Rapid economic recovery fueled world coal-based energy production. According to the International Energy Agency (https://www.iea.org/reports/coal-fired-power), Energy from coal is on track to break a new global record in 2022. The globally increased demand for coal as well as the political turmoil have skyrocketed the prices of steam coal and coking coal into space. Thermal coal prices jumped to over 230 $/t, while coking coal prices to over 430 $/t.

The amount of electricity generated by coal-fired power plants increased by 9% in 2021 after a 4% decrease in 2020. In the US and EU, coal-based power generation is expected to increase by 20% in 2022. The sharp increase in demand for fossil fuels is caused by the need to stimulate the recovery of tired world economies after COVID-19 lockdowns. Electricity demand in 2021 exceeded the efficiency of low-carbon sources, prompting many rich countries to rely more on fossil fuel power plants. In 2024, the global demand for coal is expected to break the historic record and reach the level of 8.03 billion tons.

Which factors contributed to the current situation?

  • the COVID pandemic and the need for rapid regeneration of the global economy,
  • natural gas shortage in Europe due to the unstable political situation on the Ukraine-Russia front,
  • Germany’s resignation from nuclear energy, increasing production of energy from hard coal and lignite,
  • energy shortages from renewable sources following the introduction of decarbonisation strategies in Europe,
  • a sharp decline in the production of energy from renewable sources, a record low level of energy production from wind in 2021,
  • intensive development of China, India and the countries of Southeast Asia.

All this indicates that climate ideas lose in the long term with the realities of global needs.

 



Author: Małgorzata Wojtaszek-Kalaitzidi
Department of Cokemaking Technologies
mwojtaszek@itpe.pl  |  tel: 4832 621 63 58