Eurostat: coal fading from European energy, but still at 36 percent in Czechia

Hard coal accounted for 3.7 percent of total gross electricity generation in the European Union last year, equivalent to 105,601 gigawatt-hours (GWh). Lignite accounted for 5.5 percent, or 154,186 GWh, the EU statistical office Eurostat reported today. In 2024, coal's total share of electricity generation fell below ten percent for the first time, and last year it dropped to a historic low of 9.2 percent. However, it remains significantly higher in Czechia.

For Czechia, Eurostat reports that coal's share of electricity generation was 36 percent in 2024. Exact data for last year are not yet available for all member states.

In 1990, coal accounted for more than one-third of electricity generation in the EU. Ten years later, coal's total share had fallen to 30.4 percent, and this trend continued in subsequent years, with only a slight rebound in 2011–2012 and then in 2021–2022.

In 1990, hard coal and lignite were the second- and third-largest sources of electricity generation, accounting for 19.8 percent and 15.3 percent of gross generation, respectively. By 2025, however, hard coal and lignite had fallen to the seventh- and sixth-largest sources of electricity generation, behind nuclear power, natural gas and renewable fuels. Both types of coal were overtaken in electricity generation first by nuclear power in 1994, natural gas in 2019, hydropower and wind power in 2023, and solar power in 2024.

The decline in the use of coal for electricity generation has gone hand in hand with record-low coal production and consumption. According to estimates, EU consumption of hard coal and lignite reached new historic lows last year, at 107 million tonnes and 184 million tonnes, respectively.

In recent years, some EU countries have also gradually phased out coal entirely or stopped using it for electricity and heat generation. Portugal stopped using hard coal for electricity generation in 2021, while Slovakia ended lignite mining in 2024. This left eight EU countries still mining lignite.