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Greece to Increase Coal-Fired Energy Production to Cut Gas Needs

Greece will boost power output from lignite coal over the next two years in a short-term measure to reduce the country’s dependence on expensive natural gas.

While normally coal is the more costly fuel for power production, the war in Ukraine has supercharged gas prices and temporarily made coal more cost-effective, according to a transcript of comments by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday.

Greece joins a growing list of European countries to have signaled that they will resort to using more coal, with the continent seeking alternatives to gas and less dependence on Russian energy supplies -- an effort that includes a ban on imports of that country’s coal. There will be a 50% increase in Greece’s mining over the next two years, said Mitsotakis, who also suggested that some coal-fired plants could have their lives extended.