The energy thread [Archive] - SUBSIM Radio Room Forums

Skybird

08-26-22, 06:12 AM

On the Candian-German H2-"deal", Hans Hofmann-Reinicke writes in his Blog "Think Again":

Hydrogen from Canada the salvation?

The German chancellor recently visited the president of Canada to reach initial agreements with him on the supply of green hydrogen. In the short term - for this winter or next - this will certainly not yet take hold. But in the medium or long term, is it the solution to our energy problems?

Green projects are characterized by dispensing with studies of technical and economic feasibility and starting right away with implementation. That way, it sometimes becomes quite expensive, but the benefits are all the smaller. The energy turnaround costs more than a scoop of ice cream, and instead of electricity from coal and nuclear power, there's freezing for peace. So there is plenty of reason to take a closer look at the Canadian hydrogen issue.

Off the Canadian mainland lies the island of Newfoundland, three times the size of NRW but with fewer inhabitants than Düsseldorf. This sparsely populated region is said to have steady and strong winds, making it an ideal location for turbines to generate electricity. But who is going to buy the electricity? The nearest towns worth mentioning are too far away to lay transmission lines there. So you package the power in a way that makes it easier to export.

The electricity is run through water to produce hydrogen, which is called "green hydrogen" because it comes from clean wind energy. One kilogram of it contains the energy of 33 kWh, or about five times what's in a kilogram of coal. That's the good news. The bad news is that one kilogram of hydrogen takes up a volume of 11 cubic meters, it would just fit in a very large closet.

Thanks to this low density, people used to fill airships with hydrogen; it made them lighter than air. Now, however, we don't want to transport passengers, but hydrogen itself. To do this, we use the effect that gases become liquid at low temperatures. The smaller the molecules, the colder it has to be. Methane, for example, CH4, becomes liquid at -164°C, and hydrogen H2 at -253°C. That's pretty darn cold, only 20°C above absolute zero. The machinery for this liquefaction consumes 12 kWh per kg of H2, which is more than a third of its energy content. And another bad news: even one kilogram of liquid hydrogen (LH2) still has a volume of 14 liters! That makes it very unwieldy to transport, not to mention that it must always be kept at 20°C above absolute zero while traveling. So is it not even possible to ship the hydrogen from Canada to Germany as planned?

For half a century, LNG ships loaded with liquid natural gas, i.e. liquefied methane, have been plowing through the world's oceans; they are these huge barges with half a dozen domes on deck. Couldn't they also be used for green hydrogen?

No - not for two reasons. The difference between -164°C and -253°C is not significant in our minds - both are cold as hell. Physically, the difference between 20 Kelvin for LH2 and 109 Kelvin for LNG is huge. So the insulation systems must be different, as well as the refrigeration units that provide the low temperatures.

But there is a second aspect, the economic aspect. In each cubic meter of tank, such a ship carries 440 kg of LNG, but would only carry 71 kg of LH2, i.e. only one sixth. The economic calculation naturally takes into account the ratio of transport costs to the value of the cargo, and this is very unfavorable in the case of LH2.

Is there no feasible way to transport LH2 from Canada to Germany? That would be a prerequisite for the Canadian deal!

The world's first such trip, including loading and unloading of LH2, was made by the Suiso Frontier from Victoria, Australia, to Kobe, Japan, arriving in May 2022. It was a highly subsidized project to demonstrate technical feasibility.

So does this prove the feasibility of importing LH2 from Canada? The technical feasibility may be there. But the economic viability is more than questionable. If you look at the whole supply chain: Wind energy - electricity - electrolysis - liquefaction - ship transport - distribution - storage - conversion to electricity in fuel cells - feed into the grid - then one has to be very skeptical. It would be murderously expensive. Maybe then the LH2 levy will be introduced in Germany and the kilowatt hour will ultimately cost one euro.

Let us hope that one day the realization will prevail that it is not the citizens who are there to finance the absurd energy plans of the Greens, but that energy policy is there to secure for the citizens the quality of life they have earned and to provide the economy with an infrastructure in which it can operate competitively.
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Not to mention that this project, if it ever becomes real, will not see the fruits of its efforts before 7-12 years from now on. That allows the question - what to do until then, Germany?

Law of physics: when you transport electricty, you allways have losses due to the inner resistence of the wire (measured in Ohm). Regarding overland wires from powerplants to industrial plants some 100s of kilometers away, these can be immense, up to one quarter, even one third. Now we want transport energy storage agents like H2 via ships, these hydrogen tankers, and it seems we again suffer immense losses.

Logic offers a splendid solution: producing the power right where it is needed, on location, and without taking in-between-steps like making H2 first! And you are done. Sun independent. Wind-independent. Season- independent. But before German green minds understand this its more likely that you can make a cactus talking.

Skybird

08-26-22, 06:35 AM

This website offers analysis data and -tools regarding everything electrical power in Germany: grid status, daily sit rep, energy mix etc etc.

https://www.stromdaten.info/

mapuc

08-26-22, 06:55 AM

This website offers analysis data and -tools regarding everything electrical power in Germany: grid status, daily sit rep, energy mix etc etc.

https://www.stromdaten.info/

We have similar page here in Denmark. I toke a look at energinet.dk to see our
We are importing electricity from Norway, Sweden, Germany and Holland. We are also exporting electricity to Germany.

In all Denmark is importing 2087 MW.

Gas.
Denmark is importing from Germany 1.300.899 kWh/h of gas(Don't know who much this is in cubic meter)Something with 11,586 kWh/m3 in burning value.

If Russia decide to shut down their gas supply to Europe-Denmark has enough for four month. The winter will be harsh if it happens.

Markus

MaDef

08-26-22, 07:40 AM

If Russia decide to shut down their gas supply to Europe-Denmark has enough for four month. The winter will be harsh if it happens. I would suggest you invest in thermal underwear in case that happens.

August

08-26-22, 08:19 AM

My German grandparents would sleep with the windows open in the winter. The only heat in the house was from the kitchen wood stove.

They still (or perhaps because) managed to successfully raise 11 children, and that's in spite of my grandfather being gone off to the war for seven years.

I think they made tougher Volk back in those days. :yep:

em2nought

08-27-22, 12:37 AM

Drill, baby, drill! :up:

Mine, baby, mine! :up:

Skybird

08-27-22, 04:56 AM

Drill, baby, drill! :up:

Mine, baby, mine! :up:

No, baby, no! (Green mantra).

Blow, wind, blow!

Shine, sun, shine!

And now everybody:
Ichfühlmichgutichfühlmichtollichfühlmicheinfachwun dervoll! :D

Jimbuna

08-27-22, 05:13 AM

Reminds me of the Elton John song 'Candle in the Wind'

Jimbuna

08-27-22, 05:31 AM

Middle earners, as well as low earners, are likely to need government help to pay their energy bills this winter, Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has warned.

The energy regulator hiked the price cap on household bills by 80% on Friday, meaning the average bill will rise to £3,549 a year from October.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Zahawi said even those earning £45,000 a year may need support.

He said the Treasury was exploring "all the options" to help households.

He added that the country was in a "national economic emergency [that] could go on for 18 months, two years".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62695778

Skybird

08-27-22, 05:53 AM

The crisis burns itself deep into the German middle class. It is expected that next year energy costs will equal if not surpass cold flat rents for many ordinary households. Millions will not be able to cope with the financial burdens.

The Greens' recipe: print more money and drop it from helicopters. They even say the troubles will worsten nd will stay for many years to come, but adaptation of their policies and giving up stupid ideology-hardened mind-fortresses? Nononononono. No, never. Noooo. No. No-no-no. NO. In a few weeks or months maybe they will agree to let those three powerpploants run - and then find that they have wasted 8 months and so will not get nuclear fuel in time. If they would have agreed in april, in Oc tober nuclear fuelp could have been dleivered, says the industry. Of course, they will say that companies are evil, fate was against them, they could not have known, it is democratic debate, it is so hard for them, and that they are not guilty for this part of the mess.

Well, I said since many years that it is the Green agenda to deindustrialise Germany and to destroy everything heavy industry in this country, and better evertyhing science and market as well, since one is at it. Ideology yes, science no. And I never meant my rants as an exaggeration, but as a fact. Many Green followers welcome the crisis today for it does what they always wanted to acchieve: it brings down the industry they hate so much. "Und nach uns die Sintflut..."

But this is only because they have never imagined the consequences for themsleves once the crisis has corroded so deep into society that they themsleves are affected, too.

I hope that this winter it really crunches and cracks in the woodwork and that half the roof comes down and falls on more than just a few heads. The more violent, the better, because that might finally teach people some sense. Gender star? Gender quotas? With it still so many waste their time and energy...? Dear friends, it's high time that fate kicks you in the ass so firmly and with a running start. :arrgh!:

What has begun these days, this year, that will not be over in only three, four years. I expect at least a decade of severe crisis. At least. In Germany in particular, because here the ideological meanness comes to bear three times as hard as elsewhere.

Burn, crisis, burn. The less people can escape it, the better. Misery teaches the best lessons.

Jimbuna

08-28-22, 05:22 AM

The next prime minister will tackle "eye-watering" energy bills, Boris Johnson has said, amid criticism that he has failed to respond to the crisis.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Mr Johnson said his successor would deliver a "huge package" of support.

Charities and experts have called on the government to announce more support as a matter of urgency.

Conservative Party leadership candidate Liz Truss is reported to be considering a 5% cut to VAT.

A report in the Sunday Telegraph suggests she is looking at the move as a "nuclear" option and says it could save the average household £1,300 a year. But a spokesperson for her campaign said it would not be right for her to announce any plans at this stage.

Rishi Sunak's team has dismissed a cut to all VAT as "incredibly regressive", saying it would cost more than £30bn.

Mr Sunak, who is vying with Ms Truss to become the next prime minister, has said he would cut VAT on energy bills and has promised targeted support for the most vulnerable.

On Friday, the energy regulator hiked the price cap on household bills by 80%, meaning the typical household gas and electricity bill will rise to £3,549 a year from October.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62703858

Kapitan

08-28-22, 04:56 PM

If I recall the UK used to get about 3% of its gas from Russia and with the rest of the EU now scratching around for alternative suppliers plus the inability of other suppliers to increase production it has left an entire gap in the market.

Energy bills have gone up around the world, and in Europe specifically Germany they have turned their back on one of the greenest energy sources.
While I get there is issues regarding nuclear waste on the whole the nuclear power generation gives off 0 carbon emissions plus gives you a secure domestic supply.

Therefore if Germany had kept the reactors on and built more their reliance on Russian Gas and Oil wouldn't have been such a big issue.
I guess that's why the EU is stalling in the implementations of sanctions against Russia.

The UK on the other hand has to import oil and gas from overseas like the EU, and right now its mainly coming from the USA and Norway.
But other EU countries have also been drawing on these two countries creating a higher than usual demand.

Both Oil and Gas are polluters it seems that Germanys vision and the EU climate change goals are all but gone, you simply cannot achieve 0 carbon emissions from gas.
You also cant sustain your energy needs with solar, tidal and wind you have to have a base load to work from and the only way I can see that can be achieved is to have nuclear as your base provider.

Here in Manitoba its not so bad nearly all our electricity comes from Hydro Electric which is the base load, then we have peak demand plants run by coal and gas.

So someone will now say I have contradicted myself because I have just said you cannot achieve 0 carbon emissions from renewable sources.

Well Manitoba is twice the size of Germany by land mass yet has a population of 1.4 million with around 800,000 of that population living in Winnipeg and another 200,000+ living in major towns in the south and only a few major high energy using industries.

Now Germany has a population of 83.2 million to give you an idea that is 2.25 times the population of Canada (37.2 million) and has a lot of high energy using industries.

So why is this relevant? simply because each country has differing needs depending on Industry and population, Germany is a high energy user as is the UK and all of Europe.

Therefore with the move away from Russian supplied oil and gas this has put the demand for product elsewhere and as it was a fairly sudden change.
The producer doesn't have the ability to push a button and more comes out of the ground like many think it does in reality production has to be eased up gently.

Then you also have to think of the transportation network, while Europe is largely supplied by pipeline its not the case if that oil and gas is coming from
the USA for example.

The sudden demand for oil and gas will have had a major effect on the markets, with Russian product now not supplying the market there's a big hole and this is why we saw demand out weight supply.

That balance is now being readdressed as other countries now take up the slack to produce more.

The futures market quotes in light sweet crude for example look reasonable but only time will tell.

https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/energy/crude-oil/light-sweet-crude.quotes.html

The UK and Europe are not the only ones this is affecting, the UK news would have you believe this is all due to Brexit and only affecting the UK, well that's not the case.

I spend a lot of time in the USA I have seen fuel prices triple in the last 6-9 months the highest I have seen for Gas / Petrol is $7.29 a US Gallon (3.79 Liters) even Texas had fuel prices in excess of $5 a Gallon !

So this is nothing to do with brexit or covid it is simply supply and demand, the demand is there but the supply is not and Europe is not alone either.

My bill this month was $348CAD last month it was $244CAD and a year ago it was sitting around $150CAD

Catfish

08-29-22, 01:20 AM

Skybird

08-29-22, 01:27 AM

The aftermaths and consequencds from Corona, China draughts, war, debts, euro desintegration, demography, water, will either stay for years to come, or will never reverse at all. Add those artificially boosted crisis like the German energy transformation policies that are needless to boost, but ideologically wanted.

Forget Germany, its done and over.

mapuc

08-29-22, 05:56 PM

Danish EB writes

Electricity prices send families into poverty:
EU promises urgent action
EU Commission President now promises urgent action on rising energy prices in Europe

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the term 'energy poverty' has sadly become a reality for many.

But now EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen is joining the fight for lower prices in earnest, calling for 'urgent action' at a speech in Slovenia.

Changing the pricing model
By all appearances, the EU commission's call for urgent action looks like a change to the existing electricity pricing model across Europe.

As the model stands, it is the rising price of natural gas that is driving the sky-high price of electricity. In concrete terms, this means that the crisis in one part of the energy market today is having a direct impact on another.

In addition to prices in one part of the market reflecting the other, it is also currently the most expensive price that sets the price framework.

Wind and solar electricity generators get the same price as natural gas-fired power plants, even though the latter have significantly higher costs these days.

Von der Leyen's pledge in Slovenia, however, does not reveal details of what the EU Commission envisages a crackdown might look like

Fear of closure
On Friday, electricity prices in France and Germany rose by 25%. This meant, among other things, that Germany's electricity prices hit a record high of €700 per megawatt hour.

The rising prices are due to Russia's state-controlled export monopoly Gazprom announcing it would halt the flow of natural gas through the Nord Stream pipeline for three days.

Officials say it is as part of necessary maintenance, but European energy market fears Russia will not open up the natural gas again.

Germany said no in the spring, but now the federal government in Berlin is refusing to change the pricing model for electricity in Europe.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Markus

Kapitan

08-29-22, 06:28 PM

^ Additionally almost all companies ride the wave of raising their prices, even if not affected at all. "Reasons" range from corona, market changes, delivery chains, China, Russia, Taiwan, Russia, war to "others do it too".

We can be sure that prices will go down again when the crises are over.

edit brexit has indeed some consequnces. Buying spare parts or even cars in England has become too expensive, apart from english companies raising prices "just so" you now have to pay value added tax (double), additional export and import taxes, and fight all kinds of new barriers, that really are old ones from the times England was not in the EU. A spare part recently bought that used to cost around 17 pounds, is now at 80. Not again, guess will sell all the stuff.
A lot of automotive Companies (including vintage cars and parts dealers) want to stop trade or have already given up.

Everything has had an impact for sure Covid, Brexit and Russia - Ukraine war.
On the logistical front Covid has been the biggest issue, to give you an idea there was at the peak over 100 ships at anchor waiting for a berth in Los Angeles and Long Beach which is the main west coast container port and responsible for 40% of imports to the USA.

China basically shut down which meant that the ports closed and all the ships piled up outside and now they follow each other to the next port and compound the issue whereas before they were nicely spaced out.
Couple that to lack of truck drivers they cant clear the ports fast enough and cant get empties back, so now there's a container shortage.

I was quoted over $20,000US to move a 40ft container from Dalin to Los Angeles on the spot market, considering it was about $1,750 for 40ft pre covid.

Brexit has indeed had some issues it never was going to be plain sailing, yes there's additional checks duties etc but that was to be expected in fact the RHA own poll in 2016 showed over 60% of companies favored leave.
The RHA published its own advice throughout 2017-2020 stating very clearly what was going on and what plans were afoot and also procedures / policies etc.
Unfortunately the companies that are mainly crying foul are the ones who didn't take notice or simply didn't prepare. (I had to dump 3 of my main contractors due to this)

Shortages on the whole were not unique to the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and even Italy to name a few suffered major shortages (Italy actually addressed the UN on it) so while I get that some people do just want to lay the blame for everything on Brexit the fact is Brexit is only one component.

You made a good point about customs, taxes and duties there catfish, just want to ask were you aware that every truck that left or entered the UK while we were in the EU still had to clear customs?
(Now we run under the T4 form which is what you would use in Norway or Switzerland, TIR is unaffected)

And also any truck that runs through France Germany Spain Italy, BENELUX and others have to pay duties and road taxes all this whilst we were in the EU?

(Just want to note the UK never charged foreign HGVs while in the UK or enforced cabotage like they did in the EU)

I get that some of this has hurt the smaller business and some people but its the bigger picture, freight rates have increased as have wages in the haulage industry which has meant some products are more expensive I fully get that, but the truck driver who hasn't seen a wage rise only a decrease over the last 25 years has seen his capability to live on the wage he earns increase.

This isn't unique to just the UK either there's been a lot of changes this side of the pond with NAFTA, immigration that has seen similar turn of events.

As for used vehicles and parts a 2016 1 million KM freightliner cascadia truck in 2021 you could pick up for $18,000 roughly at the peak when no one could get hold of any trucks (Canada / USA have around an 18 months back log of orders for new ones) that same truck would fetch $60,000.

As for parts you just had to hope and pray it was something they could repair or had in stock.
Some of the companies I use had trucks in work shops for 2 nearly 3 months waiting for parts, others who were lucky either had to send the part by road or fly it in from the other side of the continent, and your now also paying not only double for that part but the transport costs as well.

I am soon to start shipping over some personal items of mine, these are items I bought and paid tax on years ago in the UK, I already know I am going to have to pay Canadian tax and import duties on my own personal effects which in some cases will be more than what I paid for the item (cant get them here hence why I have to pay up).

The war in Ukraine has caused major shortages in grain, Ukraine is one of the bread baskets of the world and supplies a lot of grain to the EU, Canada is now shipping grain to Europe to make up the deficit which has lead to commodity price hikes and also shortages this end.

Additionally almost all companies ride the wave of raising their prices, even if not affected at all. "Reasons" range from corona, market changes, delivery chains, China, Russia, Taiwan, Russia, war to "others do it too"

Indeed and that is exactly what were seeing across the board right now.

We can be sure that prices will go down again when the crises are over.

pre covid fuel prices here were $1.09.9, during covid that slumped to 0.69.9 at its highest it has reached $2.37.9 and today as I filled up in its sitting at $1.63.9 (each province is different AB is currently on $1.39.9 and it never exceeded $2) prices per liter.

I think it will go down but there will be a new norm higher than before all this started.

Skybird

08-30-22, 12:42 AM

Add last years blockade of the Suez channel, the echoes of it still are heared in european harbours, they said on TV this summer, Rotterdam, Hamburg...

Catfish

08-30-22, 02:30 AM

Thanks Kapitan for the explanation, but there are some things that still do not add up. If taxes and treaties were not followed by England anyway during its time of membership in the EU, why did prices already rise that much before 2019 and corona?
in fact the RHA own poll in 2016 showed over 60% of companies favored leave.
What is the "RHA"? I doubt 60 percent of companies was favoring brexit. They knew what was coming, and a lot just did not make it. Maybe good for the surviving rest and bigger monopolies, but not for competition, economy and the people. Skyrocketing prices in England have a lot to do with brexit, the numbers are just not exact after all this other stuff happening and blurring the picture. A lot less people are buying in England, some companies have left, new companies think twice before settling in England or opening stores there.
Nothing to do with corona, and not with the war in Ukraine either.

pre covid fuel prices here were $1.09.9, during covid that slumped to 0.69.9 at its highest it has reached $2.37.9 and today as I filled up in its sitting at $1.63.9 (each province is different AB is currently on $1.39.9 and it never exceeded $2) prices per liter.

I think it will go down but there will be a new norm higher than before all this started.
I agree with the latter, crude oil prices have meanwhile fallen, but the prices demanded will of course never fall that much if people are willing to pay that.

Skybird

08-30-22, 04:06 AM

I have always considered the German Minister for Morals, Self-Pity and Energy Pricing to be a phony and a sentimentalist, a very pathetic little sausage, and I have often said so. The way he himself continues to dismantle his claim to seriousness probably proves me right. As a children's book author, he knows how to babble infantilely, and the German morons feel taken along with him, and they fall servilely and obediently in line to his commands. He has no idea about correct political craft - and always shifts the responsibility for his mistakes to others, and then he steals even more pity for himself, while he shimmies from one self-made desasster to the next. And always with a suffering, pitying facial expression and tone of voice that say that poor little Robert can't help any of this. It is disgusting. Pity for the German people is misplaced; they not only put up with it, but would even prefer to have Habeck as chancellor. Anyone who ticks like this deserves what Habeck is getting him into.

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung writes:

Robert Habeck's crisis is self-inflicted

First the German Minister of Economics claims that the country has no electricity problem, then his staff botches the planned gas levy: the high-flyer in the cabinet needs to close his knowledge gaps as soon as possible.

If Germans could elect their chancellor directly, a relative majority would vote for Robert Habeck. Certainly, at 26 percent, it would not be an overwhelming majority, and the figures are still from mid-August. Nevertheless, it is remarkable when, in the midst of an energy crisis, the politician who enjoys the greatest trust is the one who, in his own words, has "a responsibility for energy security in Germany" as minister for the economy and climate protection. This responsibility, says Habeck, "must be faced."

At present, the Green must face up to the mistakes that are being made in his ministry. And so far, he is hardly meeting this challenge. The high-flyer is turning into an underachiever.

Habeck wants to prevent free riding

At the open house in his ministry a week ago, Habeck was still singing the praises of the many experts and the "great people" with whom he was allowed to work. That's where the expertise sits, in the ministry's offices, "they do the core work here." Habeck downgraded his own role to that of an interpreter who publicly explains "what is decided there.

And now this: Neither the coalition partners of the SPD and FDP, nor the opposition parties, nor economists have a good word to say about the economics minister's planned "gas levy. As the minister contritely admitted, this is now to be quickly improved, preferably as early as this week at the cabinet meeting. Free riders, as Habeck calls them, i.e. energy companies that earn splendidly and do not need any help, are to be excluded from support.

A competent policy would have recognized and prevented these loopholes in time. In fact, the levy, in which all German gas customers are to participate from October at 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour, is a lex Uniper. The primary aim is to prevent the Finnish group from collapsing and thus the German gas market from imploding.

A decree for Uniper

This shift of responsibility from the company to all consumers is already delicate, especially since research by a business magazine has substantiated the suspicion that Uniper had a hand in writing the regulation. Habeck himself says ambiguously that the levy was "probably decided that way". Does he mean the SPD and FDP, who, despite all the subsequent outrage, supported the decision in the cabinet? Does he mean the "great people" in the ministry or the influence of Uniper? Either way, Habeck appears to be a man who is letting things slip.

The Green also doesn't cut a good figure when it comes to the two energy-saving ordinances drafted by his house; the first ordinance takes effect on September 1. Among other things, it contains a ban on illuminating buildings and monuments from the outside. Also, illuminated advertising installations may only be operated from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. As recently as July, Habeck had claimed that Germany had a heating problem, but not an electricity problem. Even then it was foreseeable that the rapidly rising gas prices would also force up the cost of electricity.

Habeck's defiantly advocated Green Party line that the era of nuclear power plants is over and that at most a minimally extended remaining operating life is conceivable seems out of date. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also talks like this. Worldwide, however, nuclear power is doing well.

Scholz and his cabinet are floundering

Consequently, former Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer of the CSU is now calling not only for the three still-active nuclear power plants to be kept running, but also for three more to be reactivated and three new ones to be built. And the CDU's Council of Economic Advisors is arguing that all coal-fired and nuclear power plants that can be operated should be connected to the grid, since their costs are lower than those of gas-fired power plants. Habeck suddenly appears to be an immovable ideologue.

The doctor of humanities and former children's book author can explain crises wonderfully, even those that he himself has brought about. In the future, however, it will be important to prevent crises. Otherwise, Berlin's "traffic lights" may be history even faster than nuclear power in Germany.
----------------------
Uniper is the center of energy supply in Germany, in a sense the black hole at the center of the galaxy. However, it is majority-owned by the Finnish state via a subsidiary.

Skybird

08-30-22, 02:54 PM

FOCUS writes:

There is a gas treasure in the Mediterranean - only Europe didn't want it

Billions and billions of tons of gas and oil lie at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, and the countries bordering it are racing to find and produce it, each against the other. International institutions had already proclaimed a new harmony there. But that was before the Ukraine war.

The law of the jungle may soon prevail at sea - this is a rather pessimistic view of the activities of numerous riparian states in the eastern part of that great body of water that the Romans called "mare nostrum," our sea, around which they built their empire. Possession did not exist, the legions of Rome would have been the answer.

At present, it is due to the hunger for energy and the dispute over maritime boundaries of posterity that there is only a most fragile peace in the vast area between Turkey and Greece, Israel and Lebanon, Cyprus and Egypt. Recognized maritime law and international agreements are being bypassed on a large scale.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has shredded the finest visions and most promising plans of the EU and the Mediterranean states of North Africa almost overnight. As late as the end of 2021, one could read in thoroughly reputable sources about the loss of importance of the natural gas under the seabed, and about the resulting peaceful coexistence of neighbors, some of whom have been at odds for centuries. The key term for this was "renewable energies". Huge submarine cables were to transport electricity from the sun and wind from Egypt, for example, via Cyprus and Crete to Central Europe. Green hydrogen would satisfy the region's hunger for energy and light up Europe. The tiresome disputes over borders and nautical miles off the coasts would become meaningless.

The dream is over, and probably for the foreseeable future. Even before 2014, the EU had developed a strategy for using the gas deposits of the eastern Mediterranean as an energy source for Central Europe - with the far-sighted goal of reducing dependence on Russia's raw material. The plan disappeared into the drawers when the noble goal of decarbonizing Europe's energy supply was set. "Natural gas imports from the eastern Mediterranean are no longer considered particularly relevant," stated the Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin as recently as fall 2021.

