26/08/2024 (Agence Europe) – In 2022, solar energy overtook hard coal (carbon-based rock) in the EU’s electricity generation for the first time, with a total production of 210,249 GWh for solar energy compared to 205,693 GWh for hard coal, according to Eurostat in a publication dated 19 August. While Poland and the Czech Republic are the only two remaining producers of hard coal in the EU, imports increased in 2022, with a record dependency rate of 74.4%. This sharp increase is explained by the building up of coal stocks by EU countries. Russia remained the EU’s main supplier in 2022. However, following the ban on hard coal imports from the country, which came into force in August 2022, these imports fell to 27 million tonnes in 2022. To see the Eurostat publication: https://aeur.eu/f/d7z (PLD)