Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Coal Country Notes

The German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) has reported coal reserves on behalf of the German WEC Member Committee. Proved recoverable reserves are given as 6 708 million tonnes, most of which is lignite. The level of hard coal reserves in this category is confined to the projected amount of the (highly subsidised) German hard coal production until 2012, there being no clear governmental position (in particular, re financing) regarding output after 2012. The proved amount in place is also based on BGR data; the hard coal component has a maximum deposit depth of 1 500 m below the surface, and a minimum seam thickness of 0.6 m, whilst the corresponding parameters for lignite are 500 and 3 m, respectively.

BGR's category 'resources' (using its own definition, which differs from WEC usage) amounts to around 8.4 billion tonnes of hard coal and 76.4 billion tonnes of lignite. These levels convey an indication of the enormous size of the additional amounts of coal 'in place', over and above the in-situ tonnages hosting the recoverable reserves.

Germany's output of hard coal has fallen from 76.6 million tonnes in 1990 to 24.9 million tonnes in 2005, whilst lignite production has virtually halved, from 357.5 to 177.9 million tonnes over the same period. Germany is still the world's largest lignite producer.

The Ruhr coalfield produces over three-quarters of German hard coal. The coal qualities range from anthracite to high-volatile, strongly-caking bituminous coal. The Saar is the second largest coalfield, with substantial deposits of weakly-caking bituminous coal. All German hard coal is deep-mined from seams at depths exceeding 900 m.

The lignite deposit in the Rhine region is the largest single formation in Europe. In the former East Germany there are major deposits of lignite at Halle Leipzig and Lower Lausitz; these have considerable domestic importance.

The principal markets for bituminous coal are electricity generation, iron and steel, and cement manufacture: other industrial and household uses are relatively modest. The bulk of German lignite is consumed in power stations, although a considerable tonnage (over 11 million tonnes in 2004) is converted into brown coal briquettes for the industrial, residential and commercial markets.