Rarely have plans become wastepaper so quickly. In any case, the potential benefits of a sustainable energy supply lie far in the future. Nevertheless, they were pursued as a matter of urgency - and in the meantime, the focus on gas exploration was halted because it would take years to achieve a reliable supply. And then, it was believed, fossil fuels would no longer be needed. Israeli experts, on the other hand, whose country continues to produce natural gas, believe that the raw material will remain indispensable well into the next century. It could be that they are right.

Turkey is obviously pursuing visions of a completely different kind. Ankara is pursuing a shuttle course in the Ukraine conflict; no wonder, since almost half of its gas comes from Russia, and Iran is another important supplier. Both are countries that Ankara does not want to anger. Instead, Turkey would offer the possibility of forwarding gas via pipeline through Bulgaria or even Greece - the pipelines exist. The EU is skeptical, because this would create another indirect dependence on Russia.

Moreover, Turkey, a NATO partner like its arch-enemy Greece, is primarily a troublemaker in the eastern Mediterranean - at least from the point of view of most of the other littoral states. The Turkish drilling ship "Abdulhamid Han" has recently been searching "everywhere" in the eastern Mediterranean for new deposits, according to its own statements - an affront to Greece, whose own economic zones around the Aegean islands are not taken seriously by Ankara, although they are internationally recognized maritime borders.

Turkey is also active in the waters of Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, a state that is not internationally recognized. This upsets the EU member Republic of Cyprus and worries Greece once again. Athens has its own experience with Ottoman traditions.

Without Turkey, however, neither peaceful resource extraction in southeastern Europe nor the use of future "green" energies is possible in the long term. Next year's elections are also casting their shadows: In view of a catastrophic economic development with dramatically high inflation, the autocratic President Erdogan is relying even more than he already does on unbridled national pride as a vehicle for winning over voters. This, by the way, is based on an idiosyncratic understanding of history not unlike that of Russia under Putin.

Amid this unpleasant mix, Israel and Turkey recently sealed the resumption of diplomatic relations. This could also at least help to dampen the conflicts in the energy sector. Israel already produces gas from two huge deposits off its coast - only the question of transporting it to Europe has not been a priority so far and is therefore unresolved. In the medium term, a solution could be found in agreement with Turkey.

What all projects have in common is that they do not seem suitable for the short-term alleviation of a dramatically tight supply situation. However, the EU's hastily abandoned gas-from-the-sea plans show that determined implementation in all the years since 2010 would bear fruit today. Today, when a way out of the predicament is urgently needed, and has not.
--------------

Catfish

08-30-22, 03:21 PM

Get rid of oil. This is getting ridiculous.
Oil is much too valuable to burn it. All kinds of plastics and medicine (from aspirine to paracetamol to high-end drugs) can be made of it.

Burning is oxidation. Combustion of fossil resources is oxidation.
Oxidation means you take oxigen from the atmosphere and bind it to solid stuff.
Burning the fossil carbohydrates reduces the level of oxygen in the atmosphere that has accumulated over millions of years, due to plants withdrawn from decay/oxidation, becoming fossil "fuel" under anaerob conditions.
If you burn it, it replaces oxygen with CO, the #2 greenhouse gas. #1 is methane! Like in the russian tundra or the gulf of Mexico, that will soon melt with rising temperatures. With catastrophic consequences.

Oil is made to 99 percent of ocean algae, again: that were witdrawn from oxidation.
The combustion of "fossil fuels" like oil (marine origin from algae) or coal (terrestrial origin from forests) replacs oxygen with CO2 in the atmosphere.

The earth's battery is being depleted, people are poisoning the earth's atmosphere, and humanity does not really need oil anymore, for energy.
This is basic stuff BEFORE high school.

Petty f'n wars for patches of land while destroying a planet's biological systems, by "leaders" who have neither education nor understanding. Get RID of them.

How dumb can humans be!

mapuc

08-31-22, 09:23 AM

I must say it came as a surprise for me-I thought the capacity was a lot higher than the 15 % mentioned in the article.

Scarcely a day goes by without more evidence to show why the Government's obsession with wind turbines, now at the centre of our national energy policy, is one of the greatest political blunders of our time.

Under a target agreed with the EU, Britain is committed within ten years — at astronomic expense — to generating nearly a third of its electricity from renewable sources, mainly through building thousands more wind turbines.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1361316/250bn-wind-power-industry-greatest-scam-age.html

Markus

Jimbuna

08-31-22, 12:58 PM

Russia has completely halted gas supplies to Europe via a major pipeline, saying repairs are needed.

The Russian state-owned energy giant, Gazprom, said the restrictions on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would last for the next three days.

Russia has already significantly reduced gas exports via the pipeline.

It denies accusations it has used energy supplies as a weapon of war against Western countries.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline stretches 1,200km (745 miles) under the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast near St Petersburg to north-eastern Germany.

It opened in 2011, and can send a maximum of 170 million cubic metres of gas per day from Russia to Germany.

The pipeline was shut down for 10 days in July - again for repairs, according to Russia - and has recently been operating at just 20% capacity because of what Russia describes as faulty equipment.

The president of Germany's network regulator has said the country will be able to cope - if Russia resumes delivery in the coming days.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62732835

mapuc

08-31-22, 03:26 PM

This says it all

https://twitter.com/CandidCapitalCo/status/1564724844604039168

Markus

Catfish

08-31-22, 03:35 PM

^ lol :D

Jimbuna

09-01-22, 07:29 AM

Europe's Energy Crisis Is Going to Get Worse. The World Will Bear the Cost

https://time.com/6209272/europes-energy-crisis-getting-worse/

Skybird

09-02-22, 11:38 AM

Power and Strawberries - the NZZ writes:
-------------------
Brussels is discovering what it means when prices are determined by supply and demand. Instead of ranting about "market failure" and "excess profits", EU Commission President von der Leyen should call on her compatriots to keep nuclear power plants online.

"The electricity markets are no longer functioning, they are not fulfilling their purpose": this is how EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen commented this week on the volatility on the electricity exchanges.

Certainly, prices on the exchanges where electricity is traded in Europe have increased enormously since Russia's attack on Ukraine. This is hitting energy-intensive companies in Europe, and the bill will also be salty for some medium-sized companies.

But is this already a case of "market failure," as von der Leyen insinuates? The electricity market does not function according to some obscure rules, but like any other market. Let's take the market for strawberries: There's the farmer who's just getting his turn to meet demand. He will at least want to cover his costs, otherwise he would not sell. Any farmer who can offer cheaper than him will also sell her strawberries - at the price charged by the farmer who is just about to deliver the last unit in demand.

The farmer thus makes a nice profit, can invest in new fields and seeds, so that next year the strawberry harvest will be bigger and the price will tend to fall.

This "market design" was not forced on anyone, but is entirely voluntary. The situation is very similar in the electricity market. There, the "expensive farmer" is the gas-fired power plant. At present, gas-fired power plants often produce the last kilowatt hours that can still be sold on the market. Since the price of gas has increased more than tenfold, their production costs have risen sharply.

The counterparts to the "efficient farmer" in the example are nuclear power, hydroelectric power, and wind and solar power - they all produce much more cheaply, but receive the same price for the kilowatt-hour as the gas-fired power plants. After all, electricity is electricity.

High prices now signal two things: electricity consumers will pull out all the stops to curb their consumption. This may go so far as to cause certain companies to temporarily stop their machines. These savings will help us get through the winter.

But there is a second effect: the high price of electricity, which is expected to continue in the markets for the next few years, will also stimulate investments: in renewables, which are quickly amortized, but also in hydropower and perhaps - if the technology had not been locked out - even in nuclear power. In any case, supply will increase over time, which will put pressure on prices.

So far, so unspectacular, one would think. The market is working. But politicians are now flirting with price caps for electricity: some for the entire electricity market, the EU Commission for those types of generation that are cheaper than gas-fired power plants. In the latter case, to stay with the example, the cheaply producing strawberry farmer would be additionally taxed - it would be a kind of "excess profits tax."

In their working paper, EU officials speak of legal certainty for countries and consumers. But such ad hoc interventions in functioning markets are poison for the investment climate. In any case, the danger of intervention spirals is great. Those who set up power plants tie up their capital for the long term and need legal certainty. No one - not even Brussels - can conjure up away the basic problem that there is an enormous shortage of energy throughout Europe this winter.

The Commission President is shooting the messenger with her philippic and obscuring the causes of the misery. Incidentally, the nuclear phase-out in her home country of Germany has also contributed to this. One of the rare opportunities to increase the supply of electricity somewhat in the short term would be to allow the German nuclear power plants to continue running in 2023. That's what von der Leyen should be working toward - instead of ranting about alleged market failures and excess profits.
----------------

mapuc

09-02-22, 12:09 PM

Dargo

09-02-22, 12:19 PM

Here in Denmark we have been told that we could run out of electricity and that some areas of Denmark would be cut off from the electricity grid due to lack of electricity. In the coming winter that lay ahead of us.

MarkusYou will get electricity from other countries in Europe, that is how the electricity system works in Europe.

Dargo

09-02-22, 12:48 PM

Add last years blockade of the Suez channel, the echoes of it still are heared in european harbours, they said on TV this summer, Rotterdam, Hamburg...Yes correct, but that is not only the blockade it is China dealing with zero covid policy, so factories have to close you need to add this and suspect traders are creating this to get higher price for their products they can slow transport by sailing slower.

mapuc

09-02-22, 12:53 PM

You will get electricity from other countries in Europe, that is how the electricity system works in Europe.

Which I have been thinking- We sell and buy all over Europe.

This is why I don't understand why we should run out electricity-Only thing I can come up with is that these powerplant who deliver electricity who use gas to do so.

Markus

Dargo

09-02-22, 01:00 PM

Which I have been thinking- We sell and buy all over Europe.

This is why I don't understand why we should run out electricity-Only thing I can come up with is that these powerplant who deliver electricity who use gas to do so.

MarkusIf you only have gas power plants, and you did not stock up enough gas or there is an extreme cold winter you get in trouble the Dutch have leased two extra LNG terminals and have coal power plants on running standby also it has gas contract to external countries I heard nothing of "we could get in trouble if...".

mapuc

09-02-22, 01:39 PM

I knew I had both heard it in the news and read about it in some article

I found it

Total blackout threatens Denmark
It is far from inconceivable that Europe could be hit by a total blackout this winter because there is not enough electricity. Denmark is no exception

The energy crisis is upon us.

There can no longer be any doubt about that. In western Russia, a natural gas plant is burning gigantic quantities of natural gas. Gas worth DKK 75 million is going up in smoke every day instead of being exported to Germany.

At the same time, natural gas is in short supply throughout Europe, and this is having a serious impact on consumers, who are currently paying historically high prices for gas and electricity. This is a problem - not least for Denmark, says expert Andreas Steno, an independent macroeconomist who follows developments closely.

- Just over 50% of Germany's natural gas comes from Russia. They use it to heat homes and generate electricity. If Europe does not get that natural gas, we will have a problem, because there is no substitute in the short term. Basically, we have a huge problem if Russia doesn't open up to natural gas again, because we can't build new sources of electricity that quickly," he tells Ekstra Bladet.

Blackout in Germany and Denmark?
Putin has invaded Ukraine at a time when Germany has already begun to shut down several nuclear power plants, making itself more dependent on importing natural gas from Russia.

Although the country's natural gas reserves do not look alarming, the lack of natural gas flow could become a major problem this winter, the expert estimates.

- It is not at all unlikely that we will see shorter outages on the electricity grid in Europe this winter. The power is simply going. If the gas has run out, you might have to switch off the electricity, says Andreas Steno.

- So you're talking about days of outright blackout. Does that also apply in Denmark?

- If the Germans have to switch off the power, we'll have to hope that the wind blows that day in Denmark, is the clear answer.

The whole of Europe in crisis
However, other countries appear to be facing much greater challenges.

- Italy and France look the worst. Italy is insanely dependent on natural gas to generate electricity, almost 70% of their electricity comes from natural gas, while France is having alarming problems getting their nuclear capacity back up and running after a summer of maintenance schedules and drought.

In Denmark, it is estimated that about 15% of electricity production ultimately comes from natural gas.

Silence in Denmark
However, this does not mean that the lack of natural gas will not be a problem for Denmark, the expert believes.

- We have some notion that we are not dependent on natural gas. The problem is that some days we are dependent on importing electricity from Germany, so if Germany is in trouble, Denmark is in trouble too.

So why is there not a greater political focus on this here in Denmark, do you think?

- In all other countries, it has already been communicated that people should reduce energy consumption and the authorities have provided clear plans for rationing energy if necessary. I don't know if it's because the election campaign is on and nobody dares to say it, but here at home I still need to hear some politicians taking this issue seriously.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Markus

Dargo

09-02-22, 02:10 PM

I knew I had both heard it in the news and read about it in some article

I found it

MarkusThe European gas storage, you can see here https://agsi.gie.eu/#/ Europe total is above 80% and trend is upwards do not see why this article must be so doom we are on track even ahead with our storage for this winter even higher than decade ago.

Skybird

09-02-22, 02:55 PM

You will get electricity from other countries in Europe, that is how the electricity system works in Europe.
Its not that simple. Not only do you loose huge quantity in power by sending it down the wires over hundreds of kilometers, you also - and that is the real concern- you add instability to it due to the net frequency becoming instabile and currencies needing to be transformed, which has physical limits per amount of technical measuremnts installed to handle it. If you push too much power down the line, you get blackouts, and in worst case: a cascade blackout. Thats then the so-called "big one", it eats itself through most of the continental powergrid - through every section of it that does not get isolated and taken off the grid in time.

Europe has been close to that repeatedly in past years, and every following year more often then in the previous year. The epicenter of many causes for such flucationd and almost-deastsers has become Germany, the symptoms for it then become visible in other places and countries, and there in regional blackouts.

Its pretty likely that we will see regional blackouts in Germany this winter, and repeately. Its openly discussed over here to also intentionally switch off power in regions of Germany over the day, for some - announced - hours, to prevcent uncontrolled balckpouts. Planned blckouts are better than unpredicted, chaotic blackouts spiralling out of control. If the latte rhappens, it could lead to a cascade blacking out most of the continent. Not because ther eis not enough power, but because technical installations in the grid go up in flames.

The times when the redundancy in the German powergrid were so world-leadingly good that the rest of the planet envied the Germans for their stable and "undestructable" powergrid, are over.

Murphy's law: what can happen, will happen - you only have to give it time enough to get there.

Dargo

09-02-22, 03:16 PM

Its not that simple. Not only do you loose huge quantity in power by sending it down the wires over hundreds of kilometers, you also - and that is the real concern- you add instability to it due to the net frequency becoming instabile and currencies needing to be transformed, which has physical limits per amount of technical measuremnts installed to handle it. If you push too much power down the line, you get blackouts, and in worst case: a cascade blackout. Thats then the so-called "big one", it eats itself through most of the continental powergrid - through every section of it that does not get isolated and taken off the grid in time.

Europe has been close to that repeatedly in past years, and every following year more often then in the previous year. The epicenter of many causes for such flucationd and almost-deastsers has become Germany, the symptoms for it then become visible in other places and countries, and there in regional blackouts.

Its pretty likely that we will see regional blackouts in Germany this winter, and repeately. Its openly discussed over here to also intentionally switch off power in regions of Germany over the day, for some - announced - hours, to prevcent uncontrolled balckpouts. Planned blckouts are better than unpredicted, chaotic blackouts spiralling out of control. If the latte rhappens, it could lead to a cascade blacking out most of the continent. Not because ther eis not enough power, but because technical installations in the grid go up in flames.

The times when the redundancy in the German powergrid were so world-leadingly good that the rest of the planet envied the Germans for their stable and "undestructable" powergrid, are over.

Murphy's law: what can happen, will happen - you only have to give it time enough to get there.Denmark is connected by several countries it does not depend only on Germany so other country's takeover the UCTE grid is the largest synchronous electrical grid (by connected power) in the world.

Skybird

09-02-22, 03:32 PM

I was not talking about only Denmark. But Denmark is integrated part of the European grid. What effects the grid, effects Denmark.

A cascade ripples through all that, through all that when the cascade reaches it, is still connected to the grid. People simply underestimate this, also the speed by which this can happen. Its not about Volts, its not about Watts, its about Hertz'. Its about the grid frequency. Smallest deviations can lead to desaster if not kept under tightest control. The interval for fluctuation tolerance is extremely thin.

In the past close-to-desaster situations of the past one and a half decade, the location of causal event the the location of a resultig n subsequent blackout were nations and many hundreds and thousands of kilometers apart.

In the past years, the number of such critical alarm situation has risen from year to year.

This all is the top number one reason why I have become a "prepper". Not war, not pandemics, not floodings, but several days-lasting blackouts and the resulting civil unrest, collapse of state services and law and order, and shortage in sweet water for weeks to come. I can only recommend everybody living here to follow my example. Its not eccentric at all. The generation of my grandparents and before were pretty much used to it for kost if not all of their lives, whether there was war or not. If it happens, the state, police, emergency services will not be able to help you, you will be on your own, alone with the law of the jungle and the fall of society back into the medieval. "Readiness is all". Get ready to the best of your financial and space/room possibilities. You7 gut to understand that the cosnequences of a contiental cascade failure in the powergrid cnanot be rerpaired and cured within a few days, but will affect your life for weeks and months to come, especially relating to water and sewage. A few days without power and the sewage as well as the sweet wate rprocessing systems are ruined and must be completely cleaned, desinfected, every pipe, and water processing plants must be almost rebuild from scratch.

A regional blackout for 2, 3 days, that is one thing. A continental cascade failure taking out several nations - that is a completely different ballgame, and its played in the premium league of deasasters.

mapuc

09-02-22, 03:37 PM

Denmark is connected by several countries it does not depend only on Germany so other country's takeover the UCTE grid is the largest synchronous electrical grid (by connected power) in the world.

That's true we are connected to Norway, Sweden, Holland and UK.

Right now as I write this we are importing 1.219 MW from Sweden while we are exporting 685 MW (which mean we are importing 534 MW)

From Germany where we use to import most is on 278 MW (don't know why it's so low)

From Holland Import 389 MW

Norway Export 731 MW

Edit
Been on the lookout for a generator.
End edit

Markus

Dargo

09-02-22, 04:03 PM

That's true we are connected to Norway, Sweden, Holland and UK.

Right now as I write this we are importing 1.219 MW from Sweden while we are exporting 685 MW (which mean we are importing 534 MW)

From Germany where we use to import most is on 278 MW (don't know why it's so low)

From Holland Import 389 MW

Norway Export 731 MW

Edit
Been on the lookout for a generator.
End edit

MarkusThe last major blackout was because the frequency in the North-West Area of Continental Europe initially decreased to a value of 49.74 Hz within a period of around 15 seconds automatic and manual countermeasures were activated in order to stabilize the frequency after a few minutes by France and Italy and Transmission System Operators the reason can be the strong expansion of volatile renewable electricity generation and the elimination of large backup power plants in Europe.

mapuc

09-02-22, 04:09 PM

The last major blackout was because the frequency in the North-West Area of Continental Europe initially decreased to a value of 49.74 Hz within a period of around 15 seconds automatic and manual countermeasures were activated in order to stabilize the frequency after a few minutes by France and Italy and Transmission System Operators the reason can be the strong expansion of volatile renewable electricity generation and the elimination of large backup power plants in Europe.

Thank you Dargo-You mentioned something very important-The frequency-which as to be as close to 50 Hz as possible.

If people use more power than there's electricity the frequency will drop and the country has to buy or produce more electricity and if it goes up..then either sell og shut down some turbine.

Skybird posted a very interesting video about German power grid some weeks ago. Sad thing is It's German.

Markus

mapuc

09-02-22, 04:38 PM

Just heard in the news

(from memory)
We have filled up on our reserve and it will reach to next spring..if the winter doesn't become very cold-Then the reserve could end up being empty sooner than expected.

Markus

Dargo

09-02-22, 05:07 PM

mapuc

09-02-22, 05:16 PM

Denmark has 94.43% that is higher than the EU average

I presume you are talking about our gas reserves. You may be correct I only know it's above 80 %.

As said before it all depend on how the winter are going to be-Ordinary then we have enough-A hard winter not enough..I don't know if our wind turbine can fill up the needs if this is the case or other renewable energies ?

Markus

Skybird

09-02-22, 05:22 PM

Europe total is above 80% and trend is upwards do not see why this article must be so doom
Because different nations have very different storage capacities.For exmaple the UK has a max gas storage capacity of 1.5bn m3. Germany: 23 bn m3. So although the UK is a huge gas consumer, it has a probolem even with all reserves filled up if it is not constantly supplied from outside the UK.

A continental average of 80% means nothing.

Kapitan

09-02-22, 10:36 PM

Thanks Kapitan for the explanation, but there are some things that still do not add up. If taxes and treaties were not followed by England

Taxes and treaties were followed however when the UK introduced the truck levy for foreign vehicles which as the EU stated is our prerogative they instantly kicked up a major fuss.
They insisted that it must apply to all UK trucks as well as foreign trucks, this was a double tax for the UK haulage industry that already pays vehicle exercise duty (which foreign trucks do not)

Note that the currently vignette (BENELUX) MAUT (Germany) and Payage (France) system gives discounts to domestic carriers but charges full rates for foreign trucks. (this is pre covid)

So in this sense the UK company pays fully rate at home and abroad while a German carrier in his home country pays around 60% rate that the UK truck would pay and 0% in the UK. (I know this because I do run UK Dutch German Danish Swedish French Belgian and Polish trucks on the European network.)

another double standard was 2003/53/EC which was the driver CPC as requested by the EU it was implemented in the UK and boy what a cost we paid we lost a lot of drivers that year, France Germany Belgium and Holland saw what happened and did not implement this agreement until recently and when they did they modified it so that only those drivers who do international routes
actually have to take it, yet UK domestic and International drivers had to do it regardless.

That seems to me like we followed the rules as requested but other countries felt it ok to skirt them or change them at will so for me a total double standard.

the Levy did end up in court and was discussed at length in the EU parliament but the referendum happened before legal action was taken and indeed before a resolution came about.

80+% of freight is moved by road in the UK rail isn't much of an option unless you want to cut commuter and passenger travel down to increase freight capacity.
In contrast the EU has a lesser road freight foot print its around 70%

You can read this article from the Parliment magazine: https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/commission-warns-uk-against-new-road-charge

From a joint RHA and Return loads article I've clipped it because there's some annoying pop ups but you can read it here: https://www.returnloads.net/news/rha-dismisses-eu-allegations/

Richard Burnett, chief executive of the RHA stated:
‘This challenge is nonsense. The levy breaks neither the letter nor spirit of EU law. Brussels was fully briefed during its design and implementation – and continental hauliers continue to pay the levy without complaint. This is an important and successful measure that addresses an issue of real concern; to both the haulage industry and wider public. Foreign operators – now account for almost 90 percent of international trade – paid nothing at all to use our roads and the full burden of contributing towards road maintenance fell on UK-registered trucks. The levy changed that, within a framework designed by the EU itself. It is important to recognise that foreign and UK hauliers both pay the levy. Visiting hauliers pay around £40 million a year, still a modest sum and made up of a £10 per day charge for occasional visitors or a cost saving option of £1,000 a year for frequent visitors.’

He concluded stating: ‘Currently, the levy goes as far as EU law allows towards levelling the playing field and no further. The Commission should applaud the measure for making the haulage sector fairer, not attack it. If it persists in its challenge I trust that the UK government will pursue a vigorous defence.’

The HGV levy was introduced 2 years ago to ‘Even the odds’ between national and foreign drivers, ensuring every trucker pays their way while trading within UK boundaries while the EU believe it is a form of discrimination among foreign drivers, charging more than necessary. The EU were also planning to keep the allegations hidden from the UK until after the referendum considering the impact it may have on voters on June 23rd. It was also revealed in the commission’s report that there had been ‘thorough analysis’ failing to mention any evidence.

Note the UK levy is suspended to UK trucks until 2023 (were hoping for good) only foreign registered trucks now pay and they pay that when they board trains or ferries.

What is the "RHA"? I doubt 60 percent of companies was favoring brexit.

To answer this first part the RHA is the Road Haulage Association, there is another group the FTA which is Freight Transport Association both basically represent the roads and freight networks.
Sorry I should have originally put it long form its one of those things with acronyms you use them often to people who you know what they mean forgetting your in an entirely different field.

The 60% backed leave yup that is very true the RHA is the biggest representative for road freight in the UK and heres the article about it.

https://www.rha.uk.net/news/news-blogs-and-press-releases/press-releases/detail/britain-s-road-hauliers-back-leave-

anyway during its time of membership in the EU, why did prices already rise that much before 2019 and corona?

Between 1998 and 2019 the price of oil went from $26 a barrel (mid 1998) To a high point of $190 per barrel in 2008 then back down to $56 in 2016 then it rose again up to $70 in 2019.

Source: https://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-chart

Secondary source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/262858/change-in-opec-crude-oil-prices-since-1960/

Why is that important ? trains, ships and trucks run on heavy fuel oils so we will put a charge on a rate which we call a fuel surcharge, higher the fuel the higher the % rate and that is passed on to the customer and end user.

An example London to Liverpool £500 if fuel is low the rate maybe 3% (£15) giving a total freight rate of £515, and I'm sure you can follow if I just say if fuel goes higher the FSC % goes up the highest I've ever seen it was recently at 50% in the USA (currently on 41%) Canada I am working on 42% Europe 40% and the UK were running at 35% right now.

(the reason the European rate is higher than the UK is because the trucks run through multiple countries with different fuel prices so its a blanket rate covering the whole of the EU its normally about the same typically)

They knew what was coming, and a lot just did not make it. Maybe good for the surviving rest and bigger monopolies, but not for competition

They did know it was coming however this hasn't actually caused a monopoly, if anything it has actually cracked that, the UK haulage was being swallowed up predominantly by Eastern European outfits.

When a customer calls and asks can you do a London to Milton Keynes full load for £90 you know theres something wrong with the system when that run will cost you £180/200 to actually do and break even.
The UK companies were being utterly mauled by these guys we would have that call and id say nope cant do it cheaper to run the truck empty id nearly always get oh well vostrakov or malinko transport can do it for that. (thats why you used to see them parked in enforcement areas wheel clamped because they had drivers running around the clock)

For the first time in nearly 20 years the company I work for has taken on a UK based small company which started up last year and has 7 trucks and that is a good sign because that company is not a one off either.

The UK market was being flooded by foreign companies doing loads domestically, stationing drivers in the UK sometimes for months and the UK wasn't enforcing cabotage because it got too big too quick and with the back lash going on over the UK road levy it was too much to handle.

