in Germany, the sellers of heating coal are overwhelmed by demand

Beneath a vast hangar in an industrial zone in the south of Berlin, Frithjof Engelke starts up his filling machine, at the foot of a pile of black coal. At 46, the boss of this family business had a difficult summer for the first time in his career.

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Since the invasion of the Ukraine and the explosion in the price of gas, the Germans who can, are trying to build up stocks of coal for heating during the winter. “We are at the end of August, and we have delivery times of 8 to 10 weeks, explains Frithjof Engelke. For coal, it is quite unusual in this season. Normally we don’t have customers who order solid fuels such as coal a long time in advance. But this year, nothing is as usual!

In Berlin, 5,000 to 6,000 dwellings not renovated since the war are still heating with coal, out of a stock of 1.9 million apartments. But what is new this year is the interest shown in coal by these innumerable Berliners equipped with a gas boiler, but still having a decorative coal stove. Like Jan Blum, in his sixties, came in a van to fill up with coal. “I am buying coal for the first time in many years. Until now, I heated with gas and I only used my stove with wood. If you have the possibility of heating yourself in another way than ‘with gas, maybe less healthy, but cheaper, it’s better than freezing.’

Relics of the Cold War, these coal stoves will return to service this winter, to the chagrin of defenders of the planet, who have been calling for their ban for a long time. The German government has already resolved to increase the use of coal-fired power stations to guarantee the enormous electricity needs of its industry, even if it ensures that it is not giving up on its objective of abandoning this polluting energy in 2030, and excludes “a revival of fossil fuels, especially coal“, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently said.