“There has never been such a rush in the summer, everyone wants coal,” says Frithjof Engelke, supplier of the briquettes, which have become a hit in the German capital.
A looming shortage of Russian gas after the war in Ukraine has reignited enthusiasm for this method of heating homes, despite its sooty residue and high carbon footprint.
Engelke, 46, head of the centuries-old Berlin company Hans Engelke Energie, says it has been a gold mine for his family business: “My vacation will have to wait.”
He and his team are busily taking orders, arranging truck deliveries that are now fully booked through October, and preparing supplies for those coming direct to collect coal from his warehouse.
On a hot summer’s day, amidst the dust and noise of his filling machine, he weighs and bags loose coal, then arranges the bags on pallets and waits for customers.
In Berlin, 5 to 6,000 households still heat with coal – only a fraction of the 1.9 million households in the city, city officials say.
Engelke’s customers are often older people, some of whom are completely dependent on coal and live in old apartments that have never been renovated.
Others are lovers of the “cozy” warmth emanating from old ceramic stoves, often decorated.
But this year, new customers have come “en masse,” says Engelke, whose medium-sized company has also diversified into wood pellets and heating oil.
“Anyone who heats with gas but still has a stove at home wants coal,” he says, referring to a nationwide winter phenomenon.
– ‘Better than freezing’ –
Jean Blum is one of the new converts.
The 55-year-old with the tousled hair and bushy white beard loads 25-kilogram sacks full of valuable black briquettes into his trailer.
“I’m buying coal for the first time in years,” he told AFP.
Since his house has gas heating, he sometimes lights his stove, but only with wood.
Blum wants to play it safe with the jump in gas prices, which will intensify further in the fall when operators can pass the increase in energy taxes on to consumers.
“Even though it’s bad for your health, it’s still better than being cold,” he says.
Although coal prices have risen 30 percent this season, it remains cheaper than wood, which has more than doubled in price.
“I worry when I wonder if there will be enough gas for everyone,” he adds, noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already partially closed the gas tap to Germany after Western nations imposed fresh sanctions on Moscow had imposed.
– ‘Renaissance’ –
Black fuel is making a comeback in Europe’s top economy on several fronts.
The federal government had already decided to increase the use of coal-fired power plants to satisfy the huge appetites of several industries.
However, Berlin insists that it will keep its promise to phase out the environmentally harmful energy source by 2030 and rule out a “renaissance of fossil fuels, especially coal”, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently announced.
However, with new private customers coming from the wood mill, production is struggling to keep up, and many small coal traders in the capital are running out of supplies.
“In the summer, we produce at full capacity in three shifts, seven days a week,” said Thoralf Schirmer, spokesman for the LEAG mining site in the Lusatian Basin, the AFP news agency.
The company supplies DIY stores and fuel dealers with coal briquettes.
Production has risen 40 percent since January, he said, but demand is strong everywhere and the situation is expected to remain tight until at least this winter.
To make matters worse, the other plant in the Rhine Valley, which supplies the German market, will cease production at the end of the year and reduce supply.
“I’m a bit scared of winter,” admits coal seller Engelke.
For now, people are relatively relaxed when told they have to wait at least two months before receiving supplies, he says.
“Things will be radically different when it gets cold outside.”
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