European gas futures prices have recently fluctuated above a high of €200 per MWh due to a sharp decline in natural gas imports from Russia. In order to alleviate the pressure on energy bills, many households in Germany have now begun to snap up coal for the winter.
Extreme heat continues, and the price of natural gas and electricity soars, but recently the hottest shops on the streets of Berlin, Germany, are "selling coal". Many shops have notices posted on their doors that coal and firewood are temporarily out of stock. Frischhof Engelke, the owner of a long-established coal shop in Berlin, told reporters that the repeat customers in the store used to be elderly people who lived in Berlin's old neighborhoods and had to rely on burning coal for heating, but recently more and more new faces have appeared in his shop.
Frischhof Engelke, a coal dealer in Berlin, Germany: There have been a lot of "new" customers in the store recently, who have never seen these people come to buy coal before, and now as long as they have coal-burning equipment at home, they want to buy coal.
The surge in electricity prices triggered by the shortage of natural gas supply has put heavy pressure on the energy bills of ordinary Households in Germany, but on Tuesday the government announced that from October this year, the "gas surcharge" will be levied at 2.419 euro cents per kWh, which is overpaid. This undoubtedly exacerbates the already heavy burden of energy expenditures. In the eyes of some consumers, burning coal for heating is obviously a more economical choice.
Jean Bloom, a resident of Berlin, Germany: In addition to the expensive gas heating, if there is any other way to find it, of course, it is better than being frozen, of course, we also know that burning coal is not very healthy.
According to Reuters, many European countries have restarted coal power generation due to the sharp rise in natural gas prices, and the German government approved the restart or extension of operation of more than a dozen coal power plants that were scheduled to be phased out in July. Because the EU banned the import of Russian coal, member states had to turn to other markets to snap up coal, which also intensified competition in the market and pushed up prices. The Newcastle Coal Futures Price in Australia, which is considered the benchmark for coal futures prices in the Asia-Pacific region, crossed the $400-tonne round mark in July and has since hit record highs above the mark.