The German Lignite Industry 2021

In the past, lignite was and currently still is an important element of German energy supply. With the increasing orientation of energy policy towards the path to achieving climate neutrality by 2045 at the latest and the extensive decarbonisation of the energy and economic system that this requires, the lignite industry is becoming the focus of energy and climate policy disputes, particularly in view of the emission reduction steps that are needed in the near future. But the massive changes in the global energy raw materials and European electricity markets are also creating new and sometimes serious challenges for the lignite industry.

Against this background, the study The German Lignite Industry was prepared and published in 2017. It made an important contribution to the fact-finding process in the Commission for Growth, Structural Change and Employment (KWSB, so-called Coal Commission), whose work represented an important turning point in German coal policy. The aim of the revision or new version of the various analyses presented here is to make a contribution to the increasingly urgent discourse on the future of the lignite industry in Germany by providing a broad and transparent database of the latest data and information. To this end, a very broad analytical approach was deliberately chosen, ranging from history, corporate structures and technology to the legal framework conditions as well as energy industry and ecological classifications to questions of economic interrelationships and incentive structures.