German utility Steag halted its coal-fired power plant Bergkamen-A after it ran out of hard coal supplies amid an energy crunch globally and logistics challenges domestically, the company told Bloomberg on Friday. “We are short of hard coal,” Steag spokesman Daniel Muhlenfeld told Bloomberg via email. “There is a strong demand for coal per se and secondly, there is a strong demand for transport by barge. And since Bergkamen has no rail connection, there are no logistical alternatives available here,” Muhlenfeld said. Lignite and hard coal accounted for around 26 percent of Germany’s power generation in the first half of 2021, according to data from the German Association of Energy and Water Industries, BDEW. In recent weeks, utilities across Europe have fired up more coal-powered generation as natural gas prices continue to surge. Even the UK, which has pledged to phase out coal-fired power generation by October 2024, had […]