Most companies folded up and UK drivers left as wages stagnated or plummeted and this was before the referendum because they couldn't compete with the foreign trucks and drivers which were blatantly breaking not just UK law but EU law too.

We are now seeing a return of UK drivers who previously left the industry back driving UK trucks.

On the other side France Spain and Belgium have only now just started cracking down because they have realized its cost their own domestic carriers billions of euros, and why is the crack down only happening now ? simple because these drivers were originally in the UK and now they cant do loads without being checked they have moved across the channel.

economy and the people. Skyrocketing prices in England have a lot to do with brexit, the numbers are just not exact after all this other stuff happening and blurring the picture.

Brexit is one part of it yes absolutely and with all this other stuff I agree the numbers will be skewed.

A lot less people are buying in England, some companies have left, new companies think twice before settling in England or opening stores there.
Nothing to do with corona, and not with the war in Ukraine either.

Well looking at the IMF data just released the UK is forecast to grow 3.2% in 2022 and afterall if no one spends and no one invests the economy doesn't grow and looking at these figures for 2022 the UK isn't doing too badly and 2023 is a little light but you wont know those figures accurately until Q4 2022.

The EU as a whole 2.6%
France 2.3%
Germany 1.2%
Japan 1.7%
Italy 3.0%
Spain 4.0%
USA 2.3%
Canada 3.4%

Source https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2022/07/26/world-economic-outlook-update-july-2022

I agree with the latter, crude oil prices have meanwhile fallen, but the prices demanded will of course never fall that much if people are willing to pay that.

True they wont fall that much, I got off the phone earlier from the mrs and our petrol is currently $1.67.7 in Manitoba, here in Alberta where I am this evening its between $1.39.9 and $1.36.9 and a lot of that will be down to state taxes etc but that's the gist Alberta is back to around pre covid prices in AB anyways.

Just an interesting one for you Manitoba uses hydro electric generation as power production it does have some smaller gas plants for peak loads but the base load is hydro electric and the province exports power to the states Saskatchewan and Ontario.

My bills in 2020 were around $130 a month in 2021 they went up to $244 and the latest bill is $348

mapuc

09-03-22, 07:36 AM

What have EU been giving Russia since they have changed mind and are now sending 42.7 million cubic meter gas through Ukraine ?

Markus

Skybird

09-03-22, 08:01 AM

Nothing, its just Russian manouvering. The amount of gas added to the Ukrainian transit does not compensate at all for the - already reduced - lacking NordStream 1 deliveries. In the greater scheme of things it does not matter much, but allow Russia to pose as the innocent and hard trying victim of circumstances. Also, it helps to keep discussions and speculations in the West boiling.

Jimbuna

09-03-22, 12:00 PM

Russia's main gas pipeline to Europe will not reopen as planned on Saturday, adding to concerns about energy supplies this winter.

State energy firm Gazprom said it found a leak on Nord Stream 1, meaning it could be closed indefinitely.

The pipeline, which runs to Germany, has been shut for three days for what Gazprom described as maintenance work.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62766867

Jimbuna

09-03-22, 12:02 PM

Members of the G7 group of leading economies have agreed to impose a price cap on Russian oil, as they seek to dent Moscow's ability to finance its war in Ukraine.

The cap, on crude oil and petroleum products, is also intended to curb soaring world energy prices, the group's finance ministers said.

It will be imposed in coordination with the European Union, though analysts say it will only have a decisive effect if other large countries follow suit.

But Russia, in anticipation of the decision, had earlier said that it would not sell oil to countries that imposed price caps.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such a decision would lead to a "significant destabilisation of the oil markets".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62770663

Dargo

09-03-22, 12:22 PM

What have EU been giving Russia since they have changed mind and are now sending 42.7 million cubic meter gas through Ukraine ?

MarkusThrough the Yamal pipeline that runs through Ukraine, 41.3 million cubic meters of gas yesterday. Today it was 42.7 million cubic meters. However, that is not nearly enough to compensate for the loss of gas through Nord Stream 1. Through that pipeline flows about 33 million cubic meters of gas per day to Europe. Nothing is given Russia reroute that natural gas because of the contracts it has with European countries

Jimbuna

09-04-22, 01:53 PM

Liz Truss has promised to announce a plan to deal with soaring energy costs within a week if she becomes prime minister on Tuesday.

The Tory leadership hopeful, the favourite according to pollsters, told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg she would "act immediately" to help with bills.

But she offered no details, saying she would need time in office first in order to finalise exact proposals.

Her rival Rishi Sunak said he would target further payments at the poorest.

One of the two contenders will be announced as the next Tory leader on Monday, and will replace Boris Johnson in Downing Street the next day.

They have come under pressure to spell out how they would protect households with rising bills, as well as give help to businesses, which are not covered by the domestic price cap.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62786065

mapuc

09-05-22, 11:08 AM

This article fits both here and in our Ukraine thread

Russia will not resume gas supplies to Europe until sanctions lifted, says Moscow

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/05/russia-will-not-resume-gas-supplies-to-europe-until-sanctions-lifted-says-moscow

Markus

Dargo

09-05-22, 02:15 PM

Dargo

09-05-22, 02:46 PM

This article fits both here and in our Ukraine thread

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/05/russia-will-not-resume-gas-supplies-to-europe-until-sanctions-lifted-says-moscow

MarkusBecause it can not win on the front, the Kremlin’s energy weapon is being deployed on the same day the last reactor at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was taken offline also disconnected Kakhovka hydropower plant.

mapuc

09-05-22, 02:53 PM

Because it can not win on the front, the Kremlin’s energy weapon is being deployed on the same day the last reactor at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was taken offline.

As someone wrote Russia is now in a full scale gas war with the West

(will try to remember where I read it)

Markus

Dargo

09-05-22, 02:58 PM

As someone wrote Russia is now in a full scale gas war with the West

(will try to remember where I read it)

MarkusUkraine exports its electricity to Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Poland and is ready to expand exports to Germany do not know it can now the Zaporizhzhia facility is offline.

mapuc

09-05-22, 03:01 PM

Ukraine exports its electricity to Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Poland and is ready to expand exports to Germany do not know it can now the Zaporizhzhia facility is offline.

Found it

https://twitter.com/Billbrowder/status/1566743611932381184

Markus

Rockstar

09-05-22, 07:02 PM

This article fits both here and in our Ukraine thread

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/05/russia-will-not-resume-gas-supplies-to-europe-until-sanctions-lifted-says-moscow

Markus

I think the E.U. can adapt and eventually overcome much sooner than Russia can adapt to the loss of revenue. As Perun put it, by cutting of gas to the E.U. Russia just lost the one and only piece of real leverage they ever had.

JU_88

09-06-22, 03:07 AM

I think the E.U. can adapt and eventually overcome much sooner than Russia can adapt to the loss of revenue. As Perun put it, by cutting of gas to the E.U. Russia just lost the one and only piece of real leverage they ever had.

I dunno about that, Germany (the worst effected and lets face it, Germany basically IS the EU.) Has a hell of alot of infastructure to get in place before they can go Russian Gas free. And if they stick to their guns on renewables, its going to be decades before they can be energy self reliant.
They really screwed themselves this time.

Skybird

09-06-22, 03:53 AM

Not to mention the costs. Buying LNG gas in the years to come will kill us.

IF we get the ammounts we need.

And IF there are sufficient tankers needed to transport the ammounts Germany need. So far, these free tankers are not there. The Germans so far chartered 4. But would need 30-35. Tankers that for years exclusively drive just for Germany. Good luck with that.

The Greens still put ideology before interest of the people and economy. Now Habeck has accepted to keep 2 nuclear powerplants in resewrve until april next year. Then they should be shut down. The third reactopr should eb shiut down this Decembre. In the press conference h lecturd the public about that his stress test showed that ther could be "hour-wise" electricity blackouts in winter, and then the nuclear reactors should be switched on. Note: this ingenous planned econoym experts know not onlyx that there will be shortages, no, they are so brillkiant that they know that these hsxortages will last only hours amd thenm will go over again.

No word on the situation next winter, 2023. Either they plan to have all renewables in place next year this time :doh: , or they plan to do business as usual with Russia again and get their gas from them, as before. :doh: They are too smart for me.

There was a nice calculation shown yesterday. It showed that in total, if you weigh in all financial aspects: trade, aide, support, costs for energy, everything, Germany pays more than 30 times as much money still to Moscow, then it gives in support to Ukraine. The Ukrainian parliament's president was just in Berlin, showing a plan they prepared for months that gave details on financing plans and timetables and agreements by the industry for getting German tanks from industry reserves. Scholz completely and totally blocked it (again) and left no doubt that he will not allow such deliveries. The Ukrainian was poltie, but left while barely being able to hide his fuming anger.

Germany is more on side of Russia than the Ukraine, no matter what Bubbleboy Olaf the Untouchable claims in mighty phrases. He lies. Last but not least to the German people. For every german Euro that reaches Ukraine, Germany gives over 30 Euros to Russia, in many ways. Let that sink in.

Jimbuna

09-06-22, 05:55 AM

Soaring household bills look set to be subsidised by energy companies using government-backed loans.

It's thought the government plans to freeze household bills at their current level for roughly 18 months.

Small business are also expected to be offered some relief in the plan set to be announced on Thursday.

Incoming Prime Minister Liz Truss used her victory speech on Monday to pledge to "deliver on the energy crisis" - with a price freeze widely expected.

Energy bills are rocketing and the cap on prices will go up on 1 October, meaning a typical British household is set to pay £3,549 a year on gas and electricity.

Energy bosses have insisted for some time that a government-backed superfund from which they could borrow to subsidise bills "is the only game in town".

Under such a plan, the government would guarantee loans to energy companies that would be used to freeze or at least lower bills this winter and beyond. These loans would be repaid from bills over the next 10 to 20 years.

Scottish Power has said that freezing all bills at the current price cap of £1,971 for two years would cost nearly £100bn.

However, Dermot Nolan, former chief executive of energy regulator Ofgem, warned that this estimate could be "conservative", and also questioned how much it would benefit the most vulnerable.

"This kind of price freeze means that a multimillionaire will get exactly the same level of protection as everybody else," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"I hope that at the very least the £400 that is currently being given to more vulnerable people is kept, and hopefully extended," he added.

He said there were a number of questions about what a price freeze would mean in practice, including how long the support would last, and whether it would mean higher energy bills over time.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62801913

Catfish

09-07-22, 03:40 AM

Producing hydrogen out of moist air, directly. Could be a game changer. University of Melbourne, Australia:
"Researchers say their prototype produces hydrogen with greater than 99% purity and works in air as dry as 4% relative humidity"
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/07/out-of-thin-air-new-solar-powered-invention-creates-hydrogen-fuel-from-the-atmosphere?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

"The device is estimated to produce up to 93 litres of hydrogen a square metre an hour. “If you have 10 sq metres of this unit, you can power a whole house … to replace your consumption of natural gas at home for cooking and heating,” Li said."

Burning hydrogen just creates warm water vapour as exhaust, also all common fuel engines are capable of using hydrogen instead of fuel (not Diesels of course). Need another tank and a modified ignition and that's it. Better than electricity when you look at accumulated energy ballance.

Some obstacles, apart from directly using it in a house (as long as the sun shines and humidity is more than 4 percent in the air), you will have to store it. So you need a pump for compressing, and a tank.
Still, this is a great achievement!

Skybird

09-07-22, 05:53 AM

How much electrical power is needed to produce so and so much hydrogen this way? Thats where the crux is with current methods. Also, costs for transportation(money, power) must be considered in the math. Finally, the ratio between energy per volume-unit, this is quite disadvantegous with LNG which makes Germany's LNG tanker plans so insanely expensive, but I have no idea how it is with hydrogen?

-------

Meanwhile, Germany. Minister Habeck has bowed to the radical ideologists and said two of three nuclear reactors should remain "in reserve", but not actively producing power for the grid, until April. The third one should be switched off in Decembre. This third dne lies in a federal state where the Greens are in election campaign - the link is obvious to me.

Not only does the electricity math of the Green still make no sense, but Habeck has not understood what the difference between oil and gas powerplants and reactors is: the first you can quickly engage and disengage to stabilise fluctuations in the grid, the nuclear powerplant you can't, if you drive it up, it needs around 7 days before it can feed electricity into the grid. Which means it is completely unsuited to serve as a reserve to prevent Blackouts and sudden grid instabilties. It cannot react fast, within hours or minutes. It needs a week.

The Greens are riding the risk of economic doom just for stupid ideology, and election chances.

Ich hoffe diesen Winter wird es richtig brutal krachen. :arrgh!:

Skybird

09-07-22, 08:51 AM

Oh dear. Trottel am Ruder - beware. FOCUS writes:
------------------

In a letter obtained by " Spiegel ", the operator of the Isar 2 nuclear power plant, the company Preussen Elektra, writes to the Ministry of Economics - and the letter has it all.

"Sending two of the three operating plants to cold reserve at the turn of the year in order to ramp them up when needed is technically not feasible and therefore unsuitable to secure the supply contribution of the plants," writes Preussen Elektra CEO Guido Knott in the letter to the ministry, according to "Spiegel." In stretch operation, "a flexible increase or throttling of the output is no longer possible." The ministry had already been informed of this on August 25.

In particular, once the plant is shut down - as Habeck says is planned - such a plan is hardly feasible. "Then, with the limited possibilities of such a reactor core, a restart in advanced stretch operation is not feasible and certainly not in the short term within a week," "Der Spiegel" quotes from the letter.

Such a procedure has never been used before, Knott cautions. "Testing a start-up procedure that has never been practiced before should not coincide with a critical condition of the power supply."

Jimbuna

09-07-22, 08:58 AM

The European Union's executive body has proposed capping the price of Russian gas, within hours of Russia's leader condemning the idea as stupidity.

Energy prices have soared in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, forcing the EU's 27 states into action.

"We must cut Russia's revenues which Putin uses to finance this atrocious war," said European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

But Mr Putin said Moscow would react to a cap by halting supplies completely.

"We will not supply gas, oil, coal, heating oil - we will not supply anything," he said, if it went against Russia's interests.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62817566

Skybird

09-07-22, 09:33 AM

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:
------------------------------
Crisis prevention expert Herbert Saurugg (Austria) warns of a large-scale power blackout. Mistakes have been made for at least a decade, he says, calling the energy transition unrealistic.

The fear of a widespread power blackout lasting several days is widespread. According to the current trend radar of the software specialist Lexware, more than a third of the self-employed and small businesses surveyed fear that they will not receive sufficient energy in winter. Only 20 percent had an emergency plan in case gas was curtailed, but 75 percent had already started to reduce their energy consumption.

But how many companies have already dealt with a major power outage remains unknown. Although Chancellor Olaf Scholz considers such a blackout unlikely, the current report on the stress test of the German transmission system operators states: "In all three scenarios considered, the supply situation in the coming winter half-year appears extremely tense - in Europe, the load cannot be fully covered in the electricity market."

Austrian blackout expert Herbert Saurugg draws attention to this in an interview with the F.A.Z.. The former major in the Austrian Armed Forces is president of the Society for Crisis Preparedness and a regular contact in the neighboring country's media as an expert on supply security.

And he has been warning of the blackout scenario for a long time, especially since this would be associated with dangerous interruptions in the supply of food or even wastewater. He sees the current stress test on German supply security not only as confirmation of his previous assessment: unfortunately, all concerns have also been reinforced.

Basically, everyone still assumed that a critical power shortage situation should be manageable with a planned power shutdown. "From my daily work, I assume that very few actors are neither aware nor conscious of the consequences of such a planned large-scale shutdown."

Should power shutdowns possibly be required simultaneously in several countries - as is currently becoming apparent - no one knows how such a complex system would then behave and whether these measures would remain manageable. Existing safety systems were not installed for such a situation. "Therefore, there is a very real blackout threat that we should take seriously. The issue is not whether the event actually occurs, but that we are not prepared for it and the damage would be immense."

With the Ukraine war, climate change and drought, he said, unexpected stress factors have been added, and even without them, the problems would have increased significantly. Saurugg is concerned about the increasing number of last-minute changes to plans, because they cannot be implemented at this speed in reality and there is no assessment of the consequences and side effects, if this is still possible at all.

According to him, the problems were already foreseeable ten years ago. The blackout expert considers the fundamental problems to be one-sided and unsystematic economic optimization, the reduction of all fallback levels, reserves and redundancies, and an energy transition that is far disconnected from reality and does not take physics and technical conditions into account.

Here, he points to the non-existent storage and grid capacities, which are particularly necessary for wind and solar energy, which are susceptible to fluctuations. Saurugg criticizes the energy turnaround in Germany because, in his words, ideological demands have pushed technical changes here.

In his view, Germany is virtually unprepared for a major blackout in all areas. This could have catastrophic consequences, he said. "The topic of preparedness has always been ridiculed or equated with right-wing preppers," Saurugg says. As a result, the broad masses have no precautions. For the black start, i.e. until large parts of Germany can be supplied with electricity again, a period of one week is expected, according to his information.

In this context, Saurugg also criticizes the liberalization of the electricity market, as since then only business optimization has counted. "In the meantime, virtually all of the generation overcapacity that was still abundant 20 years ago has been eliminated." As a result, he said, there is hardly any buffer left to respond to unforeseen events. For Saurugg, the current upheavals in the electricity market are just a symptom of the expected shortage.

In the short to medium term, Saurugg no longer sees any chance of changing anything, because far-reaching changes would be necessary for the already very fragile state. In the short term, the escalations would have to be stopped and, at the same time, the causes would have to be addressed: a lack of reliable generation capacities, storage facilities and transmission lines.

mapuc

09-07-22, 07:37 PM

Now and then I hear or read about Solar cells and how we need to improve this product.

Now and then I hear or read about windmils and how we need to improve this product

Now and then I hear or read about solar collector and how we need to improve this product.

I can't remember hearing or reading about improving the end product in the other end of the powerline.

I know there's a race on to develop Lightbulb who use laser instead of LED-And should use 1/20 of what LED use. I know there's a race to develop new type of refrigerator and freezer who use sound(I kid you not)
( https://gizmodo.com/sound-waves-could-someday-cool-down-your-refrigerator-5624610)
Which should be a lot cheaper than todays A+++ .
And many other things in our home is waiting for a huge upgrade on how much electricity/Watt it use.

Markus

Catfish

09-08-22, 04:03 AM

@Mapuc: The new australian invention produces hydrogen by a special type of "solar cell", directly. So these are not only normal solar cells, they get the necessary energy by sunlight and directly produce hydrogen, and lots of it. They already are the power plant.

"The device is estimated to produce up to 93 litres of hydrogen a square metre an hour.“
"So if you have 10 sq metres of this unit, you can power a whole house … to replace your consumption of natural gas at home for cooking and heating"
I cannot quite imagine this is true, but ... 93 litres of hydrogen an hour per square meter! Probably only under optimal conditions (strong sunlight, moist air), but this alone is a full tank for a contemporary car.

Seeing is believing, of course.

re Nuclear plants i am all for letting the german three ones work longer, after all the environmental damage has already been done, from impact of the total energy ballance to heating up rivers, to burning 160 kgs of enriched uranium a day (that have to be dumped somewhere), to all accidents, and the risks remaining when trying to dismantle them (hint: you cannot).
The way humanity uses nuclear energy is 70 years old, using nuclear energy to power steam engines. This is ridiculous and dangerous.
But Habeck is not informed enough to decide this, imho. You cannot switch reactors on and off, they need weeks to power up properly, and likewise to cool down. Ballancing the daily electric load by a combination of pump settings, uranium rod managing and steam turbines alone is hazardous.
This kind of powerplant is still unsafe, even without external disasters like in Fukushima. Better not think of the inherent unstable and unsafe russian reactors, some new ones now being built in Hungary :doh:

So ok let the german ones run a year more and then see what has happened to energy production, and if alternative methods can then replace them AND coal plants.

Skybird

09-08-22, 04:32 AM

Energy economists like Claudia Kemfert from the DIW do not accept the argument that green energy cannot be stored.

Sinn: We will not succeed in storing the necessary seasonal weather compensation in the foreseeable future. The existing pumped-storage plants are a drop in the bucket, and they cannot be increased sufficiently. Batteries as seasonal storage systems are still tens of orders of magnitude away from the economic viability threshold. Hydrogen is the only option. However, the loop from electricity to hydrogen back to electricity wastes three quarters of the energy generated, the plants are extremely expensive, and hydrogen embrittles all materials that could be used for pipelines.

So the pipelines have to be replaced every few years. The hydrogen route and derived e-fuels are technically possible, but only at horrendous cost, robbing us of our prosperity.

Also, as I posted a week ago already after the Canada meeting, the energy-per volume unit ratio for hydrogen does not compaare to that of LNG gas. If you store H2 or transport it in tanks (tankers), you need 3 times as big volume capacities to reach the same energy

content of LNG in a given amount.

I was a fan of H2 for long time, but did not know these two details. Since then I have become sceptical. Replacing pipes for H2 every couple of years? Thats like the railway replacing its complete track grid every couple of years. Madness. Absolutely ruinous.

Quoted Kemfert - how much i dispise this so-called "expert" - claimed we have already very huge eneryg storage capacities. She was wrong, as I pointe dout alredy when I quoted that first. These reserve facilties would keep Germany runnign for 40-50 minutes only. A time period of so sun and wind however could last for a week and long, in winter, and that that happens every winter, repeatedly. You would need 200-250 times more power storage capacity than there is to get over one such dark and windstill week in winter!

Thats the kind of realism our experts and government are basing on. With so much concentrated incompetence, one's hair can only stand on end in fear.

I expect official inflation rate sin Germany exceeding 12% over the cours eof this winter, and absolutely possible and likely to climb higher next year. I also expect that the delayed wave of Corona bancrupts and now energy- and inflation-related insolvencies will dramatically, drastically wash across Germany in the coming months.

Skybird

09-08-22, 04:43 AM

"So if you have 10 sq metres of this unit, you can power a whole house … to replace your consumption of natural gas at home for cooking and heating"
I cannot quite imagine this is true, but ... 93 litres of hydrogen an hour per square meter! P
Its no perpetuum mobile, the moisture and air taken out of the air, are then not in the regional air anymore, obviously. Changes in micro-climate, more dryness? We know that in huie metropoles with huge and high buildings you even have city-created micro weather zones.

I do not mean to kill this new idea in its cradle, but I am sceptical regarding that there are no costs involved. These we must learn about, and only when we know it we can make an educated assessment of how useful or dangeorus this concept might be.

Jimbuna

09-08-22, 06:14 AM

Prime Minister Liz Truss has announced plans to cap average household energy bills at £2,500 a year from October.

The support will last for two years, she announces in the Commons, saying "this is the moment to be bold"

A typical household's gas and electricity bill had been due to rise from £1,971 to £3,549 in October.

Businesses are also getting a support package for six months which will provide "equivalent support"

After the six-month period, further support will be targeted at "vulnerable industries", Truss says.

The government is also lifting the ban on fracking - which involves extracting gas and oil from shale rock.

Jimbuna

09-08-22, 06:29 AM

PARIS, Sept 5 (Reuters) - France will send gas to Germany if needed while Germany stands ready to provide it with electricity, President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday, saying this showcased European solidarity in the face of the energy crisis stemming from the war in Ukraine.

European gas prices surged, share prices slid and the euro sank on Monday after Russia stopped pumping gas via a major supply route, in another warning to the 27-nation EU as it scrambled to respond to the crisis ahead of winter.

"Germany needs our gas and we need power from the rest of Europe, notably Germany," France's president told a news conference following a phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The necessary connections for France to deliver gas to Germany when needed would be finalised in the coming weeks, he said, adding that France, which had long been a net exporter of electricity, will need help from its neighbours because of technical problems its nuclear plants face.

Macron, however, said that he did not understand demand for a third gas link between France and Spain, rejecting calls to increase capacity with a new pipeline.

He added he was open to changing his mind on that point, should Scholz or Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez argue convincingly for it.

Ahead of a meeting on Friday of EU energy ministers, Macron said France was in favour of buying gas at a European rather than a national level and called for European Union measures to control energy prices.

He said it was necessary to act against speculation on energy prices at EU level and also said France was in favour of putting a cap on the price of pipeline Russian gas.

Macron also repeated calls for all to turn down air conditioners when it's hot and to limit heating to 19 degrees Celsius this winter.

"Everyone has to do their bit," he said.

Jimbuna

09-08-22, 10:53 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhrllrXxReM

Dargo

09-09-22, 03:00 PM

The US will help Europe build gas reserves before winter, White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre said. According to her, "in order to further diversify sources of energy resources, the United States will closely cooperate with its allies".

Catfish

09-09-22, 03:44 PM

Good to hear!

Just wondering, France has a lot of nuclear plants, why are they all down? :hmmm:

Skybird

09-09-22, 03:57 PM

^ Personnel shortages due to Corona delayed maintenance over the past two years. Now, problems with corrosion from that delay. Also, low water levels in rivers forced powerplants to run in reduced power production format.

Many of their reactors are old.

Jimbuna

09-10-22, 07:39 AM

Millions of households in the UK will still need extra help, despite a multi-billion government plan to ease the impact of higher energy bills, campaigners have warned.

On Thursday, the government announced a plan to help households with their energy bills for two years.

Businesses will be protected from steep energy price rises for six months.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said the poorest families still faced an £800 shortfall in household income.

The End Fuel Poverty Coalition said more support would be needed to help the poorest families over the winter.

And business groups have also voiced concern over the lack of detail explaining how the new price cap will work for firms.

The Federation of Small Businesses said the plan was "sparse on detail".

While the government has promised support for the most vulnerable industries, highlighting the hospitality sector, it has said there will be a review in three months' time to decide where the help should be targeted.

Small firms warned they cannot remain in "limbo" for the next three months.

mapuc

09-10-22, 08:06 AM

In the news here:

If the winter turns cold, Europe faces a dire scenario: rationing of gas.

That is the assessment at Nykredit Markets, which currently estimates that the probability that gas will be rationed in Europe in the coming winter is 'high'.

"A gradual worsening of the supply situation in Europe makes gas rationing for winter more and more likely," writes Nykredit Markets in a briefing.

It is noted that the Russian supply of gas has decreased in the past several months, and most recently Russia has announced that the important gas pipeline Nord Stream 1 will now be closed.

In the news yesterday it was said that the government had a plan on who would be first to lose electricity-Which will be common household on Zealand at first then it will be North Jutland.

Official buildings will lower it's temp to 19 degrees-Except hospital and care home.

Markus

Jimbuna

09-10-22, 08:08 AM

shouldn't think it will make that great a difference.

mapuc

09-10-22, 08:16 AM

The island I live on is self-sufficient with Electricity we produce on average
125-130 % of green electricity.

Markus

Jimbuna

09-10-22, 08:18 AM

Careful or some nice understanding politician might find a way of diverting some or all of that elsewhere.

Skybird

09-10-22, 08:40 AM

Careful or some nice understanding politician might find a way of diverting some or all of that elsewhere.
That is to be feared. Markus should better cut the powerlines and dive the island as long as the crisis lasts. :03:

mapuc

09-10-22, 09:49 AM

That is to be feared. Markus should better cut the powerlines and dive the island as long as the crisis lasts. :03:

I have been on lookout for a power generator.

I know that the power shall be higher than what I use in real time.

If I'm currently using 600 W. then the generator need to have at least 800 W.

If I get it right.

However been looking at some who had 25 KW and 30 KW.
The biggest problem though is the price

Markus

Skybird

09-10-22, 10:40 AM

Just in: Switzerland announced it will build a final storage for nuclear waste directly at the German border. :haha: :har:

Just days ago it became known that only two of Germany's neighbozurign coutnries woudl be wiling to deliver Germany gas, if need be. Germany had appealed for solidarity and distribution mechanisms that everybody needing gas could count on support from the other union members.

It seems that some countries take the opportunity to declare paydays against Germany for its ignorrant energy politics in past years when it simply ignorred all warnings and concerns by others - while now wanting their committment to help Germany out of its self-dug hole. :D

Jimbuna

09-10-22, 01:12 PM

It seems that some countries take the opportunity to declare paydays against Germany for its ignorrant energy politics in past years when it simply ignorred all warnings and concerns by others - while now wanting their committment to help Germany out of its self-dug hole. :D

Yep and QFT....self-inflicted.

Jimbuna

09-12-22, 05:57 AM

Good news for the consumer.

Fixed energy bills to get automatic discount

Customers on fixed energy deals will see their tariffs automatically cut, the Department for Business has said.

New Prime Minister Liz Truss announced typical annual household bills would be capped at £2,500 for two years.

People "do not need to take any action to get the benefits of this scheme," a spokesperson for the Department for Business told the BBC.

Energy firms have said they will contact customers over what government plans to cap bills mean for them.

Meanwhile, Downing Street has said it does not believe the mourning period for the Queen's death will affect the rollout of the new policy.

The prime minister's official spokesman said: "The public should be reassured that the energy price guarantee will be in place for households from 1 October, as planned."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62834191

Dargo

09-12-22, 11:35 AM

European natural gas prices now back to July levels and close to halving from the top. I’m not sure where we’ll end up this winter, it might very well halve again. If it does, it would still be 2-3 times higher than periods of “high“ prices pre-2021. But the bubble has popped.

https://i.postimg.cc/sDbFqqj3/ttfgas11sept.jpg

https://twitter.com/BergAslak/status/1569305149079789570

Jimbuna

09-14-22, 11:12 AM

EU moves to cut peak electricity use by 5%

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has called for cuts to electricity use across the bloc and windfall taxes on energy firms to tackle high prices.

She told the European Parliament that gas and electricity prices had hit all-time highs after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

She called for electricity consumption to be cut at peak hours by at least 5%.

But plans for a cap on the price of natural gas, a key Russian export to the EU, were put on hold.

The plan outlined in Strasbourg targets "excess revenues" with proposals to skim the profits of low-carbon electricity producers and implement a de facto windfall tax on the oil, gas and coal sectors.

The money raised, estimated to be €140bn (£121bn; $141bn), would go to families and businesses across the EU's 27 states.

Companies producing energy from low-carbon sources such as wind, solar and nuclear would face a cap of €180 per megawatt hour (MWh) on their revenue.

By comparison, the front-year electricity price in Germany, the EU's biggest economy, was trading at just below €500/MWh on Wednesday.

"Power generators with lower operating costs have been able to reap extraordinary profits, way beyond what may have reasonably expected based on investment decisions," European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said.

The windfall tax on fossil fuel producers and refiners would require them to contribute 33% of their taxable surplus profit.

The EU's member states will pore over the proposals with hopes of an agreement by the end of this month.

Ms von der Leyen also announced she would be visiting Ukraine again later on Wednesday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying: "Europe's solidarity with Ukraine will remain unshakeable."

Mr Zelensky's wife Olena was in the parliament as guest of honour to hear the speech.

Ms von der Leyen said that "making ends meet" was "becoming a source of anxiety for millions of businesses and households".

"In these times, it is wrong to receive extraordinary record revenues and profits benefiting from war and on the back of our consumers," she argued.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62899940

mapuc

09-14-22, 11:26 AM

Here is how the Danish government will help Danes who may face huge bills this coming winter.

Cost above what the bill was in the month last year shall be what the customer shall pay-Rest of the money they can pay with interest each month with interest.

Meaning if your bill for Jan 2021 was 100 Euro and it's 200 Euro Jan 2023. You shall only pay 100 Euro and pay the rest each month over a year with interest around 2 percentage.

Danes a furious and many politician in opposition are angry too.

The newspaper is mocking this deal.

Markus

Jimbuna

09-14-22, 11:31 AM

USA will provide Ukraine with 2 billion cubic meters of gas, - Shmyhal

Ukraine plans to accumulate up to 15 billion cubic meters of gas before the heating season and expects to receive an additional 2 billion cubic meters from the United States.

This was announced by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, Censor.NET informs with reference to the EP.

The head of the government noted that today there are already more than 13.2 billion cubic meters of gas in underground storage, while consumption has halved compared to the period before the full-scale war.

"By the first of October, between 14.5 and 15 billion cubic meters will be accumulated in our storages, besides, we have an agreement with the United States to provide 2 billion cubic meters of gas from American producers during the 4th quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year. We are also negotiating with the Nordic countries, Norway and a consortium of countries, on the provision of physical volumes of gas for Ukraine as well," Shmyhal said.

Such volumes are sufficient to sustainably pass the heating season from the point of view of gas supply. At the same time, the Prime Minister emphasized, this season will be the most difficult, so it is necessary to prepare for the most difficult scenarios associated with military risks. Source: https://censor.net/en/n3367136

Jimbuna

09-15-22, 12:57 PM

Maduro reiterates willingness to export oil and gas to Europe and the U.S.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro reiterated on Wednesday Venezuela's willingness to export oil and gas to the European and U.S. markets in order to contribute to world energy and economic stability.

"We have said it, we have ratified it to all diplomats: Venezuela is ready and prepared to fulfill its role to supply the oil and gas needed by the world economy, in a stable and safe way", Maduro assured during a meeting with the secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Haitham Al Ghais, as reported by 'El Universal'.

The Venezuelan president indicated that his government "has been substantially recovering" the oil industry, whose production fell to historic lows "after years of disinvestment and lack of maintenance".

"Today it is around 700,000 barrels per day", Maduro remarked, recalling that in 2002 the figure of 2.3 million barrels per day was reached, as reported by 'El Nacional'.

The Venezuelan president expressed last Friday his willingness to provide energy resources to Europe and the United States, alleging that a crisis in the supply of gas and oil during the winter could be "tragic".

"Now winter is coming in the north, there is a crisis in the supply of gas, oil, a crisis that could be tragic and I say to Europe and to the president of the United States, Joe Biden, Venezuela is here", said the Venezuelan head of state during a visit to a petrochemical complex in the north of the country.

In this sense, Maduro emphasized that Venezuela "will always be here at the command" of the country's oil and gas to "stabilize the world and to help whoever needs help".
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/maduro-reiterates-willingness-to-export-oil-and-gas-to-europe-and-the-u-s/ar-AA11QNsu?cvid=b90f57008b3b4f938c5fc90f2e50aa7a

Jimbuna

09-15-22, 01:05 PM

Putin’s gas blackmail risks backfiring disastrously

As Europe battles to keep the lights on this winter, leaders across the Continent have begun framing the energy standoff with Russia as an epic struggle between good and evil.

“It is about autocracy against democracy,” said Ursula Von Der Leyen, the European Commission’s president, in her annual address on Wednesday.

Her rhetoric, a far cry from past calls for diplomacy, is the latest example of hardening European attitudes amid signs that the tide may finally be turning – both on and off the battlefield in Ukraine.

With Kyiv’s soldiers pushing back the Russian invaders and the European Union comfortably exceeding targets for gas storage, academics and experts say that – although the coming months will be among the hardest in living memory – Vladimir Putin no longer holds the leverage he once did over the Continent’s gas supplies.

The Russian president has mercilessly throttled flows into Europe this summer, pushing up household energy bills and forcing governments to announce support packages of an unprecedented scale to protect consumers.

But after playing many of his strongest cards in the stand-off with EU leaders, who have supported Ukraine and sanctioned Russia, Putin's weaponisation of gas is now at risk of spectacularly backfiring, according to John Lough, an associate fellow at Chatham House.

As Europe battles to keep the lights on this winter, leaders across the Continent have begun framing the energy standoff with Russia as an epic struggle between good and evil.

Her rhetoric, a far cry from past calls for diplomacy, is the latest example of hardening European attitudes amid signs that the tide may finally be turning – both on and off the battlefield in Ukraine.

With Kyiv’s soldiers pushing back the Russian invaders and the European Union comfortably exceeding targets for gas storage, academics and experts say that – although the coming months will be among the hardest in living memory – Vladimir Putin no longer holds the leverage he once did over the Continent’s gas supplies.

The Russian president has mercilessly throttled flows into Europe this summer, pushing up household energy bills and forcing governments to announce support packages of an unprecedented scale to protect consumers.

But after playing many of his strongest cards in the stand-off with EU leaders, who have supported Ukraine and sanctioned Russia, Putin's weaponisation of gas is now at risk of spectacularly backfiring, according to John Lough, an associate fellow at Chatham House.

“What Putin has now is probably a declining asset,” says the former Nato representative to Moscow.

“He could make threats for a while, see gas prices go up, and send European governments into a panic.

“But it now rather looks as though we're going to get through this winter. It might take some European economies into recession, but it’s not going to be fatal.

“My sense is that European leaders have got a bit more confidence now – they can see a path through this.”

This cautious sense of optimism comes after a months-long effort by EU member states such as Germany to cut down gas consumption, secure alternative supplies and fill up storage facilities.

But it is also because, having already cut deliveries to levels that would have been unthinkable previously, Russia now has few ways left to ratchet up the pressure further without also causing pain to itself.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/putin-s-gas-blackmail-risks-backfiring-disastrously/ar-AA11PDS1?cvid=158e1b4518b745f88979c39519315d81

Dargo

09-17-22, 09:22 AM

The Dutch cabinet wants to build more offshore wind farms than previously planned. By 2050, wind farms in the North Sea must provide 70 gigawatts of power. That is a more than tripling of the current ambition, reports the central government on its website. By 2040 there must be 50 gigawatts, Minister Rob Jetten for Climate and Energy (D66) announced this afternoon. The turbines should not only generate electricity. The government also wants the offshore turbines to produce sustainable hydrogen on site, an energy source that should make industry and heavy transport more sustainable.

So far, the government has planned 21 gigawatts of offshore wind turbines in the North Sea. That covers three-quarters of the electricity consumption in the Netherlands. With 70 gigawatts of wind energy from the sea, the Netherlands would be as good as self-sufficient, a study by grid managers showed last spring. Space is scarce. Space in the North Sea is scarce, however, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate recognizes. "The growth of offshore wind energy must go well with other interests in the North Sea, such as fisheries and nature." Jetten says she wants to consult with all parties involved.

The Dutch Wind Energy Association is pleasantly surprised with the cabinet's choice to want to realize 70 gigawatts of capacity in the North Sea. Chairman Jan Vos calls it "a fantastic decision." "This minister shows guts and has strategic insight. Just imagine: in 2012, as PvdA spokesperson for Energy and Climate, I was involved in the cabinet formation and, with a lot of effort, we managed to get 6 gigawatts through. And now, ten years later, it's going to 70 gigawatts. We're getting the biggest wind farm in the world. I'm super happy." According to Vos, wind energy is cheap, clean and geopolitically sensible, given the current situation in Ukraine and its impact on the energy market. "This allows the Netherlands to generate energy largely independently. Some 90 percent of our electricity will soon come from the North Sea."

mapuc

09-17-22, 10:08 AM

Dargo

09-17-22, 11:42 AM

Don't come here and say the Danish government isn't doing anything to help the citizens who can't afford to pay the energy bill.

I give you
TADAA state-guaranteed loan

So instead of lowering the fees and VAT or what you call it-

The government offer the Danes to take a state-guaranteed loan to pay their
Energy bills.

The interest will be 2 %

How the Danes is taking it-They are furious

MarkusIf they would lower the tax on energy, the government could help the people in trouble because of higher gas/electric prizes the government still would earn money but who am I to question criminals. It is the governments and energy companies who profit the most with this crisis, it is the people who suffer they do not care, care is not in their vocabulary.

mapuc

09-17-22, 12:46 PM

If they would lower the tax on energy, the government could help the people in trouble because of higher gas/electric prizes the government still would earn money but who am I to question criminals. It is the governments and energy companies who profit the most with this crisis, it is the people who suffer they do not care, care is not in their vocabulary.

An addition to my last post

We have to pay the same amount of money as we did when we paid the energy bill last year-The last one before new years eve.

The rest we can borrow from the state.

For me it means that for every cent the energy bill is above 3100 DKr.(which I paid in the fourth quarter last year) I can borrow from the government.

Then I have to pay this loan it over a period of max 5 years and with this 2% interest.

My opinion ? :nope:

Markus

Edit
I thought I would find an article then translate it.

Danish Union wrote 14 Sept:

The government will let Danes defer payments on electricity, gas and heating
The government today presented a proposal to cap energy prices and allow Danes to defer paying the remaining amount until the crisis has passed

If Danes expected to get a gift from the government, they are left with a long nose. There was no direct financial help to be had. Instead, they can get a loan to pay the high electricity bill.

The government wants to help the most hard-pressed Danes by offering them a loan. This was announced by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) on Wednesday afternoon at a press conference at the Ministry of State. The government plans to introduce a so-called "price cap" on heating, electricity and gas. This means that if prices become higher than they were in the autumn of 2021, people will be able to pay off the remaining amount over a period of five years.

It is still unclear exactly what the loan will cost, but Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen (S) mentions an interest rate of around two percent as a realistic scenario

Helping Danes through the crisis
The proposal comes in the wake of huge price rises for energy, petrol and groceries. According to the prime minister, this is necessary to get Danes through difficult economic times.

- It goes without saying that we want to get Danes through the crisis as gently as possible. We have said from the start that we cannot keep everyone harm-free, and the diabolical thing about inflation is that we risk making things worse by doing too much. With what we are looking into now, there is a real risk that some people will not be able to pay their bills, said Mette Frederiksen.

- Not solving all problems
The proposal is designed to give the most financially strapped Danes the chance to cope with high prices here and now. The government is aware, however, that it is not a miracle cure.

- It is an offer to Danes that instead of paying a huge bill all at once, they can spread it over a few years. It is not a proposal that will solve all problems, but it will give more security to the individual family. We think it is sensible and a good initiative.

The loan scheme is expected to be worth DKK 45 billion if it is fully utilised.

The government hopes to bring the bill forward as soon as possible and will meet on Thursday evening to discuss the proposal with the parliamentary parties.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
End edit

Jimbuna

09-17-22, 12:57 PM

Absolutely disgraceful.

Skybird

09-19-22, 03:54 AM

Russia realises the Morgenthau plan: the looming threat of Germany's deindustrialization.

https://www.economist.com/business/2022/09/11/germany-faces-a-looming-threat-of-deindustrialisation

German industry’s biggest problem is the spiralling cost of energy. The electricity price for next year has already increased 15-fold, and the price of gas ten-fold, says the BDI (Bund der deutschen Industrie, Skybird) . In July industry consumed 21% less gas than in the same month last year. That is in part because firms used energy more efficiently. But the fall was mostly due to a “dramatic” reduction in output, says the BDI.

Jimbuna

09-19-22, 07:47 AM

Which countries are doing the most to tackle energy bills?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/61522123

mapuc

09-19-22, 06:11 PM

^ Denmark isn't on the list. I understand why

The development of these Windmills is taking a leap now and then

A new offshore wind farm will utilize some absolutely massive turbines to produce power – so massive that just one spin will power the average home for two full days. The turbines have recently been improved from the best in the world to even more so, and the development will be the US’ first utility-scale wind farm.

https://www.iflscience.com/new-massive-offshore-wind-turbine-can-power-a-home-for-2-days-with-a-single-spin-64247

Markus

Jimbuna

09-20-22, 05:32 AM

China takes advantage as Putin slashes energy prices

China spent a record $8.3bn (£7.3bn) on Russian energy last month as Beijing continues to snap up the Kremlin’s oil and gas at a discount.

The spend for August was 68pc higher than a year ago and included a record amount of coal, according to Chinese data.

It takes the country’s total energy spend to $44bn in the six months since the start of the war – almost 75pc higher than the same period last year.

While energy prices have surged since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China is still buying up higher volumes, sometimes at a discounted price.

Putin has been scrambling to find new buyers for his energy, which is being shunned by much of the rest of the world.

China’s higher spending also came despite generally weaker energy imports this year as a slowing economy and Beijing’s brutal zero-Covid policy hampers demand.

Skybird

09-20-22, 01:10 PM

Gas storage sites in Germany are now filled up to more than 90%.

Jimbuna

09-20-22, 01:33 PM

Hopefully winter won't be too harsh this year.

Skybird

09-20-22, 01:48 PM

Hopefully winter won't be too harsh this year.
Except in Russia.

Jimbuna

09-20-22, 01:49 PM

Except in Russia.

:haha:

:yeah:

mapuc

09-20-22, 01:54 PM

Except in Russia.

An off topic comment

If it goes as some of you have mentioned in our Ukraine thread..then we will have an atomic winter.

End of an off topic comment

Markus

Jimbuna

09-20-22, 03:08 PM

Received the new energy tariff figures from my current energy supplier based on my consumption last year and what the increase means to my household.

https://i.postimg.cc/ydJf9kS8/Untitled.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Jimbuna

09-21-22, 05:46 AM

Business energy prices to be cut by half expected levels

Energy bills for UK businesses will be cut by around half their predicted level this winter under a huge government support package.

The scheme will fix gas and electricity prices for companies for six months from 1 October, in a bid to stop firms facing soaring costs from going bust.

Hospitals, schools and charities will also get help, the government said.

It comes after ministers announced a £150bn plan to help households with their soaring bills for two years.

Industry groups welcomed the package but warned further support may be needed after the winter.

It is understood the scheme will be reviewed after three months with an option to extend support for "vulnerable businesses" - but it is not known what sectors come under the category.

Wholesale prices are expected to be fixed for all non-domestic energy customers at £211 per MWh for electricity and £75 per MWh for gas.

Companies do not need to contact suppliers as the discount will automatically be applied to bills, with savings seen from October but received from November.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62969427

Jimbuna

09-21-22, 12:03 PM

Germany nationalises gas giant amid energy crisis

Germany is to nationalise gas giant Uniper in an effort to secure energy supplies amid the war in Ukraine.

The deal will see the German government take on a 98.5% stake in the firm at a cost of €8.5bn (£7.4bn).

Germany is Europe's biggest importer of Russian gas, and has been particularly squeezed as Russia has reduced supplies in recent months.

Chief executive Klaus-Dieter Maubach said the deal would help Uniper's role as "a system-critical energy supplier".

Before Russia invaded Ukraine it supplied Europe with about 40% of its natural gas, and it has responded to Western sanctions by gradually cutting off supplies.

At the start of this month, Russia halted supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, claiming repairs were needed - but later said flow would not resume until sanctions were lifted.

Uniper, which operates gas, coal, and hydro plants across Europe and is currently controlled by Finnish state-owned energy company Fortum, is the biggest buyer of Russian gas in Germany.

In recent months it has had to replace Russian supplies with alternatives from the open market, where prices have soared.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62980158

Skybird

09-22-22, 06:58 PM

DW (Deutsch):

Study: USA to become EU's most important LNG supplier

Companies and private households are groaning under high gas prices. It is not yet clear who will replace Russia as the largest gas producer in the long term. A new study looks to the future.

The most important source of supply for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Germany and Europe will probably be the USA in the future. This is the result of a study by the Energy Economics Institute at the University of Cologne (EWI) on behalf of the industry association Zukunft Gas.

According to the study, natural gas from Russia will no longer be available in the near future, or only with restrictions, which is why the currently high gas prices are not expected to reach the 2018 level again until 2030 - but only if demand is significantly reduced.

In the study "Developments in global gas markets up to 2030," the authors describe how they see the realignment of gas supplies following Russia's attack on Ukraine and the resulting supply freezes up to the end of the decade.

Challenges due to focus on the USA

Imported natural gas from Russia still had a market share of around 55 percent in Germany in 2021. It was transported by pipeline. Meanwhile, the U.S. has the greatest potential for deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) via tanker.

However, the strong focus on the U.S. poses new challenges: "Looking to the immediate future, Germany is called upon not to lose sight of the desired diversification of supply sources," demands Timm Kehler, CEO of Zukunft Gas, according to a press release. "Only in this way can the European gas supply become sustainable and secure. The realignment requires a long-term strategy that strengthens diversified LNG procurement."

In addition, the U.S. also expects long-term signals, Kehler said. "Only when our U.S. trading partners have a clear picture of future offtake prospects will they make the necessary investments to expand liquefaction capacity."

LNG demand to increase significantly

European demand for LNG will increase significantly, the study says. In the event that gas trade from Russia were to come to a permanent halt, the three remaining pipeline facilities from Norway, Azerbaijan and Algeria to the EU would be heavily utilized.

An increase in supply volumes from these countries would therefore only be possible to a limited extent. According to current estimates, Norway could still increase its production until 2028, after which production would decline. Imports from the North African exporting countries are expected to decrease because domestic demand there will increase in the course of the expected economic growth.

In all scenarios examined, U.S. imports increase significantly compared to 2021. If no gas is traded between Russia and the EU, they will reach a share of total EU imports of around 40 percent, according to the study. This would make the EU one of the most important sales markets for natural gas from the U.S. alongside Asia.

In contrast, the growth of volumes coming from Qatar would be limited. Additional imports from Australia or Canada would also probably not be significant for the European market, as these exporters will primarily serve the Asian market. However, the additional volumes could help prevent shortages on world markets. Lower demand would also have a price-dampening effect. This could be achieved, for example, through electrification, efficiency gains and the production of biomethane as a natural gas substitute.

Looking at the current price situation, Timm Kehler expects the situation to ease as early as 2024: "The rapid expansion of LNG terminals in Europe will eliminate import bottlenecks and align European and Asian prices."

Jimbuna

09-26-22, 11:59 AM

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg the UK needs to double onshore wind, triple solar and quadruple offshore wind to achieve the party's ambition of generating 100% renewable electricity.

He admitted there will be a transition from fossil fuels - and may still be there for a fall back come 2030.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-63025549

Jimbuna

09-27-22, 04:38 AM

Germany secures natural gas deal with the UAE as Berlin rushes to replace Russian supply before winter

Germany signed a natural gas deal with the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, as the European country scrambles to find alternatives to cut-off Russian energy imports before winter kicks in.

Under the deal, German utility giant RWE will get liquefied natural gas from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. delivered to its new floating gas terminal near Hamburg. The shipment of 137,000 cubic meters of LNG is expected to arrive by the end of December, RWE said.

Germany has been racing to secure energy imports from nations other than Russia as Moscow slashes its gas flows to the region in response to Western sanctions over the Ukraine war. The cutbacks in supply have sent European natural gas prices soaring more than 300% this year and have forced Germany to turn to alternative and cheaper sources of fuel, like coal.

"We need to make sure that the production of LNG in the world is advanced to the point where the high demand that exists can be met without having to resort to the production capacity that exists in Russia," German chancellor Olaf Scholz said on his weekend visit to the UAE, per Reuters.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/markets/germany-secures-natural-gas-deal-with-the-uae-as-berlin-rushes-to-replace-russian-supply-before-winter/ar-AA12fzN4?cvid=118ea5fe791d4c90a1ec479f9868b6c6#ima ge=AA12ftNj|9

Skybird

09-27-22, 08:04 AM

The shipment of 137,000 cubic meters of LNG is expected to arrive by the end of December, RWE said.

Just to put that into relation - that delivery in December equals around 3% of what was pumped through Nordstream 1 per day.

The sAudis are friendly people. They did not have the hard heart to let Bubble Olaf leave with completely empty hands.

Jimbuna

09-27-22, 08:21 AM

Yeah, I was wondering what the comparison was but didn't think it would be that far off the mark.

Catfish

09-27-22, 01:49 PM

[...]
The Saudis are friendly people.
Umm, no. At least not their glorious leader.
They did not have the hard heart to let Bubble Olaf leave with completely empty hands.
This again is a good idea and it made me laugh for a short time, but my take is they placed a perfect "deal" of humiliation after Germany dared to criticize Kashoggi's killing; it is their way to make others feel inferior.
If those others are not too dumb to understand what was done to them.

Skybird

09-27-22, 02:20 PM

Note to myself: i need to intensify my skills in expressing verbal irony.

Catfish

09-27-22, 02:39 PM

Point taken :haha:

Rockstar

09-28-22, 08:24 AM

Baltic Pipeline ahead of schedule. Opening moved from January 2023 to November 2022

https://www.baltic-pipe.eu/energinet-baltic-pipe-can-be-put-into-full-operation-one-month-ahead-of-planned/

Jimbuna

09-28-22, 09:29 AM

Baltic Pipeline ahead of schedule. Opening moved from January 2023 to November 2022

https://www.baltic-pipe.eu/energinet-baltic-pipe-can-be-put-into-full-operation-one-month-ahead-of-planned/

Possibly the next sabotage target?

Rockstar

09-28-22, 12:23 PM

Jimbuna

09-28-22, 12:54 PM

It’s been said there was an explosion in the vicinity of the leaks. I suppose sabotage is a possibility however what would be the point? Though it was filled in anticipation of its use it was shut down and nothing was flowing to Germany. I’m inclined to think it probably had something more to do with the crap ton load of unexploded ordinance and mines littering in the Baltic Sea.

The only thing I'm certain of is the Russians won't admit to it even if they were responsible.

Skybird

09-28-22, 01:01 PM

It’s been said there was an explosion in the vicinity of the leaks. I suppose sabotage is a possibility however what would be the point? Though it was filled in anticipation of its use it was shut down and nothing was flowing to Germany. I’m inclined to think it probably had something more to do with the crap ton load of unexploded ordinance and mines littering in the Baltic Sea.
You can safely assume that ww2 ordnance has nothing to do with it. There were 3 explosions, damaging 3 pipes on the day a danish polish new pipe was opened and crosses the ns1 and 2 in vicinity of the explosions.
It was a threat, demonstrating to the eu how vulnerable its lifelines are.

