, their only gasification facility shut down in 2020. There are two gasification facilities planned in Poland as of 2020, but little news has come out of those projects. Coal-to-liquids is another possible opportunity, but Vladimír says the interest there lies in non-coal synthetic fuels.

Vladimír says among the EU, Poland and the Czech Republic have the friendliest view of coal. Poland, once an Eastern Bloc nation, has relied heavily on coal since the Soviet era, where it was “considered by [Soviet era] Russians an ‘unsafe place,’” and never had nuclear power.

“In 2050, Europe must be carbon neutral,” says Vladimír. “So the Polish energy strategy says, ‘We will use coal until 2049.’” That is not a joke!

Even coal was not victim to Russian supply challenges. Europe (including Ukraine and Turkiye) imports twice as much hard coal as it produces. Among that, half of the imported coal came from Russian trains. He says Europe was luckily able to pivot to imports from Australia, South Africa, and Colombia. “Coal is available from free and democratic countries,” he says.

The conversation also covered Europe’s reliance on Russian nuclear support. A report from Friends of Earth Germany reveals 19 plants and 40% of European uranium comes from Russia or Kazakhstan. As we discussed in Episode 134, western companies like Westinghouse are both supplying these facilities with their own fuel and designing new fuel to fit the older Russian reactors. However, any retrofits like this could take a few years.

I asked Vladimír how he expects the Ukraine crisis to end. “I believe it will never go back as it was,” he says. “Europeans will remember this situation and they will not be as dependent on Russia as they were before.” He adds that relations may begin to normalize after Putin is no longer in power.

At the time of this recording, Europe is preparing for what could be a challenging winter. Vladimír says while coal is making up for the shortage, Europe needs to rely more heavily on American liquified natural gas and nuclear support.

“We need more America and less Russia!”

Useful Links: