Coal

Lignite

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.

Economic importance

Lignite is still one of the most important sources of energy in Germany, accounting for a share of around 8.3 % of primary energy consumption. This is behind oil, natural gas and renewable energies and hard coal. Annual production in 2023 was around 102.2 million tonnes (2024: 91.9 million tonnes) and fell by 1.9 % compared with the previous year. Germany covers nearly 100 % of its lignite requirements from its domestic reserves. The value of the lignite extracted in Germany in 2023 amounted to EUR 2.03 billion. Lignite accounted for around 14 % of the total value of natural resources mined in Germany in 2023. This means that lignite was the fourth most important natural resource in Germany, in terms of the value of production. In 2023, Germany’s share of global lignite production was 9 %. Germany is Europe’s largest producer of lignite and the world’s third-largest producer¹ of soft lignite after China and Indonesia, but it is continuing to reduce lignite production in the context of the European climate targets, the compromise found by German society on the coal phase-out as a result of the Commission on “Growth, Structural Change and Employment” KWSB 2019 and the entry into force of the Act to Reduce and End Coal-Fired Power Generation (Kohleverstromungsbeendigungsgesetz – KVBG) in 2021 (see Effects of the Energy Transition and the Structural Change). Germany has the third largest reserves after Russia and Australia.² Reserves of lignite totalling 1.2 billion tonnes are accessible via developed and definitely planned open-cast mines. Additional reserves amount to around 34 billion tonnes.³ In 2023, exports of lignite and lignite products fell to around 0.75 million tonnes of SKE, i.e. around 17 % less than in the previous year. 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 6,630 in 2023 and to 5,797 in 2024 (exclusive of persons employed in coal-fired power stations) (see also Employment and Social Affairs).

Extraction

Lignite is extracted in three areas (the Rhenish, Lausitz and Central German coalfields), where mining is only carried out in open-cast mines today. In Germany, lignite was mined in ten (2024: nine) active opencast mines in 2023. 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 is a coalfield in south-east Brandenburg and north-east Saxony. 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. Due to the lower energy and higher water content of soft lignite as compared to hard coal, the economic benefits of lignite result from the combination of the open-cast mine and power plant being near the location of the lignite deposits. Around 10 % of lignite produced is refined into solid or pulverised fuels for commercial use and private households (e.g. brown coal briquettes, pulverised lignite, fluidised bed lignite and lignite coke). Lignite contributes 17 % (2023) of gross electricity generation in Germany.

¹ BGR – Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe [Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources] (2024): BGR Energy Data 2024 – Data on developments in German and global energy supply

²AG Energiebilanzen e.V. [Working Group on Energy balances] (AGEB) (2024): Energy consumption in Germany in 2023

³ BGR – Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe [Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources] (2024): Report on the natural resources situation in Germany 2023

⁴  AG Energiebilanzen [Working Group on Energy balances] (AGEB) (2023), for a detailed source reference see other sources in the endnotes/sources.

⁵ Federal Employment Agency (2024), for a detailed source reference, see endnotes/sources.