According to data from Entso-E, the hours of zero lignite production in the first half of 2025 increased by almost 12%, reaching 817 hours compared to 732 hours during the same period in 2024. The vast majority of these zero-production hours (809 hours) occurred after the end of the district heating season in Western Macedonia (May 15, 2025).
June 2025, in particular, recorded the highest number of hours with zero lignite production—534 hours, or 74% of the month—surpassing the previous record of 454 hours (61% of the month) set in May 2024. However, May 2024 still holds the record for the lowest monthly lignite output, with only 50 GWh produced, compared to 66 GWh in June 2025.
For nearly 20 consecutive days—or 470 continuous hours—in June 2025 (from the early hours of June 6 to the evening of June 25), Greece operated entirely without lignite. This performance, although the second best on record, fell short by 44 hours of the record set last year between May 13 and June 3, 2024, when 514 consecutive hours went by without lignite.
Essentially, after the district heating season ended in Western Macedonia, lignite units operated for only 295 hours (27% of the total time between May 16 and June 30), producing 90 GWh, which covered just 1.4% of the electricity demand during that period—highlighting the declining role of lignite in electricity generation.
Overall, lignite production for the first half of 2025 dropped to 1.41 TWh, marking a new historic low and breaking the previous record of 1.5 TWh set in the first half of 2024.