Germany: Faced with rising gas prices, coal sellers are taken by storm
With the war in Ukraine and the explosion in the price of gas, coal sellers in Germany are taken by storm.
(Illustrative image) (cc) wikimedia/snty-tact
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
With the war in Ukraine, the price of gas exploded in Germany, while half of households heat with this fuel.
Worried, the Germans rush to the coal sellers.
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With our correspondent in Berlin
,
Nathalie Versieux
Beneath a vast hangar in an industrial zone in the south of the capital, Frithjof Engelke starts up his filling machine, at the foot of a vast pile of black coal.
At 46, the boss of this family business founded by his grandfather had a difficult summer for the first time in his career.
Since the invasion of the Ukraine and
the explosion in the price of gas
, the Germans who can seek to build up coal stocks for heating during the winter.
"
For deliveries, we will now have to wait until the end of October,
" explains Frithjof Engelke
.
We are at the end of August, and we have delivery times ranging from 8 to 10 weeks.
For coal, it is quite unusual in this season.
Normally we don't have customers who order solid fuels such as coal well in advance.
But this year, nothing is as usual!
»
In Berlin, 5,000 to 6,000 homes that have not been renovated since the war are still heating with coal, out of a stock of 1.9 million apartments.
What is new this year is the interest shown in coal by these innumerable Berliners equipped with a gas boiler, but still having a decorative coal stove.
Even 30 years ago, almost all the inhabitants of the capital did not have modern heating.
Relics of the Cold War, coal stoves will return to service this winter, much to the chagrin of defenders of the planet who have been calling for their ban for a long time.
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To listen: Germans rush to electric heaters for fear of running out of gas this winter
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Germany
Energies
Ukraine