Jimbuna

09-28-22, 01:02 PM

You can safely assume that ww2 ordnance has nothing to do with it. There were 3 explosions, damaging 3 pipes on the day a danish polish new pipe was opened and crosses the ns1 and 2 in vicinity of the explosions.
It was a threat, demonstrating to the eu how vulnerable its lifelines are.

Agreed :yep:

Rockstar

09-28-22, 01:13 PM

Well maybe it was Biden “If Russia invades…then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”

Skybird

09-28-22, 03:18 PM

Well maybe it was Biden “If Russia invades…then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”
Possible but unlikely. Occam'S razor, Catfish mentioned it, to me points at Russia. The US would risk tremendous damage if it becomes known that ther attack was done by the US.

Russia just ticks all the boxes. And it has strong motives. In the main, to maixmise energy crisis in Europe in order to destabilise the public and make iot reovlting against the policy of its government. Heck, that motive is so strong and logical, it radiates so intense that it blinds the eye.

90+% likelihood that it was Russia. Less than 5% that it was the US. 2% Ukraine, 1% Poland and Germany each, and the rest for alternative explanations.

Its not impossible that it was the US. But very unlikely.

Rockstar

09-28-22, 04:48 PM

Possible but unlikely. Occam'S razor, Catfish mentioned it, to me points at Russia. The US would risk tremendous damage if it becomes known that ther attack was done by the US.

Russia just ticks all the boxes. And it has strong motives. In the main, to maixmise energy crisis in Europe in order to destabilise the public and make iot reovlting against the policy of its government. Heck, that motive is so strong and logical, it radiates so intense that it blinds the eye.

90+% likelihood that it was Russia. Less than 5% that it was the US. 2% Ukraine, 1% Poland and Germany each, and the rest for alternative explanations.

Its not impossible that it was the US. But very unlikely.

Hell it could be anyone or anything. Russia could have just as easily kept the valve closed until a later date. It doesn’t make sense to me that Russia would destroy the one and only real piece of leverage it had over Europe. The one bargaining chip worth a damn is now gone forever.

The only alternatives for Russia is continue waging a losing and increasingly unpopular war or withdraw.

Skybird

09-28-22, 05:01 PM

Putin struggles to merely survive in the present. He needs the Europeans to collapse in thei unity and solidarity NOW. What wilkl be in the far away future is not his interest aqnmyore. Immediate survival - thats the new name of the new game for him.

And this event shocks the Europeans. Thats why it was done. It shows them thbeir vulnerability, on the day they open a new pipeline.

He is desperate. If he cannot wear out European support and unity, he is toast. He must bring the European societies into rebellion mode against the Russia-hostile policies of their governments. And the best chance for that is in the energy game. He has especially Germany in his sights, though not only, but especially Germany. The public mood here is in a shift, in Russia's favour and against supporting Ukraine. If he can overturn the German policy - and Bubble Olaf must look like a promising candidate - than likely other Europeans will follow.

Its maybe his last escalation of threats before nuclear escalating. I mean he is runnign out of threat options now.

And mark my word, I said it often enough: Putin always choses escalation, if being called for his cards. Its a pattern throughout his political "career". Always escalating, never falling back, for that is a sign of weakness in his book that would see him being overthrown at home.

Also, I am not certain that he really is fully rational anymore. He looked changed already before the war. Paranoid. Disconnected. Drifting into the realm of nationalistic mysticism. They say its due to his isolation during two Corona years, and that he has so redeuce docnbtacts that he necessarily gets a distorted feedback about the reality outside. I doi not know if this is true, but the Putin I saw playing the West against the wall for 20 years this is oto anymore - he makes unbelievable big mistakes now.

Reminds me terribly of Hitler's last weeks.

Rockstar

09-28-22, 06:40 PM

I’d have too ask. Why is Russia simply shutting the valve off on the remaining gas lines and not blowing them up?

I think the destruction of NS 1&2 has more to do with preventing Germany from becoming an energy hub for Russian gas. It would have minimized Ukraine’s place in the world and allowed it to be easily swallowed up by a strengthened Russia. Moving Russia even closer to Poland and Baltic states who Incan assure you do not like that idea in any way shape or form. They’ve very vocal about that for close to twenty years.

Reading some of AfD, Die Linke, party goals and even Olaf’s history. All are far from being NATO friendly. Far left, far right what ever you want to call them I think have a nationalist bent and are not very good European neighbors. They want to build back better but they want to do that with Russia and that’s not going happen.

Skybird

09-28-22, 07:14 PM

I have repeated it often enough now.

https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2829553&postcount=6745

Jimbuna

09-29-22, 05:29 AM

Nord Stream: Sweden finds new leak in Russian gas pipeline

Sweden has found a new leak in a major undersea pipeline carrying Russian natural gas to the EU - making it the fourth discovered this week.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63071552

Skybird

09-29-22, 04:15 PM

:o Gas consumption in German pirvate households in September was 14.5% higher than September last year.

Plans say to avoid gas e,mergcny escalation over th wwinter, instea dthere should be savings of at least 20%.

Means reality and theory are ~35% apart. Does not look as if it will work out well. I think it was illusory anyway, probably. When people are cold in their flats, they turn up the heating if they can afford it, thats natural. And the government has just decided to raise national debts by another 200 billion Euros to pay gas compensations to keep gas affordable. That reduces the incentive to save gas, and it pushes inflation.

Everything financed on more credit.

I said yesterday or the day before that we now have a meta-crisis where the critical symptoms are cascading. It will get worse and worse, I fear, I do not see how we get off this trip anymore, ever. Not in my lifetime at least.

This song from the old movie "Wargames" matches and describes our situation well, I feel and think. Its not about the movie and its world war looming, but just this song and text.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdqvLHZR9iE

Standing together, at the edge of the world

Nowhere to go from where we are

Sharing a secret at the edge of the world

This time we may have come too far

From the life we’ve known, from simple things and peaceful days

Come too far, too far from old familiar ways

Standing together, at the edge of the world

No turning back from where we are

Searching for answers at the edge of the world

And though we’re standing on it - we never know how close we are.

Jimbuna

09-30-22, 02:29 PM

Energy prices in the UK go up again tomorrow.

Jimbuna

10-03-22, 07:45 AM

The UK is facing "a significant risk" of gas shortages this winter, according to the industry regulator, which could impact electricity supplies.

Ofgem said due to Russia's war with Ukraine, there is a possibility the UK could enter a "gas supply emergency".

This would lead to supplies being cut to power stations which use gas to generate the country's electricity.

It places firms at risk of running out of money because of huge charges they pay if they cannot deliver electricity.

Ofgem wrote a letter in response to SSE, which operates four gas-fired power stations in the UK which produce electricity.

SSE is concerned that operators of gas-fired power stations faces millions of pounds worth of penalties if it is unable to fulfil promises to supply electricity "caused by events outside their control".

Ofgem said: "Due to the war in Ukraine and gas shortages in Europe, there is a significant risk that gas shortages could occur during the winter 2022-23 in Great Britain. As a result, there is a possibility that Great Britain could enter into a gas supply emergency."

If this happens, supplies would be cut to "the largest gas users" which will likely be "large gas-fired power stations which produce electricity to the National Electricity Transmission System".

In the event electricity supplies are disrupted, generators would have to pay what are known as "imbalance charges". These cover the cost of National Grid having to find electricity from elsewhere to meet demand.

Ofgem said this "could result in potential insolvency of gas-fired generators if a gas supply emergency occurs".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63118574

Jimbuna

10-05-22, 09:14 AM

Which countries are doing the most to tackle energy bills?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/61522123

mapuc

10-05-22, 02:25 PM

My electricity bill will be around 1350 £ and this is for 3 month ahead.

Markus

Catfish

10-05-22, 02:49 PM

^ ? :o
For three months? How big is your apartment?
For us here elecricity it is 116 Euros per month, from now on. Much more expensive than before, but ...
Or do you mean gas?

mapuc

10-05-22, 02:54 PM

^ ? :o
For three months? How big is your apartment?
For us here elecricity it is 116 Euros per month, from now on. Much more expensive than before, but ...
Or do you mean gas?

I live in a house 97 square meters.
You have to remember that Denmark has the highest tax, fees and VAT on electricity. Then we have tax, fees and VAT on the delivery.

Right now I pay around 5 Danish kroner per Kilowatt

Markus

Skybird

10-05-22, 07:01 PM

Before the crisis, early 2021, Germany had the highest electricity costs not only in Europe, but the whole industrialized world. The lowest costs had Malta, Croatia and Netherlands, with not even half of the German costs. Denmark however was close behind Germany, around 2-3 cents less.

At present, costs in Germany are in flux, and differ very much depending on the location inside Germany.

I got a raise for electricity costs for the next months and it was around 20-25% more. However, I expect it will not stay that way. Our regional "Stadtwerke" benefit from longterm treaties and power contingents they already bought before the crisis. Once these are eaten up, prices will explode here as well, like in many other cities that have not such treaties or already ran out fo their long term contingents. Some time next year, I expect.

Differences in gas prices are due to the same reason. In extremes, in berlin, some people miust pay around 9-10 times more for gas than before. But that is not the national norm. New customers also get turned into victims, mercilessly.

Jimbuna

10-06-22, 01:19 PM

£163/month here for gas and electric combined.

Skybird

10-07-22, 05:30 AM

AdG writes on the future of German energy :
-----------------------------------

Although a change of direction in energy policy could not achieve anything in the short term, it could at least make the prospects in the medium term appear somewhat less gloomy. However, there is no sign of any such change.

With regard to the 200-billion package announced by the German government, which among other things provides for subsidizing gas prices for end customers in Germany and could thus further drive up prices for everyone, Viktor Orban spoke of cannibalism. Italy, France and other member states also expressed sniffles in the face of the alleged playing out of the fiscal power of the oh-so-strong Germany. However, the "defensive umbrella" reveals neither a carnivorous menu of Greens, SPD and FDP, nor is it a measure of the budgetary combat weight of an economically strong country. It reveals only one thing: Germany has its back to the wall.

After all, aren't you wondering where the special broadcasts are? Where are the experts who break down how the gas turned off by the sanctions is now to be replaced? Instead of concrete solutions to the supply shortage problem, all you get is flowery verbiage. Veronika Grimm, a member of the Council of Experts, even finds the high gas prices somewhat gratifying, since they ensure that hydrogen now appears to be relatively cheap and efficient. Hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants as a rescue from the acute gas shortage.

According to an estimate by the BDI [=Association of the German Industry, Skybird], 43 gigawatts of additional power plant capacity would have to be built in the next 8 years if the coal phase-out were to continue until 2030. This is equivalent to the output of 43 nuclear power plants. Worldwide, 53 AKWs [=Atomkraftwerke, Skybird] are being built right now. Read that sentence again, but this time, without laughing. Well, I knew you wouldn't be able to do that. I've now lost track of whether they run on gas or hydrogen.

But somehow it doesn't matter anyway. Both are illusory. At the press conference to present the double-Wumms! (I'm afraid you lose three brain cells just typing this "word"), Christian Lindner promised that the answer to the supply shortage would be to expand renewable energies, and "freedom energies". Now read that sentence again, but without crying. Well, I also knew you wouldn't be able to do that.

Leave the pack of tissues within reach, because we are now going to look at some concrete figures of gas imports of the EU countries. The sanctions against Russia have put the axe to gas supplies. While Russian gas accounted for 40 percent of imports last year, the share has now fallen to 8 percent. The next largest imports come from Algeria and Norway. However, they cannot supply more gas than they did in 2021. The import slump of more than 80 percent for Russian gas is entirely made up by imports of LNG. The share of LNG, including from the U.S. and Qatar, in the total import volume has increased from 18 percent in 2021 to 42 percent in September 2022. The largest importers of LNG last year were Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. Germany does not appear in this list because the first LNG terminals will not even come online until the end of 2022.

So the EU is relying on the only variable factor it has for gas imports: LNG. According to an estimate by Bloomberg Intelligence, global production of liquefied natural gas will be 455 million tons in 2022. Of that, 70 percent is already reserved through long-term contracts. The remaining 136 million tons are available on the spot market. Capped gas imports from Russia are equivalent to about 120 million tons of LNG. Relative to last year, the EU has so far imported only about 13 million tons of additional LNG. The import terminals do not even have the capacity to take in as much LNG as would be needed.

According to Bloomberg, at most an additional 60 million tons would be possible. In general, if an additional demand of 120 million - or 60 million, due to limited capacity - meets a rigid supply of 136 million tons, one can imagine that this will not end well. The U.S. and Qatar will not be able to supply more until the middle of the decade, expanding global supply. Thus, it is now a case of outbidding competition for a scarce commodity. Emerging and developing countries cannot keep up and are resorting to fuel oil. The lights are going out in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

But even if we supply ourselves with 60 million tons of LNG at horrendous prices - at the expense of the Third World and our own prosperity - there is still a shortfall of 82 billion cubic meters of gas, which the lack of imports from Russia is tearing into the gas supply. The gas storage facilities of the EU member states are currently filled with 95 billion cubic meters of gas. So the whole thing is on the edge. And it's not thought out for more than a few months. After all, what will the winter of 2023/24 look like and how will the storage facilities be filled then? What is the alternative plan? Freedom energy? Hydrogen? Freight bike? Clay hut?

The EU has several answers at once, which I would again recommend the handkerchiefs when reading. The RePowerEU program envisions managing shortages in the short term. In the medium to long term, the implementation of the Green Deal, with industrial policy management of innovation and he promotion of wind and solar energy. If you are now scrunching up your handkerchief and asking yourself, "What the heck!", fret not. The RePowerEU concept includes other steps as well: "Turning off the lights, putting the lid on the pot, turning down the heat and taking the bus and train are some examples of what we can do as individuals or all together. The Commission is working with the International Energy Agency, consumer organizations and other stakeholders to find ways for citizens to further reduce their energy consumption." Ha! Now you've laughed again.

According to the German Federal Statistical Office, Germany imported less than half the previous year's value of gas in July 2022. However, it paid three times as much for the lower import volume as it did for the higher import volume in July 2021, a fivefold increase in the import price per unit. This is the loss of wealth that is only beginning to emerge behind the freedom energy, behind the flowery words and the lack of special shipments.

Supply will continue to be scarce and expensive for a long time, and when it is a little less scarce in a few years, it will still be expensive. While a shift in energy policy might not make a difference in the short term, it might at least make the outlook in the medium term seem a little less bleak. However, such a change of tack is nowhere to be heard. There is no plan. "Climate over everything" is how the Wall Street Journal recently summed up this absurd policy, which is nothing more than dull ideology. The fact that the head of the association of the chemical industry, which accounts for 15 percent of total gas consumption, is now warning of Germany's deindustrialization comes 10 years too late. You know what? Pass me a handkerchief, please.

------------------------------------

"Iceberg behind, Captain!"

Jimbuna

10-08-22, 06:43 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTkfvZ48J2I

Catfish

10-08-22, 02:33 PM

AdG writes on the future of German energy:
[...]
"Iceberg behind, Captain!"
So the danger is over .. :D

Jimbuna

10-09-22, 02:39 PM

'Scotland energy to serve Scotland's people' Blackford pledges to cut off UK with IndyRef2

The SNP Westminster leader said energy-rich Scotland would no longer have to share with the UK, resulting in stronger energy security and smaller bills. The UK has been facing an ongoing rise in energy bills, with many voters faced with the prospect of having to choose whether to heat their homes or eat. Ian Blackford argued that independence would allow Scotland to minimise the growing costs and refocus the attention on greener policies.

Addressing the SNP Conference in Aberdeen, Mr Blackford said: "We know the scale of the opportunities that independence will offer.

"But we only have to look at the current context. Scotland is energy-rich - we simply shouldn't be facing an energy emergency.

"We shouldn't have cold homes and soaring bills. We produce six times more gas than we consume and nearly 100 percent of the equivalent of our electricity consumption already comes from renewables.

"This is Scotland's energy and it should serve Scotland's people."
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/scotland-energy-to-serve-scotland-s-people-blackford-pledges-to-cut-off-uk-with-indyref2/ar-AA12K3Ro?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=1799de2a88d244a0aa74d2a49880a24f

em2nought

10-10-22, 03:12 AM

If I moved to Bogota I wouldn't even need electricity for heating or cooling. :D

Jimbuna

10-10-22, 04:25 AM

A public information campaign to help people reduce energy bills this winter was pulled by No 10 on the grounds of cost, a cabinet minister has said.

The campaign to encourage household energy saving would have cost up to £15m, Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.

The PM's office raised objections to the plan, the BBC reported on Friday.

And asked about the possibility of winter blackouts, Mr Zahawi said these were "very unlikely".

Amid concerns about rising household energy costs, the government has said it would limit average bill rises to £2,500 through government borrowing, at a cost of £60bn for six months.

To help people save energy and cut costs, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) had been preparing a public information campaign.

But Prime Minister Liz Truss is reported to have been "ideologically opposed" to the campaign, fearing it would be too interventionist.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63191791

Skybird

10-11-22, 07:06 AM

Even Holy Greta has said in a German talkshow that the German policy of switching off the remaining nuclear powerplants at the end of the year and in Spring last year and instead going back to coal is a serious mistake.

Even this nervekilling brat has gotten it! Hey, German Green stupids, you heard your holy saint talking...?

Jimbuna

10-12-22, 01:22 PM

President Vladimir Putin has said the gas taps can be still turned on for Russian supplies to the EU, despite sharp political disagreements.

Russia has not delivered gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 line since August, and Nord Stream 2 was halted after Russia invaded Ukraine.

The February invasion led to gas price hikes, and EU customers face record tariffs this winter.

But Germany quickly rejected Mr Putin's offer to send gas via Nord Stream 2.

At the same time, a government spokesman in Berlin said Nord Stream 1 - which is not under sanctions - was an option, but gas was not flowing "because Russia did not deliver".

Russia has been accused of using gas supplies as a weapon against the West since the invasion of Ukraine - a charge repeatedly denied by the Kremlin.

"The ball, as they say, is now in the European Union's court - let them just open the tap," Mr Putin said on Wednesday at the annual Russian Energy Week in Moscow.

"We do not limit anyone in anything," he said, adding that Moscow was ready to supply additional volumes of gas in the autumn-winter period.

But despite Mr Putin's words, a resumption of gas supplies to Europe seems unlikely.

Nord Stream 2 was halted because of the invasion, and Nord Stream 1 has suffered severe disruption in recent months.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63231826

Jimbuna

10-13-22, 05:35 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgPuSGW7P6s

Skybird

10-14-22, 01:46 AM

President Vladimir Putin has said the gas taps can be still turned on for Russian supplies to the EU, despite sharp political disagreements.

I think we should send some divers and blow up the last remaining nordstream pipeline ourselves.

Jimbuna

10-14-22, 04:08 AM

I think we should send some divers and blow up the last remaining nordstream pipeline ourselves.

One side or the other may well do it soon enough.

Skybird

10-14-22, 04:19 AM

One side or the other may well do it soon enough.
Russia has offered to repair that damn thing! :D

mapuc

10-14-22, 01:47 PM

It's a long article but worth reading. Sweden have seen the light.

Swedish science paper New technology writes:

Here is the new elected government's energy policy -
investing in nuclear power

The four parties M, KD, SD and L agree on energy policy. They want to invest heavily in nuclear power and a restart of Ringhals 1 and 2 will be investigated.

The four parties held a press conference on Friday and presented the Tidö Agreement, with names from the castle where the deliberations were held. The agreement represents the parties' joint agreement for the mandate period.

As expected, the agreement means that M, KD and L will form a government. SD will not be in government, but will be part of the cooperation in the Riksdag.

There is a strong focus on nuclear power.

- Sweden will manage the climate transition. We must fulfil our part of the Paris Agreement, but without destroying businesses and Swedish families' economies. The goal is electrification, and the way to get there is nuclear power," said KD party leader Ebba Busch during the press conference.

Nuclear power
Vattenfall should immediately start planning for new nuclear power at Ringhals and other suitable sites, the parties write in the Tidö Agreement.

As expected, the parties also want to implement legislative changes to promote new nuclear power. The prohibition in the Environmental Code for new reactors at other locations than today should be removed, as well as the prohibition of more than ten reactors in operation at the same time.

Necessary regulations will also be developed urgently to create the conditions for small and modular reactors to be built and used in Sweden.

In addition, the parties want to introduce a fast track for new nuclear power in the licensing process. A special rule will be added to the Environmental Code to the effect that matters relating to new nuclear power will be dealt with as a matter of high priority. The Radiation Safety Authority will be given the task of proposing how the licensing process for new nuclear power can also be shortened in other respects.

The parties also want to reduce the application fee for companies wishing to start new nuclear reactors in Sweden. The parties also want a mandate to develop a fast track for accepting type approvals for reactors, systems and components from countries "comparable to Sweden", they write in the Tidö Agreement. They also want to work for type approval at European level.

The four parties want to introduce special state credit guarantees for nuclear power, amounting to SEK 400 billion. This is fully in line with what the Moderates proposed before the elections.

New rules will also be introduced to prevent politicians from arbitrarily shutting down nuclear power plants, the Tidö Agreement states. If the state forces a closure, owners will be entitled to compensation.

The four parties also plan to investigate what would be required for a restart of Ringhals 1 and 2. The investigation should be carried out without preconditions and as a matter of urgency, the Tidö Agreement states. Continued operation of the two reactors is something that KD has previously pushed hard, but which Vattenfall has so far been cold to. "There are no financial or practical conditions to continue operating these reactors after 2020," Vattenfall wrote on its website in 2019.

A restart of Ringhals 1 and 2 would also likely be quite costly given the new requirement for independent core cooling.

The four parties want to change the energy policy goal, which is currently formulated so that Sweden will have 100 percent renewable electricity production by 2040, to 100 percent fossil-free electricity production instead.

Electricity system
They also plan to give Svenska Kraftnät responsibility for security of supply in the electricity system, both in the long and short term. Planning for increased electricity use should be based on an electricity demand of at least 300 TWh in 2045, the parties write in the Tidö Agreement.

The parties want to set up a new inquiry into the shape of the electricity market. The aim is to come up with proposals that provide a level playing field for the power sectors and that support services are remunerated. In the first instance, compensation should be paid by those producers who cannot provide the same support services.

Nuclear power owners have previously expressed their wish to be paid for flywheel mass and local voltage maintenance, something that former Social Democratic Energy Minister Anders Ygeman was also in favour of.

The four parties M, SD, KD and L seem to be dissatisfied with the governance of both Vattenfall and Swedish Power Grid. They now plan to investigate how Svenska Kraftnät can be reformed to improve the division of responsibilities, political transparency and governance. In addition, they want to introduce a new governance of Vattenfall through a new group of ministers that will steer Vattenfall towards the expansion of plannable and fossil-free electricity production.

In order to create better conditions for cogeneration, M, KD, L and SD also plan to review the waste incineration tax and the tax on bio-oil.

Hydropower
As regards hydropower, which is currently undergoing an extensive review of its environmental permits, the parties want to pause the process until it is clear what consequences the review will have for electricity production. A new regulatory framework for the review will be developed to ensure that the supply of electricity is given a high priority and that small-scale operators do not incur unreasonable costs.

Wind power
It also looks as if Svenska Kraftnäts' work on expanding the grid in the sea will come to a halt. This was a mission given by the current government to facilitate the expansion of offshore wind power. "The plan to allow the electricity grid collective to subsidise offshore wind power's electricity grid connections is stopped," write M, KD, SD and L in the Tidö Agreement. Anyone who connects to the grid will be responsible for the costs of the connection. This is a measure that the Liberals in particular pushed hard for before the election.

Regarding onshore wind power, the parties want to send an additional assignment to the ongoing investigation into how municipalities can be given stronger incentives to say yes to wind power. The parties also want the inquiry to clearly propose how operators should compensate municipalities for wind power development.

Solar power
For solar energy, the parties think that the requirement for building permits for integrated solar cells should be reviewed. Energy research should also receive funding to develop methods for recycling used solar cells.

Energy efficiency
The parties want to introduce temporary requirements to reduce electricity consumption in public services that are not critical to society. A national electricity savings target will be introduced for public authorities.

High-cost protection
High-cost protection for electricity was promised by the parties before the elections. It will be introduced as soon as possible, with retroactive payment, for affected households and businesses, the parties write in the Tidö Agreement.

Electricity cable to foreign countries
The expansion of export electricity cables, such as the Hansa Power bridge, should be paused until the price differences between electricity areas have been significantly reduced, the parties say.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Markus

Jimbuna

10-15-22, 02:10 PM

Russia has offered to repair that damn thing! :D

Let them and then refuse to use it :)

Jimbuna

10-16-22, 05:53 AM

Oil flow from Russia to Germany resumes after Polish operator fixes pipe leak

The Polish operator of an oil pipeline running to Germany said it has fixed the damage that caused a leak earlier this week and that the flow of crude oil from Russia has been fully restored.

The state-run operator, PERN, said that both lines of the Druzhba pipeline were operating normally, transporting oil.

It said that the cause of the leak that occurred on Tuesday in a field in central Poland is still being investigated.

The Druzhba pipeline, which in Russian means “Friendship”, was built in the 1960s and is one of the world’s largest pipeline systems, bringing crude oil from Siberia to central Europe.

It branches to reach Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Austria and Germany.

The leak follows attacks last month on the Baltic Sea Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, in which explosives are said to have been used.

Europe has been taking steps to reduce its reliance on Russian energy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Jimbuna

10-17-22, 07:46 AM

The UK's energy watchdog will call on the public to cut how much gas and electricity they use this winter to guard against the risk of shortages.

Ofgem is set to launch a campaign to show people how to reduce energy use.

Ofgem boss Jonathan Brearley is expected to say that a supply emergency is unlikely.

But he will also warn the coming months could be "difficult" and "we cannot at any time, particularly this winter, eliminate all risk".

The initiative, set to be launched in a speech later on Thursday, comes as the government appeared to change direction on its own public information campaign to cut energy bills.

Last week, cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi said a planned £15m government drive to encourage household energy-saving had been dropped because the National Grid and Ofgem were running similar campaigns. But the BBC also reported that the campaign had been shelved after opposition by Prime Minister Liz Truss.

At Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, however, Pensions Minister Guy Opperman asked Ms Truss about having a nationwide mailout campaign on cutting energy usage.

She said that the Business and Energy Secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, "is working on a plan to help companies and individuals use energy more efficiently", adding: "I hope we'll be able to start this going in Number 10 straight away."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63242050

Jimbuna

10-18-22, 06:11 AM

Typical household energy bills could reach £4,347 a year from April after the government said it would scale back support, an analyst has estimated.

