HUNGARY

Hungary has no coal plants under construction or in planning stages and is a small coal producer and consumer. In March 2021, Hungary committed to shut down its last coal power plant in 2025, as part of it membership pledge with the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA). However, the country's five operating coal units at the Matra power station reportedly use lignite from the Bukkabrany and the Visonta Mines. In November 2023, the government stated that the Matra units would not be taken offline until replacement gas units were commissioned in 2027-29. As a result, the country's target coal phaseout date was delayed by two to four years. Hungary also has four mothballed coal-fired units at the Oroszlány power station. Hungary depends on nuclear and gas for most of its electricity needs. In 2021, the government announced that it planned to increase solar capacity to 6,000 megawatts (MW) and use European Union funds to retrain workers affected by the closure of the Matra plant. Both a 200 MW solar farm and 500 MW gas plant were planned to be built on the Matra site.