Article content continued

But alarmed at power prices about double U.S. levels, EU policy makers are allowing the expansion of coal mines that were scaled back in the past two decades, stirring a backlash in the targeted communities.

“It’s absurd,” said Petra Roesch, mayor of Proschim, a 700-year-old village southeast of Berlin that would be uprooted by Vattenfall’s mine expansion. “Germany wants to transition toward renewable energy, and we’re being deprived of our land.”

Lignite demand worldwide is forecast to rise as much as 5.4% by 2020, according to the International Energy Agency. At the same time, it estimates consumption must fall 10% over that period to achieve goals endorsed by EU and world leaders to hold global warming to 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.

Mining machines the size of skyscrapers stand just to the north of Proschim ready to swallow up the town of 330 residents near the German border with Poland. Vattenfall, which is owned by the Swedish government, is seeking approval to knock down buildings in the town to expand its Welzow-Sued lignite mine.

Middle Ages

In Poland, PGE, which is the nation’s largest power producer, is upgrading a lignite-burning unit at its Turow plant. In the Czech Republic, a plan to relax mining limits may annihilate Horni Jiretin, a 750-year-old village that survived everything from plagues in the middle ages to the last two world wars.

Lignite’s revival is concentrating attention on the drawbacks of the fossil fuel and may actually bolster support for renewables such as wind and solar power, according to Barry O’Flynn, a director in the environmental finance and clean technology team at Ernst & Young LLP.