The forecast from Cornwall Insight comes after the chancellor said the energy bill cap, which had been due to last for two years, would end in April.

The government said the most vulnerable would continue to be protected from soaring energy prices.

The forecasts could change depending on movements in wholesale energy prices.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63298057

mapuc

10-19-22, 08:21 AM

May it not come so far.

The public would be advised to use car radios or battery-powered receivers to listen to emergency broadcasts on FM and long-wave frequencies usually reserved for Radio 2 and Radio 4

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/oct/18/bbc-prepares-secret-scripts-for-possible-use-in-winter-blackouts

Markus

Skybird

10-20-22, 05:38 AM

New calculations show that Germany would need to save not 10, not 15, not 20, but now already 30% gas to get over the winter.

There will be gas rationings, I am sure. Even completely filled up (and ther reserve standings are at over 96% now!), that gas will last only for around two and a half months.

Jimbuna

10-20-22, 06:35 AM

Skybird

10-20-22, 06:56 AM

The overall sitrep on German energy situation:

https://www.nzz.ch/visuals/so-wirkt-sich-die-energiekrise-auf-die-gas-und-strompreise-aus-ld.1683901?_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_tl=de&_x_tr_sl=auto

Jimbuna

10-20-22, 06:59 AM

Link requires the reader to register.

Skybird

10-20-22, 10:18 AM

Ah, sorry, i forgot that NZZ has the habit to move initially publicly available content behind a paywall or registration wall after 24 hours or so. Thats why I usually post their texts in full.

However, this one for me currently still works...!? Maybe a localization thing.

A pity, the NZZ imo is the best German-language newspaper in Europe.

Jimbuna

10-20-22, 02:26 PM

Not a problem and thanks for trying.

Skybird

10-20-22, 03:05 PM

Hydrogen from Newfoundland for Germany? I was already laughing uproariously while the visit of the German boy wonder to Canada was still going on.

By the way, the author of the following is a physicist. Among other things, he writes books with such nice titles as "Green and Stupid", "Green and Stupid Reloaded - Also stupidity is a Pandemic" and "Green and Extremely Stupid". And his blog, which I highly recommend, since in it competence and intelligence meets irony. Sometimes he exaggerates his polemic a bit, but all in all its not only true, but entertaining:

https://think-again.org/blog/
-----------------------

The German chancellor recently visited the president of Canada to reach initial agreements with him on the supply of green hydrogen. In the short term - for this winter or next - this is certainly not yet going to work. But in the medium or long term, is it the solution to our energy problems?

Green projects are characterized by dispensing with studies of technical and economic feasibility and starting right away with implementation. That way, it sometimes becomes quite expensive, but the benefits are all the smaller. The energy turnaround costs more than a scoop of ice cream, and instead of electricity from coal and nuclear power, there's freezing for peace. So there is plenty of reason to take a closer look at the Canadian hydrogen issue.

Off the Canadian mainland lies the island of Newfoundland, three times the size of NRW but with fewer inhabitants than Düsseldorf. This sparsely populated region is said to have steady and strong winds, making it an ideal location for turbines to generate electricity. But who is going to buy the electricity? The nearest towns worth mentioning are too far away to lay transmission lines there. So you package the power in a way that makes it easier to export.

The electricity is run through water to produce hydrogen, which is called "green hydrogen" because it comes from clean wind energy. One kilogram of it contains the energy of 33 kWh, or about five times what's in a kilogram of coal. That's the good news. The bad news is that one kilogram of hydrogen takes up a volume of 11 cubic meters, it would just about fit in a very large closet.

Thanks to this low density, people used to fill airships with hydrogen; it made them lighter than air. Now, however, we don't want to transport passengers, but hydrogen itself. To do this, we use the effect that gases become liquid at low temperatures. The smaller the molecules, the colder it has to be. Methane, for example, CH4, becomes liquid at -164°C, and hydrogen H2 at -253°C. That's pretty darn cold, only 20°C above absolute zero. The machinery for this liquefaction consumes 12 kWh per kg of H2, which is more than a third of its energy content. And another bad news: even one kg of liquid hydrogen (LH2) still has a volume of 14 liters! This makes it very unwieldy for transport, not to mention that it must always be kept at 20°C above absolute zero during travel. So is it not possible to ship the hydrogen from Canada to Germany at all, as planned?

For half a century, LNG ships loaded with liquid natural gas, i.e. liquefied methane, have been plowing through the world's oceans; they are these huge barges with half a dozen domes on deck. Couldn't they be used for green hydrogen?

No - not for two reasons. The difference between -164°C and -253°C is not significant in our minds - both are cold as hell. Physically, the difference between 20 Kelvin for LH2 and 109 Kelvin for LNG is huge. So the insulation systems must be different, as well as the refrigeration units that provide the low temperatures.

But there is a second aspect, the economic aspect. In each cubic meter of tank, such a ship carries 440 kg of LNG, but would only carry 71 kg of LH2, i.e. only one sixth. The economic calculation naturally takes into account the ratio of transport costs to the value of the cargo, and this is very unfavorable in the case of LH2.

Is there no feasible way to transport LH2 from Canada to Germany? That would be a prerequisite for the Canadian deal!

The world's first such trip, including loading and unloading of LH2, was made by the Suiso Frontier from Victoria, Australia to in Kobe, Japan, arriving in May 2022. It was a highly subsidized project to demonstrate technical feasibility.

So does this prove the feasibility of importing LH2 from Canada? The technical feasibility may be there. But the economic viability is more than questionable. If you look at the whole supply chain: Wind energy - electricity - electrolysis - liquefaction - ship transport - distribution - storage - conversion to electricity in fuel cells - feed into the grid - then one has to be very skeptical. It would be murderously expensive. Maybe then the LH2 levy will be introduced in Germany and the kilowatt hour will ultimately cost one euro.

Let's hope that one day the realization will prevail that it is not the citizens who are there to finance the absurd energy plans of the Greens, but that energy policy is there to ensure the citizens the quality of life they have earned and to offer the economy an infrastructure in which it can operate competitively.
----------------------

Skybird

10-21-22, 05:30 PM

DUAL FLUID - IS THIS THE SOLUTION?

published 07.08.2022 https://think-again.org/dual-fluid-ist-das-die-losung/

In the current discussions about the further use of the not yet destroyed nuclear power plants in Germany the "Dual Fluid Reactor" appears again and again. This machine seems to have many advantages over the models currently in use. But will it ever be available, and if so, when?

Not without alternatives

There are currently about 440 nuclear power plants in operation around the world, with 55 more under construction. Most of them are pressurized or boiling water reactors ("Light Water Reactor" = LWR), as already described here on the "Axis of Good". They are safe and reliable, but not without alternatives. Today, reactors of a new generation are under discussion: the SMR = "Small Modular Reactor", the MSR = "Molten Salt Reactor" and the DFR = "Dual Fluid Reactor". We want to take a closer look at the latter.

This machine is supposed to burn a large part of the fuel supplied, quite unlike the LWR, which uses only a small percentage and makes long-lived radioactive waste out of the rest. And now this miracle machine is also expected to be able to convert precisely this radioactive "waste" into energy, a nuclear waste incinerator, so to speak.

Perhaps. But the DFR is not completely free of radioactive waste either. Its operation naturally produces radioactive fission products, but with comparatively shorter half-lives, such as iodine 131 (8 days), cesium 137 (30 years) or strontium 90 (30 years).

Fission and chain reaction

Nuclear energy is based on the effect that the atomic nuclei of some heavier elements split into two lighter nuclei when bombarded with neutrons. (Neutrons, which are one type of building blocks that make up atomic nuclei. The other type is protons, which, unlike neutrons, have an electric charge). During said fission, a lot of energy is produced and a few free neutrons are also produced. They have no more place in the nuclei created during the fission, because heavy nuclei have a higher proportion of neutrons to protons compared to light ones.

The free neutrons can now be used to split more nuclei, and so we get a process in which the nuclei of the initial substance are broken into fragments in a chain reaction. In the widely used light water reactors (LWR), the initial substance is the uranium isotope 235, whose nucleus has 92 protons and 143 neutrons.

For the fission to work, however, the neutrons must not be too fast; they must first be slowed down, "moderated", otherwise they would not trigger fission. To do this, they are allowed to run through water from their point of origin in the fuel rod, where they lose their speed until they then encounter a new U235 nucleus in another fuel rod, which they fission.

Not optimal

It is a peculiarity of the U235 nucleus that it can be split only by slow, "thermal" neutrons. Many other heavy nuclei prefer fast neutrons for fission. So in such a reactor, one would not need to slow down the neutrons at all.

And another thing, the low concentration of U235 in natural uranium, which is enriched to 4% in LWR fuel, means that there is 96% of the useless heavy uranium isotope U238 in the fuel rods (which also has 92 protons in the nucleus, but 146 neutrons, hence the name "isotope"). These nuclei are also irradiated with the thermal neutrons, but instead of splitting, they capture the neutron and "transmute" into other substances, some of which are radioactive and have terribly long half-lives. They are the villains of nuclear energy, for which a final repository has been sought for years in deep salt domes so that they cannot endanger anyone with their radiation.

Today's reactors, the LWRs, are therefore anything but optimal. But why do they still dominate the scene? There are historical reasons. It could have to do with the fact that during the Cold War, people were interested in a substance that forms during the aforementioned transmutation of U238: Plutonium, the stuff bombs are made of.

The fast brother

So it happens that a lot of good experience has been gained with the LWR, knowing that it is suboptimal, but also knowing that the way to an improved reactor ready for series production is very long and very expensive.

Even earlier, reactors were built that used nuclear fuels other than U235, and that used fast neutrons. It was discovered that they were not only useful for generating energy, but that some of the abundant neutrons could also be used specifically for the transmutation of certain substances. It was thus possible to hatch a desired substance by irradiating it with fast neutrons. This type of reactor was therefore appropriately named "fast breeder reactor".

However, fast reactors do not play a role in the world's energy supply today. To change that, a group of fearless German engineers and scientists set out to do just that, among them, as an advisor, the popular author of the "Axis of Good" Manfred Haferburg.

Initially based in Berlin, now in Canada, the group is working on a concept that could one day solve all energy problems.

The Dual Fluid Reactor

So what might such a fast reactor look like? You arrange a sufficient amount of fissionable material so that a chain reaction takes place. The resulting heat is somehow transported to a boiler where steam is generated, which then drives a turbine and generator.

The higher the temperature used, say around 1000°C, the better the efficiency. Unlike in the LWR, water is no longer an option for removing the heat; it would be a nuisance anyway because it would slow down our fast neutrons. So we are looking for a liquid that does not evaporate at 1000 degrees, and that leaves our neutrons alone. Do you have a suggestion? How about liquid lead?

Now let's move on to our fissionable material. These are atomic nuclei heavier than "actinium", so-called actinides; among them also the often mentioned thorium, gladly material from spent fuel elements of LWRs. If you take the right chemical compound here, the stuff also melts at 1000 degrees. So it wouldn't be packed in solid form in fuel rods, as in the LWR, but you could put it in communicating tubes immersed in said bath of liquid lead. This would also have the advantage that new fuel could be fed into these tubes during operation.

So that's the principle of our reactor, which works with two fluids - lead and actinides - moving in separate circuits. Hence the name Dual Fluid Reactor = "DFR."

What are we waiting for?

And there's something else attractive about this design: in conventional pressurized water reactors, there is 150 atmospheres of overpressure in the reactor vessel, but in the DFR there is hardly any overpressure. So we don't need steel vessels with 20-cm walls, which greatly simplifies the construction of such a plant. In addition, the reactor vessel is much smaller because you don't need water as a moderator and because the lead transports the heat better.

So what are we waiting for?

Well, even though the physical issues with the DFR may be solved, there are still a few technical details to work out. For example, where do we get the pump that transports the many tons of 1000-degree lead between the reactor vessel and the heat exchanger at top speed? It's not available at the hardware store, and the turbine for NS1 that the chancellor visited is not available.

Or what about the material for the communicating tubes in which the fuel flows? They're suspended in hot lead and bombarded at close range with a barrage of neutrons. That must be hell. What material can withstand that for years?

Patience

And one more little mental calculation. If such a plant is to supply 300 megawatts of electricity, it will require about 1000 MW of thermal power. This is generated in a reactor vessel of - let's say - 10 cubic meters in volume. That is 100 MW per cubic meter or 100 kilowatts per liter of volume. But hello - nothing can go wrong with cooling....

Dual Fluid Energy Inc. in Vancouver, which is working on the development of the DFR, is of course aware of all these challenges and is therefore cautious in its forecasts: the reactor should be ready for operation in 2034. So Ms. Katrin Göring-Eckardt, who has demonstrated her willingness to talk about nuclear, will have to be patient.

But if it works, it will be nothing other than the beginning of a new era in energy.

(two explanations of terms:

Is energy obtained from the atomic nucleus now nuclear energy or atomic energy? More appropriate would be nuclear energy / nuclear energy. But since for many journalists atoms and nuclei and all that are somehow the same thing, the two terms are used synonymously. And even the organization that takes care of nuclear energy worldwide is called the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The abbreviation DFR for Dual Fluid Reactor could be misleading, because there has been the "Dounreay Fast Reactor" on the northeast corner of Scotland for quite some time. I was once in this plant and had a quite relaxed conversation with an engineer until I asked him where the noise in this thick pipe above my head came from. Oh he said, nothing special, that's a few hundred tons of 500 degree liquid sodium flowing through there).
------------------
The author is Hans Hofmann-Reinecke. He studied physics in Munich and earned his doctorate in nuclear physics.

Skybird

10-21-22, 05:37 PM

ENERGY TRANSITION IN JAPANESE

published 10/15/2022 https://think-again.org/energiewende-auf-japanisch/

For a decade now, nuclear energy in Germany has been committing a slow, agonizing suicide, which came to a miserable end in the haggling over the continued operation of two or three reactors for the winter period. The reason for the nuclear hara-kiri was supposedly the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.

At that time, Japan had also shut down all its nuclear power plants, but not for good. In the meantime, the country is systematically rebuilding its nuclear power supply and planning the construction of new, improved reactors.

Nuclear power in Japan

Japan's annual electricity consumption is about 1000 terawatt hours; with 125 million inhabitants, this results in an annual per capita consumption of 8000 kilowatt hours. For comparison the figures for Germany: 570 TWh, 83 million inhabitants and 6900 kWh per capita and year. A modern nuclear reactor generates around 10 terawatt hours per year, older ones considerably less.

The first nuclear power was fed into the grid in Japan in 1966, and by early 2011 the contribution had grown to 30%. And it was planned to increase to 50% by 2030. The thinking was that Japan would need to reduce its heavy dependence on imported oil to be less exposed to global crises.

Everything changed with the Fukushima disaster. In the 15 months that followed, all 50 reactors in the country were gradually taken offline. There was a strong anti-nuclear sentiment and demands were made to keep the nuclear power plants shut down forever. The government and the operating company TEPCO were accused of having criminally neglected the protection of the population during the operation of their power plants.

Energy transition in Japanese

The government responded by commissioning an independent authority, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA), to subject existing power plants to a rigorous safety review. The criteria were to be tougher than in pre-Fukushima times. 33 reactors passed the test. The Fukushima 1 power plant, with formerly 6 reactors, is obviously not among them, but neither is Fukushima 2, located 12 km to the south, with four reactors in which there were no meltdowns.

Of the 33 candidates that were found to be good, ten are currently operating, with the remainder awaiting clearance to resume production. However, in light of the war in Ukraine and gas supply problems, the approval process is to be accelerated. The prime minister called for nine more power plants to come online by winter, plus seven in the summer of 2023, which would make 10 + 9 + 7 =25 reactors in operation.

While Germany has systematically destroyed its fleet of nuclear power plants since Fukushima and is facing a huge problem just in time for winter 22/23, Japan has done exactly the opposite.

This political masterstroke cannot be overestimated. We must keep in mind that Japan was not only the scene of the Fukushima disaster, but that only two or three generations ago the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 100,000 people there in a terrible way. Therefore, there is strong resentment in the population against everything nuclear and thus easy game for the opponents of nuclear power. But among the population and the government, reason triumphed over propaganda; in the end, green populists were not given a chance. What a difference to Germany!

And the future?

Japan is also planning for nuclear power in the long term. It has decided to build a new type of reactor that will not harm the environment even in the event of a meltdown. To this end, parts of the plant are being relocated below the earth's surface. The machine itself, however, is a conventional pressurized water reactor. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Hitachi are pursuing this development, which is expected to be completed in the 1930s.

You may now ask why Japan is relying on these old-fashioned monsters, when today there is talk everywhere of new generations of reactors that are supposedly safer, produce hardly any radioactive waste, and which, on the contrary, either use the long-lived radiating legacies of the old reactors as fuel or at least render them harmless.

These models exist today primarily on paper, and the road from paper to a functioning and producing behemoth of steel, concrete, uranium, plutonium and 1000° Celsius, that road is paved with surprises. The country of Japan, in the aftermath of Fukushima, would certainly be the wrong place and it would be the wrong time to risk nuclear surprises there now.

It would not be the first time such a project has caused trouble. Half a century ago, France built and operated such an advanced type of reactor, a "fast breeder" that was supposed to breed more fuel than it consumed and deliver 1200 megawatts of electricity. It was inevitable that there would be a glitch or two, although the population was never endangered. Nevertheless, the project - dubbed "Super Phoenix" - was abandoned in 1997.

The big question

Japan and Germany both look back on a long history with very sophisticated cultures. Both nations are or were parallel, for decades, pioneers in natural sciences and technology. Why do these two nations arrive at completely different strategies in the same situation? Why does Germany opt for nuclear hara-kiri while Japan pursues a proactive, long-term policy? Perhaps there are political scientists or sociologists who have an answer to this question.
-------------------
The author is Hans Hofmann-Reinecke. He studied physics in Munich and earned his doctorate in nuclear physics.

I add a reader'S comment to one of his other blog posts, becasue it fits here as well: A certain "Majestyk" wrote:

However, current events are illogical only until one accepts that these are almost all social weapons and the supposed collateral damage is the real purpose.
The rest is then criminalistics: who has the motive, the opportunity and the means.

Jimbuna

10-22-22, 05:59 AM

European Union countries will be forced to cut electricity use by 5% during peak hours under proposals to stave off a looming winter energy crisis.

The draft EU plan seen by Politico and Reuters - which also includes windfall taxes on energy firms - is designed to temper soaring energy costs that are also stoking inflation, and ensure member states have enough fuel to see it through the colder months.

The 27-nation group has accused Moscow of weaponising gas by slashing supplies in response to sanctions the bloc - along with allies - imposed at the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

"Never before has this Parliament debated the State of our Union with war raging on European soil," European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

EU countries have already agreed to cut gas use by 15%, and gas storage is now 84% full, exceeding the EU's pre-winter filling target.

But analysts say Europe will still need to slash gas use over winter to avoid storage facilities running dry.

Among the package of measures to ease the impact of soaring inflation is a windfall levy to claw back what the European Commission described as "unexpected profits" from Europe's non-gas fuelled power plants, linked to soaring oil and gas prices stoked by Russia's slashing of supplies.

"These companies are making revenues they never accounted for, they never even dreamt of," Ms von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

It is "wrong to receive extraordinary record revenues and profits benefiting from war and on the back of our consumers," she added.

"Profits must be shared and channelled to those who need it most."

Chatham House's deputy environment director Antony Froggatt said the targets and taxes are "significant departures" from UK policy.

He said there was "little mention of the importance of demand side measures" in Prime Minister Liz Truss's speech last week, which promised £100bn-plus emergency bailout for households to help with energy bills. Ms Truss opposes a fresh windfall tax on energy producers.

Brussels said its windfall tax plans would raise €140bn on energy companies' profits to cushion the blow of record high energy prices this winter. The cash is likely to attract "significant support" for the policy from member states, Mr Froggatt told Sky News.

Oil, gas, coal and refining firms would be required to make a "solidarity contribution" of 33% of their taxable surplus profits from fiscal year 2022, according to Reuters.

Wind and solar farms and nuclear plants would face a cap of 180 euros (£156) per megawatt hour (MWh) on the revenue they receive for generating electricity, with governments recouping any excess cash and recycling it to support consumers.

The draft could still change before publication as governments thrash out the details, possibly approving them at a meeting of energy ministers on 30 September.

Speaking at the end of the continent's hottest summer in history, Ms von der Leyen stressed how "the climate crisis is heavily weighing on our bills," with heatwaves boosting electricity demand and shutting down hydro power and nuclear plants.

Though she did not make any major climate policy announcements, the EC president did pledge €3 billion (£2.6 bn) for a new European Hydrogen Bank to help "[build] the future market for hydrogen".

She called for better adaptation in the face of increasing droughts and fires, promising to double firefighting capacity over the next year.

mapuc

10-22-22, 07:01 AM

The stress test exercise will complemented by the production of a Blueprint on critical infrastructure incidents and crises.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_6238

Markus

Skybird

10-22-22, 07:12 AM

Never let a deep crisis pass unabused. Planned economy is here to stay. And to grow. Quoza rules. Collectivization of debts. Castration of net payers.

Never let a deep crisis pass by unabused.

Skybird

10-22-22, 06:51 PM

In Switzerland, too, the authorities now have warned the population to prepare for a blackout of several days over the winter.

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung describes a possible scenario of a four-day blackout in seven federal states in northern and eastern Germany.
-------------------------

Blackout in Germany: What happens when millions of people have no electricity for days? A scenario

Concerns about a blackout in Germany are growing, and more and more counties are preparing for a power shortage. But what does that mean? We outline what could happen in a worst-case scenario.

Since there has not yet been a power blackout in Germany lasting several days and affecting several federal states, we can only roughly estimate how something like this would play out. Our scenario is based, among other things, on information from the Federal Office for Disaster Relief and Civil Protection, the Berlin Senate, the police and the Charité University Hospital. At some institutions that we asked for information, the answers were decidedly thin, for example at banks. Others did not answer at all, for example mobile phone companies.

An important basis is a 2011 report by the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag, entitled "Gefährdung und Verletzbarkeit moderner Gesellschaften" ("Threats and vulnerabilities of modern societies"). Almost everyone who has ever looked more closely at the subject of blackouts in Germany is familiar with the text. It describes the consequences of a prolonged power blackout as a "national catastrophe" and predicts a "collapse of the entire society."

On Thursday, January 19, 2023, at 8:30 a.m. sharp, the power will go out in the seven German states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, as well as Berlin and Brandenburg. The neighboring areas of Poland and the Czech Republic are also cut off from the European power grid. The reason is overloads in the power grid, which have led to an underfrequency.
Train passengers have to be evacuated from the tracks, children are read a story with a flashlight. Electronic devices stop working.

Day 1

The lights are out. That's the first thing you notice. From one moment to the next, no switch in the house works, no appliance responds. As if the fuse had blown, suddenly everything is silent. No running video, no whirring refrigerator, no drumming washing machine: in a blackout, the background noise is abruptly reduced.

In the center of Hamburg, a packed subway on Line 4 comes to an abrupt halt about 200 meters before Jungfernstieg station - just like everywhere else in the city and in the other six affected states. The cars are packed with people on their way to work. Their evacuation takes hours in many places. Only then do those affected learn that hundreds of thousands of passengers, including those on regional and long-distance trains, have suffered the same fate.

At the airports, arriving planes can still land, but on the instructions of the police, no more planes take off. Since the power went out at the beginning of working hours, people are stuck in elevators everywhere, and many can only be freed after hours. Lucky are those who used an elevator with a built-in battery, which still goes to the next floor even during the power outage.

Laptops and mobile devices still work, but only as long as the battery lasts. Recharging is also only possible with a power bank. Around 36,000 kilometers of power cables have been laid in Berlin alone, and 28,000 in Hamburg. Energy now only flows where there are emergency generators.

The mobile network still works for about half an hour. But after just a few minutes, it is hopelessly overloaded. Everywhere, people hurriedly tried to call their loved ones. Shortly after 9 a.m., nothing works anymore.

E-mails are no solution either. The Internet no longer works either. Messages can only be received via the car radio or battery-powered radios. The voices of the speakers call for calm. People run into the street to find out how far the power outage extends.

The world of cashless payments is convenient, but fatal in days of power outage. Most people barely have a hundred euros in cash in their wallets that morning. Queues quickly form in front of the ATMs, but they disappear just as quickly because there is no more money. The digital payment and electronic cash register systems are also no longer working. Those who still have coins and bills at home have an advantage.

In the evening, the situation in the affected regions looks ghostly. In the major cities, neon signs no longer flash. Not only landmarks like the Brandenburg Gate are completely in the dark, but the entire cities are swallowed up by night. From almost all apartments and houses, all you can see is the glimmer of candlelight and flickering flashlights. At night, temperatures drop below zero degrees.

Those who still want to fill up the car are left empty-handed. Without reception, it is difficult for the emergency services to do their job.

Day 2

The water supply becomes a problem. Without electricity, water stopped flowing through the pipes after just a few hours on the first day, neither in private households nor in public buildings. Those who do not refill empty bottles and containers in time or have a sufficient supply of drinks at home will now find themselves in a tight spot. Without pumping stations, sewage treatment plants cannot function; the escaping wastewater causes environmental damage in many places. Bathrooms are also starting to smell. Healthy people can survive for about three days without drinking water, but for the sick, the elderly and children, the situation becomes serious sooner.

On the part of the state, the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance now triggers the disaster alert. Most of the district councils and the mayors of the independent cities have already done so for their areas of responsibility. The police inform the population via loudspeakers. They recommend that people stay in their apartments and houses.

Those who do not have a full tank in their car will not get far. Gasoline or diesel is no longer coming out of the pumps (emergency generators and manual pumps are currently not part of the standard equipment of gas stations, according to Shell). There are only a few gas stations with emergency power, but these are reserved for police, firefighters and ambulances. Since many people nevertheless try to fill up their tanks here, the operators now receive police protection.

"Rescue services and emergency forces have considerable difficulties in fulfilling their tasks, such as caring for and transporting the injured or fighting fires," reads a forecast in the aforementioned report by the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag.

That hits home. Chaos reigns on the roads of the German states without electricity. The lack of lighting has led to countless accidents. And because the cellular network is dead, no one can inform the emergency services. The police try to keep at least a rough overview with helicopters from the air, but in the end they can only send the ambulances to the biggest pile-ups.

In the evening, about a hundred mostly young men gather in the marketplace of the Hanseatic city of Wismar in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. They carry flashlights and thermos flasks, some also baseball bats. It is one of the first vigilante groups to form here to patrol the city in the dark and prevent break-ins. The local police, who are completely overwhelmed anyway, let them go.
People protect themselves from the cold in their own homes with a jacket. Patients from clinics without functioning emergency power have to be transported to other states.

Day 3

At least January offers one advantage: food that would have gone bad by the third day at the latest in summer can now be cooled on the balcony or in a bag hanging out of the window. Nevertheless, today, now the third day of the blackout, panic sets in for many people. Very few have enough food and, above all, drinking water on hand.

Marc Elsberg, author of the successful thriller "Blackout," says in an interview, "The preparations you should make are actually like for a simple two-week camping vacation." The Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance gets specific in its "Guidebook for Emergency Preparedness and Correct Action in Emergency Situations": among other things, every citizen should have two liters of water per day per person and a ten-day supply of food in the house, as well as candles, flashlights and the necessary medications.

The few supermarkets whose operators have ensured an emergency power supply have now been bought empty. Since the cash registers do not work, cash is needed for payment. Fresh goods that do not need to be cooked were already out of stock by the end of the first day; in the meantime, the remaining shelves are also empty, apart from cleaning agents and spices.

All hell has broken loose in the clinics. It is true that all the larger hospitals in Germany have an emergency power supply that is still working on the third day; emergency operations mainly include the emergency room, intensive care units and surgical areas. But at many smaller sites, patients can no longer be cared for; the fuel for the emergency generators is empty and supplies have not yet arrived. Ambulances from other states are transferring the critically ill to other parts of the country not affected by the blackout, with considerable difficulty.

The injured from traffic and household accidents who are able to do so are trying on their own to get to one of the major hospitals. There, however, the rush is now so great that the police have to guard the entrances and turn people away.

And the military? "A large-scale and prolonged power blackout" would pose "major challenges" for the Bundeswehr, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Defense last year. It turns out to be accurate. Soldiers do have emergency generators and fuel, but neither is nearly enough to power the many health care and even elder care facilities.

It is very cold in the homes between Kiel, Magdeburg and Dresden. Due to the sub-zero temperatures at night, even the last bit of warmth has now escaped from the apartments. People with fireplaces or tiled stoves and sufficient fuel are at an advantage. They can at least heat individual rooms. Everyone else helps out by wearing thick clothing and sleeping under several blankets.

Those who lack something try to barter: Cash for canned soups, ibuprofen for toilet paper, diapers for cat food.

With the closing of supermarkets, the barter economy among people begins. In hospitals, only emergencies and intensive care patients are cared for.

Day 4

A tragedy occurred overnight in a large student dormitory in Dresden. About two dozen residents had gathered in the common room that evening to provide some heat. They fired up the grill that someone had brought from home. They turned off the battery-powered smoke alarm so as not to alert the fire department. All the windows were locked. Presumably, everyone had already lost consciousness when the grill started the fire. It is not the only drama of this kind.

Accidents are piling up in apartment buildings and rented apartments. Injuries that would be harmless under normal circumstances are becoming more dangerous if left untreated. Pensioners who fall sometimes lie undetected for days and die of thirst.

Outside life has also become risky, especially in the evening and at night. While the first few days were largely peaceful, many cities are now experiencing riots and looting. The police are overburdened and, when they do arrive, they do so too late.

After almost a hundred hours of power outage, it is crucial for the human psyche whether an end is in sight or not. Provided the cause of the blackout can be clarified and the power utilities begin to ramp up the networks, the "collapse of society" warned of by the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag can still be prevented.

Thriller author Elsberg is more optimistic in conversation than in his bestseller. He says, "We know from all crisis situations in civilized countries that as long as it doesn't come down to the wire, people don't bash each other's heads in, but help each other."

A good conclusion.

-----------------------

Jimbuna

10-24-22, 08:06 AM

The head of Britain's electricity and gas systems' operator has told households to prepare for blackouts between 4pm and 7pm on weekdays during "really, really cold" days in January and February if gas imports are reduced.

John Pettigrew, the National Grid chief, said blackouts would have to be imposed during the "deepest darkest evenings" in January and February if electricity generators did not have enough gas to meet demand, especially if there is a period of cold weather.

His comments were made at the Financial Times's Energy Transition Summit on Monday.

Jimbuna

10-25-22, 06:39 AM

The ships full of gas waiting off Europe’s coast

By Chris Baraniuk
Technology of Business reporter

The huge tankers are waiting. Off the coasts of Spain, Portugal, the UK and other European nations lie dozens of giant ships packed full of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Cooled to roughly -160C for transportation, the fossil fuel is in very high demand. Yet the ships remain at sea with their prized cargo.

After invading Ukraine in February, Russia curtailed gas supplies to Europe, sparking an energy crisis that sent the price of gas soaring. That led to fears of energy shortages and eye-watering bills for consumers.

"It's built up for about, I would say, five to six weeks," says Augustin Prate, vice president of energy and commodity markets at Kayrros, one of many observers who has watched the situation unfold.

He and colleagues track ships via AIS (Automatic Identification System) signals, which are broadcast by vessels to receivers, including on satellites.

"Clearly it's a big story," he says.

So why are ships loaded with LNG just hanging around Europe, exactly? The answer, as you might have guessed, is a little complicated.

Someone else who has watched the accumulation of vessels is Fraser Carson, a research analyst at Wood Mackenzie. This month, he counted 268 LNG ships on the water worldwide - noticeably above the one-year average of 241. Of those currently at sea, 51 are in the vicinity of Europe.

He explains that European nations plunged into a gas-buying spree over the summer that aimed to fill onshore storage tanks with gas. This was to ensure that heaps of fuel would be available to cover energy needs this winter.

The original target was to fill storage facilities to 80% of their total capacity by 1 November. That target has been met, and exceeded, far ahead of schedule. The latest data suggests storage is now at nearly 95% in total.

Imported LNG has played a key role in getting Europe to this point.

But as LNG continues to be brought ashore, demand for facilities that heat the liquid and turn it back into gas remains high. There aren't very many such plants in Europe, partly because the continent has long relied on gas delivered via pipelines from Russia instead.

So that's one reason why LNG ships are waiting around - some are queuing for access to regasification terminals. In the meantime, Germany and the Netherlands have invested in new regasification facilities. Some, rapidly built using converted LNG ships pinned to docksides, are expected to become operational within months.

On top of this bottleneck, less gas is getting used up in Europe than it otherwise might at present because the weather has been very mild well into October.

Plus, as Antoine Halff, co-founder of Kayrros notes, industrial activities that rely on gas have relaxed. This is something he and his colleagues track by scouring satellite images of factories.

"There's been a very dramatic reduction in cement and steel production in Europe," he says.

It all means that a market situation called contango has emerged for LNG, says Mr Carson. That is, when the future price of a commodity is higher than today's price.

"You would get a higher price for a delivery for January than you would in November," he explains.

Michelle Wiese Bockmann, markets editor and analyst at the shipping journal Lloyd's List, says that just by waiting to deliver in December rather than November, the difference in profit could be in the order of tens of millions of dollars per shipment.

While it is possible that buyers elsewhere in the world could snap up the cargoes of some waiting ships, meaning they might leave and head to Asia, for example, it may yet benefit Europe to have a glut of LNG literally floating around.

Some observers say having the ships wait around is partly a good thing - you want the gas to be available when you need it.

The only spanner in the works is the sobering sums involved. Feverish demand for gas means that countries have already paid extraordinary amounts to secure it.

Germany spent 49.5bn euros (£43.25bn) on imports between January and August, according to the Reuters news agency. That's compared to 17.1bn euros during the same period in 2021.

This is "market forces" at work, says Ms Bockmann. But she emphasises that European nations are "in the best possible position that they could be [in], given the geopolitical situation".

Mr Carson agrees, adding: "In terms of what can actually be done at the moment, the market has responded appropriately."

The real question is what happens next. With gas secured for the coming weeks at least, the price of the commodity in Europe has begun to fall.

Benchmark gas prices in Europe have fallen dramatically since August, but are still more than twice the price they were this time last year.

However, further disruptions to supply and very cold winter months could potentially change the picture yet again.

There's also the global situation to consider. Heightened demand for LNG imports in Europe has boosted competition for gas around the world. Countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh that rely on LNG, but which have less financial leverage in the market, have been stung by the current situation.

In general, some LNG that might traditionally have gone to Asia has this year sailed to Europe. It has effectively been "a huge game of musical chairs", says Mr Halff.

But some Asian nations, notably China, Japan and South Korea, which also use a lot of LNG, will likely seek significant imports in the colder months, potentially fuelling competition between continents.

For Corey Grindal, chief operating officer and head of worldwide trading at LNG producer Cheniere, what's happening in the LNG market is "a very short-term phenomenon".

Diversification of energy supplies in Europe should ease things in the coming years.

He adds that the vast majority of his firm's LNG output this year has already been sold and that Cheniere's production should rise from 45 million tonnes to 55 million tonnes by around 2026.

The current bonanza over gas has concerned some who argue that pivoting to renewables would be better for the planet and possibly more reliable.

"Renewable deployments is great. I am [all] for doing the right thing for the planet that we live on," says Mr Grindal.

However, he argues that the need for gas to heat people's homes and generate electricity is immediate. "We need it today," he says.

What happens tomorrow depends, in varying degrees, on the war in Ukraine, the weather, the rise of renewables, global demand for gas - and hundreds of ships full of LNG sailing either east or west.

mapuc

10-27-22, 09:07 AM

Wasn't it Skybird who had a made some comment on this problem with the windmills ?

Another GOOD NIGHT treat!
Germany has around 30,000 wind turbines. THIRTY THOUSAND. Behind each of these wind turbines, wake vortices are formed which, depending on their location, can last for kilometers.
The vertical mixing of the air causes the moist air to be transported from the layers near the ground to higher ones.
The offshore consequences are in the picture, the onshore consequences are drought and ultimately global warming.

In addition, there are 30,000 conventionally manufactured steel tubes (painted white), 90,000 rotor blades that are not recyclable, 30,000 generators with precious metals and some highly toxic neodymium (depending on the type of gear from 25 to over 200 kg per MW) and last but not least CO2-intensive reinforced concrete -Foundations on (partly cleared) areas. With a term of 10 years.

These plant components are exported and imported using ship diesel. Depending on the order situation from or to China etc., i.e. up to halfway around the world.

Original text
Noch ein GUTE NACHT Schmankerl!
Deutschland besitzt rund 30.000 Windräder. DREISSIGTAUSEND. Hinter jedem dieser Windräder bilden sich Wirbelschleppen, die je nach Lage kilometerweit Bestand haben.

Die vertikale Durchmischung der Luft bewirkt einen Transport der feuchten Luft aus den bodennahen Schichten in höhere.
Die Offshore-Folgen sieht man im Bild, die Onshore-Folgen sind Trockenheit und letztendlich Erderwärmung.

Dazu kommen 30.000 konventionell hergestellte Stahlröhren (weiß lackiert), 90.000 Rotorblätter, die nicht recyclefähig sind, 30.000 Generatoren mit Edelmetallen und zT hoch giftigem Neodym (je nach Getriebeart von 25 bis über 200 kg je MW) und last but not least CO2-intensiven Stahlbeton-Fundamenten auf (zT gerodeten) Flächen. Bei einer Laufzeit von 10 Jahren.

Der Ex- und Import dieser Anlagenteile findet per Schiffsdiesel statt. Je nach Auftragslage von oder nach China etc., also bis zu einmal um die halbe Welt.

Markus

Jimbuna

10-27-22, 12:15 PM

It is too expensive for governments to help everyone with their soaring energy bills, the World Bank has warned.

The bank's president said Covid support schemes had not been targeted enough towards the most vulnerable and the debt will take decades to pay off.

David Malpass told the BBC the same policy was being adopted to help people cope with rising energy bills.

"Governments are saying we will take care of everyone, which is just too expensive," he said.

It is pushing global debt to record levels and people at the bottom of the income scale are hardest hit, he said.

It comes as separate research suggests the UK's own energy support scheme is far too expensive in its current form.

The government is limiting average bills for households using a typical amount of energy to £2,500 a year for six months, but will review the support offered from April.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research said the current scheme could cost some £30bn because it was untargeted.

It also said households could save up to £20bn per year if they were incentivised to invest in energy-saving measures like solar panels.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63386350

Jimbuna

10-28-22, 04:00 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlNT6ncSHRs

Jimbuna

10-29-22, 05:05 AM

Energy supplier Octopus Energy is to buy its smaller competitor Bulb, after the UK government approved a deal.

Bulb collapsed last year after rising gas and electricity prices, and has since been run by the government.

Its 1.5 million customers will not experience "any change or disruption to their energy supplies", the government said.

The deal is expected to be completed by next month.

Business Secretary Grant Shapps said the move will bring "vital reassurance and energy security to consumers across the country at a time when they need it most".

Octopus had previously requested £1bn in public funding for the deal, but the government announcement made no mention of the money involved in the deal.

The statement said that "due to high market volatility it is impossible" to forecast the true cost of Bulb.

Octopus said the move would bring "an end to taxpayer losses", adding it was "paying the government" to take on Bulb's customers.

London-based Bulb was the biggest of more than 30 energy companies that collapsed last November following a spike in wholesale gas prices, which was partly caused by Covid restrictions ending and has since been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

It was placed into "special administration", meaning it was run by the government through the regulator Ofgem. The special administration measure is only used if Ofgem is unable to find another company to take over an energy firm's customers.

The state bailout of Bulb had been forecast to cost the taxpayer around £2bn by next year. It was the biggest state bailout since the Royal Bank of Scotland collapse during the 2008 financial crisis.

Mr Shapps, who became business secretary this week by Rishi Sunak, said the move highlighted the government's "overriding priority" to protect customers. He added he would do everything he could to "ensure our energy system provides secure and affordable energy for all".

Octopus will continue to use Bulb's technology and branding "for a transitionary period", the government's statement said.

The company, which was founded in the UK in 2015, said that before the Bulb acquisition it served 3.4 million customers.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63437352

Jimbuna

10-29-22, 05:15 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGjBtNu2rZs

Skybird

10-29-22, 05:32 AM

No, it hasn't. It sjust that the reserve storage site sin Germany are 98% full, and Germany stops buying gas, so prices drop: Germany is the biggest customer.

We sooner or later start heating again, and consume gas, then buy new gas. And not form Russia, but suppliers in shorter supply. That will cost, and prices will go up again. Next year we will need to refill the reserves, and different to this year then we will not have Russian gas, but mostly only super-expensive LNG gas. Prices will explode.

They predicted a cold winter due to El Nina. Could still happen, if not this year, then next winter 23/24 will be the big crisis. Not only gas, but power alike.

Jimbuna

10-29-22, 05:36 AM

Well i'm doing my bit for the crisis....installed an energy efficient boiler in July at a cost of £2000 and just a couple of dats ago I purchased an air fryer @£285 :O:

Jimbuna

10-29-22, 11:37 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDRom6ahzsA

Skybird

11-01-22, 06:13 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDRom6ahzsA
Mixed reaction from me.

He bases on a false assumption, I think, that is the 200 bn were money actually produced by German economic productivity, so: so a positive saldo. In fact its new debts with numbers made out of nothing but thin air, its not somebody else's spared consume like I give you an apple because i dont eat it: you get your apple instaed by making it dropping off the sky out of nowhere. This new debt (and they have raised several enormous debt fonds and relabelled them as anything but "debt") will feed back on Germany economy in the future, negatively. Second,He implies that ordinary average housholds that now have consumed up all their saving alrready and are in danger of needing to raise their own private debts by credit, would have suddenly, due to the payout form these aids, additonal money left to consume and go shopping in other nation'S economies. Thjis is not true, most people do not have additonal more buying power, but these aids are meant to porevent them from falling into deeper debts if they already are in debts, or starting toi ake debts. In both casdes these households mostly will barely keepo floating on the water instead of sinkling: they do not win the additonal buying power to start shopping frenzies.

He also seems to not have a problem with the packages by other nations. France for example paid indirect energy aids to its people in form of price caps worth 125 billion Euros. And Macorn showed no intention at all to instead use this money to form a fond for Europe and then user it to pay other nations, like he now demands Germany to do with these 200 billions of Germany.

Its about greed. Plain and simple old-fashioned classical greed, they want the Germans to not spend this money on Germany, but for their own nations instead. Being a good European means: give the others the money they demand from you. Additional to the 2 trillion TARGET 2 credit accountabilties for foreign nations (money we paid out for other central banks but will never get back for sure) , the enormous fundings Germany pays for the EU every ear, and many bilateral payouts it has granted to many European nations over the years in various "projects".

This maker of this film should ask himself: what will happen to the European Union if Germany fails to restabilise its economy, and the German engine in the EU machinery stops working? who then will pay the bills and be accoutnable for a huge share of the 26 other nation's credits and debts?

Then all others will come to a grinding halt.

So if you want to be angry about germany, then for this: with its incompetent energy policies and its stupid China policy and its unwillingness to correct its suicidal dependency from exporting, Germany is provoking right this: that the German economy comes to a crashing halt and pulls everybody else in the EU down with it. Instead the EU yells: "Green Deal!" Stupid. Who sits in a glass house, should not throw with stones. The madness of the EU is not much smaller than that of the Germans. The EU has just announced it wants all cars electric in 2035, no gaosline engiones anymore then. This is nothing else but a policy that secures that Europe will be completely depending on China, helplessly.

To lend from a famous American quote on the dollar's role in the world- "Its our economy - but your problem." :D

I recently read an opinion piecv eby a British historian whoa rgued that the delcine of the UK did not begin with Brexit, but already with WW2. I think he is right. In a comparable way I think Germany too is on a long steady way down since reunification. Somewhere in the second half of thios century neiether the EU nor Germany will play any signfiocant role on worl,.d pltics and eocnomics anymore, but will be the playing ball of other powers. The joke of it is: it wouldn't have been necessary to come that way at all. Its self-chosen, self made fate. Not necessity, but choice motivated by too many illusions and denial of reality on too many occasions.

Where the author is right is that Russia will benefit if Europe crashes fincially due to iuts debts and inflation. Both are unsustainable, no matter what stupid lefty eggheads try to sell the world in fairy tale theories. Keynes was wrong back then, and he still is today. And that drama is not caused by Putin, the lack of fiscal discipline and economic understanding of the nature of money is something the Europeans have acchieved all by themselves.

Skybird

11-05-22, 03:53 PM

The AdG writes about germany's immediate and middleterm energy future:
-------------------
Finance Minister Lindner has put an end to the FDP's brief rebellion toward a reality-based energy policy. Just a few weeks ago, the news said: "The FDP, on the other hand, is pushing for the continued operation of all three remaining German nuclear power plants until 2024. If there was still hope that by April 15, the last day of the three remaining nuclear power plants, the FDP could bring reason into government policy, Lindner put an end to the hopes of reason with his statement on November 3: The question is "now simply decided, you also have to say, now is the end.

What changes on 15.4.2023 that one can do without 4,500 MW of nuclear energy?
It is worth looking at the expansion of renewable energies, which is being driven forward with all its might. Planned wind power plants will have to participate in tenders organized by the Federal Network Agency. So far this year, the first year of the traffic lights, about 3,000 MW of onshore wind power plants have been awarded contracts to be built over the next few years (see here). That's about 7 terawatt hours of electricity. But there will be about 35 terawatt-hours of nuclear power dropped on 4/15/2023. At this rate, it will take five years to replace the amount of nuclear power that will be eliminated. However, with the significant disadvantage that the electricity will come when the wind sees fit and not necessarily when we have demand.

Why is the demand for permits for new wind power plants so low (as recently as 2014-2016, there were twice as many per year)? The cost of wind energy is essentially materials and capital costs. The massive increase in material costs is a result of the global increase in energy costs. The components of wind turbines such as rolling bearings (steel), magnets (copper and rare earths), rotor blades (fiberglass-reinforced plastics) have become so expensive, especially in this country, that the end of Germany as a production location is now threatening for wind energy after the "end" of the solar industry. Of the ten largest wind turbine manufacturers, seven come from China. In addition, the interest on capital has now quadrupled, making it possible to generate electricity from wind energy for 5.88 €ct/kwh (this is the guaranteed feed-in tariff) only in particularly windy areas. It is already foreseeable what the green lobby will demand after the nuclear power plants have been shut down: the increase of the guaranteed feed-in tariff.

However, there will probably not be a collapse of the power supply on 16.4.2023, because the traffic lights have, after all, brought all the coal-fired power plants that are still available online. Replacing nuclear energy with coal significantly increases CO2 emissions in Germany. This is the result of green policies. In addition, the high price level in Germany will become entrenched, because coal and gas-fired power plants were made expensive with the high European CO2 emission certificates. Instead of lowering CO2 certificate prices in the time of the energy crisis, they prefer to distribute tax money to households and businesses.

How many more double whammies can we afford? After all, it is clear that the supply of electricity in Germany will be too tight for years to come due to a lack of power plant capacity. The companies know this, and they are not impressed by the slogans of the German government. 55 percent of invoices in the chemical industry are no longer paid on time. BASF has to cope with additional energy costs of €2.2 billion and announces job cuts. Investments in China, on the other hand, are being stepped up. In China, a kilowatt hour costs 2-3 €ct. No subsidy policy can compensate for this disparity without also eroding the state finances in the end. The simple answer would be to increase the supply of cheap electricity through nuclear power plants, domestic fracked gas production, and green coal plants. The government really believes it can make ends meet through wind and solar power, which today represent about 5 percent of primary energy. If that doesn't change, the result will be a massive deindustrialization of Germany. I'm afraid there are also some in the traffic lights who have no problem with that at all.

Renaissance of coal

Germany is not the only country to return to coal. Italy, the Netherlands, Greece and Hungary are also reactivating closed coal-fired power plants - all countries that had relied on gas. Already in the first half of the year, EU coal consumption increased by 10 percent; in the second half, it will be significantly more. "Germany will be the largest contributor to the increase," says the International Energy Agency (IEA). All of these countries had still insisted on the phase-out for coal at the 2021 UN climate conference in Glasgow. It was only through the intervention of China and India that the compromise of "phase down" rather than "phase out" was agreed upon. But even in India and China, it looks like anything but a phase down for coal. Seventy percent of the world's coal use is in China and India. China will build more coal-fired power plants by 2025 than the U.S. has in its inventory. India will increase its coal fleet by 25 percent by 2030. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had called for CO2 emissions to be cut in half by 2030. But three-quarters of the world's CO2 emissions come from coal-fired power plants (nearly 30 billion tons out of 40 billion tons total).

China burns more coal than the rest of the world. Last year alone, it was six percent more. Some of the emissions are in the goods that China exports, e.g. in the batteries of supposedly low-CO2 e-cars, which, according to the EU, may be offered exclusively from 2035 onwards for climate protection reasons. However, e-cars with Chinese batteries will emit more CO2 than cars with combustion engines for years to come. The consequences of the strong demand for coal have consequences: Coal prices have increased six-fold compared to 2020.

Will LNG help us next year?

The IEA fears a 30 billion m³ shortfall of gas in Europe next year, putting storage replenishment for the winter after next at risk. The marginal additional volumes of LNG appearing on the world market will be tapped by China at 85 percent. China had reduced gas imports by 15 percent as recently as this year because the Chinese economy needed less gas due to the COVID lockdown policy. It should also be remembered that as recently as August of this year, imports of Russian pipeline gas helped fill storage. IEA head Fatih Birol: "Europe faces an even bigger challenge next winter." One thing is certain: gas prices will rise again next year.

The German government should know all this. Whether it also lets us know it is another matter after the falsification of the audit notes from the Ministry of Economics on the nuclear energy phase-out by the minister himself. It should also know that, according to a report by Norway's Rystad Energy, the production and transport of LNG releases ten times as much CO2 emission equivalent as pipeline gas. A major factor is the energy required to cool the gas to minus 160 degrees Celsius. Replacing Russian natural gas with pipeline gas would produce an additional 35 million metric tons of CO2, the report says. That's almost as many emissions as the 15 million diesel cars in Germany emit.

What are the politicians doing?

It could be the great hour of Christian Lindner, who has called for a quick start to fracking for shale gas in Germany. But who still believes a word Lindner says? If it comes to conflict with the Greens, he will fall over again. He prefers to rely on freedom energies like wind power (Lindner).

A smart German government in terms of energy policy would have long since further developed green coal use, i.e. coal-fired power plants with CO2 capture (CCS), and would have implemented the recommendations of the report of the Fracking Commission, which has been before the German Bundestag since June 2021 (!) and is not being discussed there. To make the ignorance of the German Bundestag clear, the Commission submitted its June 2021 report again to the German Bundestag in June 2022 with the remark :

"With the technical basis of the 2021 report already available, the expert commission believes that the examination of the German Bundestag on the appropriateness of the ban on fracking in unconventional deposits (according to § 13a paragraph 1, Water Resources Act, WHG) can be carried out." (June 2022) What do you say to such ignorance by elected officials in a fundamental gas and electricity crisis? A smart FDP would have made this report the focus of an energy policy debate long ago.

But we don't have a smart German government in terms of energy policy, not for 10 years, at least since nuclear energy research was abolished in the Atomic Energy Act (2011), CCS was banned in Germany (2012) and so was fracking (2017). With CCS, we could be more relaxed about the trend of increased coal use in China and India. Instead, since Merkel's exit from nuclear energy and coal, energy policy has become nothing more than a creed.

One relied in this faith on green advisors like those of AGORA-Energiewende [a national lobby organization, Skybird] AGORA's leaders are now at the levers of power, showing after just one year that they are well on their way to ruining Germany's strong economy.
-------------------------

Skybird

11-05-22, 04:31 PM

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/28/eco-extremists-leading-world-towards-despair-poverty-starvation/

A sisngle case illustration from germayn for the above: some days agao media rweprted the first detah in Germany, a man who died from legionellas in the houses'S tap water. The hosue amanagement had redcued warm water and heating temperatures that the germs no longer got reliably killed inbside the pipes and the water. They multiplkied to levels that they were able to overwhelm the man's immune system.

I preicted such cases alreadsy mon ths ago. I also said that ther eis mor eproblems to be expected from fiunghi and mould spöreadin g in rooms and houses and goign deep into the walls if room tempertaures go below 18-19°C. Even more so sicne today the fully isolate dmmodenr homes in germany no longer have fucntional air exhcnage between inside and outside. You cannot reliably prevent these unwanted things to happen by openign windows every couple of hours for few minutes and cretaign air stream. The physics of air streaming inside most appartments with furniture at the walls are such that a sufficient exchange of too humid and too cold air cannot take place in full, it even can help to support the spread of funghi and mould. Your energy advisors all will jusat happen to forget to tell you. If they even know this heretic truth. Most do not, and live by the pure gospel only.

Hot water in the heating system must have a minimum temperature (they now reocmmend to ignore). Room temperature must stay above a certain treshhold level (which they now reocmmend you tio ignore).

Maybe drinking every day a glass of chlorine to desinfect your blood from funghi and mould and legionellas does the trick to save if not yourself then at least the planet. In the new fake-is-the-same-as-fact world order, evertyhing has become possible. :hmmm:

em2nought

11-05-22, 04:57 PM

Always have to get your dig in at Trump don't you? :03::D

Skybird

11-05-22, 05:29 PM

With the Donald being all over the place again, its impossible not to hit him, no matter what direction you blindly shoot at. :O:

Jimbuna

11-06-22, 07:18 AM

Why high UK energy bills were decades in the making

In a year of soaring electricity bills and fears of blackouts, energy has become the subject of a bitter blame game.

The world is in the grip of a global energy crisis, sharply exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and the strain that has placed on the supply of gas, a major resource.

But household energy costs are higher in the UK than almost anywhere else in Europe. How has it come to this?

Looking back at decades of political decisions, former energy ministers and industry experts have told the BBC where they think some mistakes were made.

https://i.postimg.cc/XYMVtJTG/111.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

https://i.postimg.cc/nhvHxxJd/222.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63477214

Skybird

11-07-22, 12:15 PM

In German only, the whole thing is interactive. The NZZ has calculated, what wind farm operators try to keep secret: the utilization levels of wind turbines throughout Germany.

To call the result sobering would be an understatement. It will now take completely new and greater drilling depths for the head-in-the-sand-sticking-game not to get irritated by the nasty, uncooperative reality.

Probably sooner or later this page will disappear again behind a paywall, but for the moment it is still visible:

https://www.nzz.ch/visuals/windkraft-in-deutschland-grosse-versprechen-kleine-ertraege-ld.1710681

Jimbuna

11-07-22, 12:17 PM

You are required to register after five seconds or so.

Jimbuna

11-12-22, 05:45 AM

Germany joins other European countries in exiting the Energy Charter Treaty

Germany announced Friday that it will leave the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), an initiative from which countries such as France, the Netherlands and Poland have also withdrawn for standing in the way of the climate targets set in Paris.

"We are consistently aligning trade policy with climate protection and are therefore withdrawing from the Energy Charter Treaty," Franziska Brantner, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, Franziska Brantner, said on her official Twitter profile.

In another message on the same social network, she stressed that this is an "important" measure for Berlin, since it comes in the context of the holding of the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) in Egypt.

"In addition, we are serious about diversification and we want to quickly establish partnerships with Chile and Mexico that allow free and fair trade," he said, adding that Germany will ratify the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada, while deepening cooperation with the United States.

For his part, the deputy head of the parliamentary group of the Free Democrats, Lukas Koehler, explained that "in the face of the growing threat of authoritarian regimes, we must strengthen economic relations with our allies in the Western community of values," according to Bloomberg.

Likewise, Andreas Audretsch, a member of parliament for the Greens, emphasized that "the numerous demands for billions demonstrate the extent to which the Energy Charter Treaty stands in the way of climate protection", as reported by Bloomberg.

The ECT allows energy companies, especially those involved in fossil fuels, to sue countries in a court system if they consider the legislation to be against their interests. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) called the treaty a "serious obstacle to climate change mitigation".
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/germany-joins-other-european-countries-in-exiting-the-energy-charter-treaty/ar-AA140TP0?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=efce528194e947a08bf3b3050b28cc8e

Jimbuna

11-12-22, 07:28 AM

National Grid announces plans to prevent blackouts: Will the lights really go out this winter, and for how long?

Millions of British households are expected to struggle with their energy bills this winter.

Issues with gas supplies have been well-documented over the past year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Higher energy prices have started to be felt across the country, even with the introduction of the energy price guarantee.

Once this is reviewed in March, energy consultancy Cornwall Insight predicts the average consumer will pay £3,702 a year.

Unfortunately that's not where the problems end. Issues of supply are starting to mount ahead of a cold winter, leading to concerns the UK could face blackouts this winter and evoking memories of the 1970s.

Why is the UK at risk of blackouts this winter?

National Grid has warned households could lose power for up to three hours at a time this winter if supplies run really low.

This is mainly due to the emergency measures taken after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

While the UK is less reliant on Russian gas than Continental Europe, the squeeze on supplies will start to intensify the pressure on the UK power grid because of the lack of gas storage.

Although the UK has been exporting gas since late Spring to help European countries, the continuing lack of gas storage means there is a reliance on imports in the colder months.

Gareth Kloet, energy spokesperson for GoCompare says: 'About a third of our electric supply has come from the burning of gas in the past. So when it's restricted, like it is now, it becomes very expensive.

'We really have got an electricity problem because we will struggle to meet our peak demand periods. I don't want to sound overly alarmist… at this time of the year it's not a problem, but when we get a real peak, that could be problematic. That's why people are talking about blackouts.'

Gas isn't the only source of energy supply as the UK also has offshore wind capacity, but relying on the weather makes forecasting much harder.

'If demand outstrips supply you'll start to see power cuts. Then the question is how quickly you can bring back the supply in order to give enough people their energy,' says Kloet.

'If we have a very cold winter, it will put a lot of demand on the system… A lot of people are still working from home, people will want to heat their homes much more than before the pandemic. It's a lot of demand… this will only really happen if we have a very cold winter.

'The perfect storm would be a Monday morning on a cold day. You'd have lots of demand from offices coming online, people at home putting their heating on, lots of businesses running, and it's cold. I think you could have problems with energy supply.

'If it just happened to be a particularly non-windy day across the whole of the country, so you lost wind power capability, that would be a problem.'

[B]How likely are blackouts and how long could they last?

A milder October has helped to lower demand and provide the opportunity for storage to refill, meaning there is less pressure on the system.

While we might not see a public campaign encouraging people to cut their usage, the National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) will run a 'Demand Flexibility Service' until March 2023.

This will pay households to reduce their usage during peak hours of the day to avoid blackouts across the UK

When will energy bills start to fall?

Gas prices have started to fall in recent weeks. The spot price of gas has fallen from record levels and is now similar to where it was 18 months ago.

Energy companies 'hedge' by buying gas and electricity well ahead of when it is needed. Suppliers will buy a certain amount of energy in advance to lock in the price and to reduce the risk of adverse price movements.

It means that our monthly bills don't reflect today's prices, but rather the wholesale cost from when the supplier first paid for the energy.

Cornwall Insight expects gas prices to remain high and volatile for quite some time and it will be heavily dependent on developments in the Russia-Ukraine war, international gas markets, LNG prices and prevailing weather conditions.

'Drivers at present predominantly highlight that gas prices are expected to remain high and volatile for the foreseeable,' the consultancy said this week.

Under a similar scheme launched last week, Ovo customers will be rewarded with up to £100 - £20 a month if they slash their energy use in peak times. Ovo has narrowed down its peak demand to between the hours of 4pm and 7pm, as its data shows that the average household uses 19 per cent of its daily total usage during these times.

'Natioal Grid have, over time, developed a lot of programmes to prevent these blackouts from happening,' says Guillaume Proost, founder of climate technology startup OakTree Power.

'I think we're certainly less at risk than other nations from that point of view. There is always a risk because of the intermittency of renewable energy. We rely increasingly on wind in the UK in particular.

'There is always a risk of blackouts, but I suspect that these risks are being extremely well managed and hopefully there will be an increasing participation from electricity consumers across the board, which will help National Grid to maintain stability.'

Energy consultancy Cornwall Insight has said the base case scenario currently is that there will be adequate power across the winter, and the ESO predicts demand to be lower than previously forecast.

This is in large part because prices continue to be high given ongoing storage concerns.

The Demand Flexibility Service was developed to encourage customers to cut their usage and give National Grid a bit more leeway at times of high demand. In the base case scenario, this service would be used for between 0 and 5 days according to Cornwall Insight.

In the event there is not enough gas because of a lack of imports from France, Netherlands and Belgium, contingency measures are in place, although Cornwall says a scenario where these would need to be called upon is 'highly unlikely'.

ESO has also agreed contracts with Drax, EDF and Uniper to extend the use of coal-fired power plants this winter until the end of March 2023.

Cornwall Insight says these units won't be contracted to the open market and 'are only intended to be used when all commercial options have been exhausted.'

However, it warns that without sufficient uptake of the flexibility service, especially during cold spells, some customers could well face interruption to their supply.

Another scenario could see negative supply surplus in the new year ,which would lead to more significant interruption. It could see the temporary implementation of something called 'rota load shedding' to control or reduce the demand for electricity, although the ESO sees this as unlikely.

Rota load shedding, also referred to as a rolling blackout, would mean some customers could be without power for pre-defined periods during a day, typically for three-hour blocks.

Businesses and emergency services will have back-up generators to ensure minimal disruption.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/national-grid-announces-plans-to-prevent-blackouts-will-the-lights-really-go-out-this-winter-and-for-how-long/ar-AA141JqG?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=bcad0f2d791b4fd39e19ccfb64b89b5b

August

11-12-22, 12:36 PM

They can't keep the power on as it is and they want to force millions of electric cars onto the grid. :nope:

Rockstar

11-12-22, 01:19 PM

With the Donald being all over the place again, its impossible not to hit him, no matter what direction you blindly shoot at. :O:

Good one! :har:

Jimbuna

11-14-22, 12:45 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCT9f_JonFw

Skybird

11-21-22, 07:06 AM

Huhu, Robert - have your read the news? :D

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/21/energy/qatar-china-gas-deal/index.html

QatarEnergy chief Saad al-Kaabi told Reuters on Monday the firm signed a 27-year sales and purchase agreement with China’s Sinopec, the longest in the history of liquefied natural gas (LNG) deals.
“Today is an important milestone for the first sales and purchase agreement for North Field East project, it is 4 million tonnes for 27 years to Sinopec of China,” Kaabi said at an interview in Doha, shortly before the signing of the deal.
“It signifies long-term deals are here and important for both seller and buyer,” he said.

-------------------
There is also still no answer where all the needed additional LNG tankers should come from that Germany would need to ship and ride all for Germany only, in order to have its plan to partially (!) replace Russian gas with LNG working. Dozens of additonal tankers would be needed. There are 509-60 such tnaker sin the world currently. Germany would need to have a minimum of 38 (they said in summer) exclusively operating all for Germany all year long. :har: And then we still would have replaced only a part of the Russian gas.

Jimbuna

11-22-22, 05:28 AM

Oil price collapse: Saudis, Russians rush to market’s rescue, 2 weeks early

Investing.com -- There are another two weeks to go for the OPEC+ meeting, but the Saudis and Russians have decided not to sit back and let the market collapse continue.

In an urgent response to a Wall Street Journal story on Monday, Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman denied that the 23-nation oil producing alliance under his charge was working on a production hike of 500,000 barrels per day to announce at OPEC+’s Dec. 4 meeting.

If the WSJ report had been true, it would have been a pivot to the 2-million-barrel per day cut that OPEC+ had announced for November. It would have been a hike small in barrels, yet huge in goodwill, doing wonders for Saudi-U.S. relations but, unfortunately, further hammering already free-falling crude prices.

Both New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude, or WTI, the benchmark for U.S. crude, and London's Brent, the global gauge for oil, hit their lowest since the beginning of the year in Monday’s early trading, partly based on the WSJ story.

But the report wasn’t true, Saudi energy minister Abdulaziz said in a statement issued by state news agency SPA.

“It is well-known that OPEC+ does not discuss any decisions ahead of the meeting," Abdulaziz said, referring to the Dec. 4 meeting.

He added: “The current cut of 2 million barrels per day by OPEC+ continues until the end of 2023 and if there is a need to take further measures by reducing production to balance supply and demand we always remain ready to intervene.”

And just like on cue, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, Abdulaziz’s closest non-Gulf ally in OPEC+, came in with his own responses to the upcoming Dec. 5 decision by Western nations on a prospective import ban and price cap on Russian oil.

Novak reiterated Russia’s stand of not selling its oil to nations that would participate in the price-cap, a plan devised by the West to limit the funding that Moscow could put in its war against Ukraine. The Russian deputy premier also said something else that helped crude prices go back into the positive for the day: in the event of an oil price cap, Russia may also reduce oil production.

“Lower supply will be the result from a price cap on Russian oil,” Novak added.

WTI, which hit a session low of $75.30 on Monday, marking a bottom since January, recovered most of its losses by midday, responding to the remarks by Abdulaziz and Novak. By 14:12 ET (19:12 GMT), the U.S. crude benchmark was at $79.92, down 24 cents, or 0.2%. WTI settled at $79.73 a barrel, down 35 cents, 0.44%.

Brent sank to $82.36 earlier, its lowest since February, before recovering to $87.33, down 29 cents, or 0.3%, on the day.

“It’s interesting the coordinated response we’ve got from the Saudis and the Russians in denying the WSJ report and putting a floor under the oil selloff,” said John Kilduff, founding partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital. “There’s another two weeks to the OPEC+ meeting and they’ve too much at risk on the price front if they keep mum till then.”

Crude prices also entered briefly on Friday into a “contango” mode — a market structure that defines weakness — for the first time since 2021. Under this dynamic, the front-month oil contract in the futures market trades at a discount to the nearby month. While the difference itself might be small, it forces buyers wishing to hold a position in oil at the time of contract expiry to pay more to switch to a new front-month contract.

With such negativity in crude now, all eyes are on what the OPEC+ alliance of oil producers will do when it meets on Dec. 4.

OPEC+ — the alliance that bands OPEC, or the 13-member Saudi-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, with 10 other oil producers steered by Russia — agreed at its prior meeting to slash production by 2 million barrels per day in order to boost Brent and U.S. crude prices that had fallen sharply from March highs.

Right after that OPEC+ decision, Brent went from a low of around $82 a barrel to almost $100 within days (it had hit almost $140 earlier in March). WTI rose from $76 to $96 (WTI was at just over $130 in March). Both benchmarks have lost all those gains in the past two weeks, raising questions on whether OPEC+ will go for even more cuts to prop the market up again.

Abdulaziz’s remarks on Monday signaled the likelihood of further cuts, especially when he said the alliance will be “ready to intervene” if there’s a need to “take further measures by reducing production to balance supply and demand”.

OPEC+’s 2-million-barrel cut itself has not sat well with the United States.

Saudi-U.S. relations have hit a low point over oil-production disagreements this year, though WSJ reported on Monday that U.S. officials had been looking to the Dec. 4 OPEC+ meeting with some hope.

Talk of a production increase emerged after the Biden administration told a federal court judge that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman should have sovereign immunity from a U.S. federal lawsuit related to the brutal killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The immunity decision amounted to a concession to Mohammed, bolstering his standing as the kingdom’s de facto ruler after the Biden administration tried for months to isolate him.

The WSJ acknowledged in its report that it would be an unusual time for OPEC+ to consider a production increase, with global oil prices falling more than 10% since the first week of November itself on a rash of Covid headlines out of China.

Rising coronavirus cases in China invited new lockdown measures in some of the country’s biggest cities, drumming up concerns over slowing crude demand in the world’s largest oil importer. The country is currently struggling with its worst COVID outbreak since April, which had seen several cities placed under lockdown. A report earlier this month said that several Chinese refiners asked Saudi Aramco (TADAWUL:2222) to supply lower amounts of oil in December, which could point to slowing oil shipments to the country. China has also ramped up its refined fuel export quotas, potentially indicating a surplus in crude stockpiles due to waning demand.

Even so, some delegates to the OPEC+ apparently told WSJ that a production increase could take place in December in response to expectations that oil consumption typically rises in the winter. Oil demand is expected to increase by 1.69 million barrels a day to 101.3 million barrels a day by the first quarter next year, compared with the average level in 2022.

Saudi energy minister Abdulaziz has also said in the past the kingdom would supply oil to ‘all who need it.’
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/oil-price-collapse-saudis-russians-rush-to-market-s-rescue-2-weeks-early/ar-AA14nChd?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=68eeb1c8579540ad9e6b21b2d78671df

Skybird

11-30-22, 04:27 PM

Focus:
-----------------
Blackout fear - first country plans driving bans for electric cars

Switzerland is very worried about a blackout in winter and is preparing radical austerity measures in case of shortages. These include driving bans for electric cars. There could also be restrictions in Germany - first on charging.

Thanks to hydropower, Switzerland has one of the most environmentally friendly power supplies in Europe. But now the Alpine republic fears a blackout. "In winter, the country imports large amounts of electricity. In 2021, it was 5.7 billion kilowatt hours, which came mainly from France and Germany," reports the tech portal "Golem" . In other words, without French nuclear power plants or the occasional German wind energy surplus, the lights would probably go out in Switzerland.
Switzerland plans driving bans for electric cars

But because France and Germany are also highly uncertain cantonists this winter - France because of many outages at nuclear power plants, Germany because of the unpredictable random power from wind and solar energy, coupled with poor solar output in winter and the acute shortage of gas - Switzerland is now reckoning with a high risk of blackout.

A Nov. 23 draft by the Swiss Confederation, titled "Ordinance on Restrictions and Prohibitions on the Use of Electrical Energy," outlines drastic measures that could be taken as part of four escalation levels in the event of an energy shortage. For example, there are stipulations that washing machines must not run at more than 40 degrees Celsius. Refrigerators may not be cooled below 6 degrees. Anything that only serves to provide comfort - such as saunas and steam baths - may then only be used to a limited extent in one's own home.

In addition to extensive rules on the operation of electrical appliances in commercial and private areas, the list of bans also includes piquant restrictions on car traffic. On the one hand, the speed limit on Swiss highways is to be lowered from 120 km/h to 100 km/h. On the other hand, the speed limit on Swiss highways is to be reduced from 120 km/h to 100 km/h. But it will be really tough for drivers of electric cars: they would be banned from driving in the event of a power shortage . Literally, the draft says: " The private use of electric cars is only allowed for absolutely necessary journeys (e.g. professional practice, shopping, doctor's visits, attendance of religious events, perception of court appointments). "

In Switzerland, according to various media reports, this would affect around 110,000 drivers after all - and would of course be absolutely fatal for the politically pushed ramp-up of e-mobility in Switzerland as well: who would still buy an electric car if they had to reckon with not being allowed to drive it at any time, especially in winter? Admittedly, the plan assures that the driving bans will only take place from the third of four "escalation levels". Nevertheless, Swiss citizens must probably be advised to buy an electric car only as a second car, if at all.

In an interview with the tabloid "Blick", the Swiss car importers' association "Auto Schweiz" has confirmed that it will fight against any electric driving ban in the voting process on the planned regulations announced for December. The electricity demand of e-cars in Switzerland in 2021 was just 0.4 percent of the total demand, said Auto Schweiz CEO Andreas Burgener to the "Blick".

FOCUS Online has asked the German ministries for transport and for the economy whether driving bans for e-cars could also come in this country. A response from the ministries is still pending.

It has long been clear that there could also be considerable restrictions on e-cars in Germany in the future - for example, with regard to charging. Because if the load expansion happens faster than the grid expansion, then "grid-serving charging" must be used. In other words, charging will not necessarily take place when the driver needs it, but when sufficient power is available ( read more here ).

Battery cars usually charge at home in the garage. They draw considerably more power than a household appliance at special wallboxes with 3.4, 7.4, 11 or a maximum of 22 kilowatts of charging power. The limiting factor here is not only the home grid, but also the car's integrated charger; often the available charging power of the box cannot be utilized at all.

FOCUS Online asked the experts from the German Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE). In fact, Germany faces major challenges if e-mobility is to ramp up smoothly:

According to the VDE, the electricity demand of an average household with four people is currently a maximum of 4 kW, which is called up at the same time. In the future, however, experts expect an additional demand of 10 to 14 kW - due to solar systems, heat pumps, storage batteries and wallboxes for e-cars.

Initially, this is not a problem because the low-voltage grid still has reserves.

In addition, it depends on when the grid is confronted with many new power consumers: "Whether and when the grid is overloaded also depends on the simultaneity factor, i.e. whether all vehicles charge at the same time or rather sequentially. Fan heaters will have a very high simultaneity due to the weather. This is less pronounced with e-mobility. In addition, there is a notification requirement for charging facilities or, in the case of higher outputs, approval must be obtained from the responsible distribution network operator. This makes e-mobility much more transparent for distribution network operators than direct heating systems such as fan heaters ", experts from the Network Technology/Network Operations Forum at VDE told FOCUS Online.

The VDE explains what the prerequisite for "grid-serving charging" is: a temporary shifting of loads by intelligent metering systems (iMSys). The electric car wallbox in the garage at home thus communicates with the grid operator so that the latter has an overview of the current charging situation and can intervene in an emergency. "The alternative would be to allocate network connections for wallboxes on a first come, first serve basis or to temporarily shut down individual network strings in overload situations," say the network experts.

Even if there are no concrete plans as yet, as in Switzerland, owners of e-cars in Germany must therefore also be prepared for the fact that they will not be able to use their vehicle in the same way as a gasoline or diesel engine if energy is once again in short supply. This is no great consolation for drivers of combustion engines, however, as fuel prices are expected to rise again soon.

--------------------

No comment. :har:

Jimbuna

12-01-22, 08:21 AM

British Gas has announced a plan to reward customers who reduce their energy usage at peak times.

The energy company said consumers could earn £4 per day for every unit they reduce.

Households with smart meters are set to receive emails in the coming days to inform them about the details of the scheme.

It is hoped that the flexibility scheme could attract 100,000 customers who could take measures to take pressure off the grid.

Chris O’Shea, Centrica Group Chief Executive, said: “The electricity grid is facing increased pressure and smart technology plays a key role in managing a peak demand – reducing consumption has the added benefit of helping consumers save on their energy bills.”

In the last couple of weeks, many suppliers, including Octopus, E.ON, Shell Energy and OVO, joined National Grid’s Demand Flexibility Service.

Skybird

12-01-22, 10:04 AM

Deutsche Welle (German edition)
------------------------------------

Asians compete with Europe for liquefied natural gas from Qatar

China does not mind long-term supply contracts for the import of climate-damaging natural gas. That's why it made a move on Qatar, which prefers just such contracts.

In the search for secure energy supplies in uncertain times, liquefied natural gas (LNG) is becoming increasingly interesting for many buyers. Especially for European consumers, who are painfully aware of their dependence on pipelines from Russia and want to become independent of it. But China is also betting on LNG: State-owned Qatar Energy announced the signing of a long-term gas supply contract with China. The emirate will supply four million tons of liquefied natural gas annually to the People's Republic. The contract runs for 27 years and is based on a so-called "ex-ship basis." This means that Qatar Energy will handle the shipping and delivery of the liquefied gas.

In addition, the Chinese group Sinopec is to take a share in the southern part of the North Field natural gas deposit. Western energy companies Shell, TotalEnergies and ConocoPhillips so far hold a 25 percent share in it.

Germany wants to end its dependence on Russia by importing LNG, among other things, and is expanding its LNG infrastructure at a rapid pace. Qatar is being discussed as a major supplier to export LNG. German Economics Minister Robert Habeck had already traveled to Qatar in March and agreed on an "energy partnership" with the emirate. However, a concrete agreement on the supply of LNG has not yet been reached. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz now said in an interview with Focus magazine that German companies are in Qatar "in very concrete talks, which I could tell you more about than I will." That the planned LNG deal had not worked out "is not so true," Scholz said, according to dpa.

China, in any case, got its way. In the deal with Qatar, Beijing followed a simple principle, said Johann Fuhrmann, head of the Beijing office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. "China does what benefits China, and if it hurts the Europeans, it accepts that."

In fact, the deal is very attractive from Beijing's perspective, Fuhrmann said. Until now, China has imported most of its liquefied natural gas from the United States and Australia, he said. "Now you can diversify these imports." This also makes the country less dependent on imports from Russia, he said. All of this, he said, is also happening against the backdrop of last summer's major drought, during which there were enormous power outages. "That's another reason why Beijing is naturally focusing on getting energy from other sources."

For Qatar, the contract terms would have played a role first and foremost, Fuhrmann says. He points out that Germany had only wanted to sign a contract for a maximum of five years. "The Qataris probably didn't see that as a worthwhile deal. After all, they have to expand the tanker fleet and gas production, as well as invest further in liquefaction technology. That would cost Qatar around $45 billion. That's why they prefer to rely on long-term partnerships."

And it is precisely these that Germany and other European countries do not want to enter into, says energy expert Heiko Lohmann, editor-in-chief of the trade magazine "energate Gasmarkt." It is true that Qatar will significantly expand production from 2026 onward. However, exports would mainly go to Asia. "The fundamental problem is that in Europe, unlike in China, people don't want to buy gas over a 27-year period. Because most politicians are absolutely correct ["Absolutely correct? They'll be surprised."; Skybird] in assuming that gas has no future over such a long period."

But Lohmann adds something else: Qatar wants to give its buyers as little flexibility as possible. "That creates an additional problem. Because if the Europeans sign a contract for 20 years, but only use gas for 15 years, they would like to sell the rest elsewhere if possible. But if the terms of the contract make that difficult, then of course it's even more difficult for buyers to enter into such contracts."

Indeed, the market for LNG is likely to be tight in the future. The Japanese Ministry of Trade, for example, warned recently that global competition for liquefied natural gas will intensify over the next three years. The main reason for this is that too little is being invested in supply. Long-term LNG contracts starting before 2026 are already sold out, according to the Commerce Department.

For importers, this means that they have to rely more on the so-called spot market, where the price is determined via trading platforms and is therefore correspondingly volatile. On the spot market, LNG is currently traded at almost three times the price of long-term contracts. According to the International Group of LNG Importers, around 30 percent of all LNG deliveries were made on the spot market last year.

According to financial services group SP GLOBAL, Europe (including the UK and Turkey) imported nearly 95 million tons of LNG during the first three quarters of the current year. This represented just under a third of global LNG imports, compared with just under a fifth in the same period last year. At the same time, Europe's share of spot trading also increased. Europe has a one-third share in this trade. In the previous year, this share was just under 13 percent.

At present, however, the supply situation in Europe is stable, says Heiko Lohmann. This is because the storage facilities are very full and, in addition, it is very warm for the time of year and consumption has fallen significantly, the supply situation is quite good, he says. "If it doesn't get very cold in the winter and the LNG supply doesn't decrease significantly because Asian companies increase their purchases significantly and Europe doesn't want to keep up with that, the supply should work reasonably in the coming winter." The fact that the situation is comparatively relaxed, however, does not mean that the price situation is as well. This can be extremely burdensome for consumers.
-------------------------

Skybird

12-01-22, 10:13 AM

Got the second raise for electric power this year today, from 32 to 39 cent/KWh today.

Before all this began I paid some low 20s. Including all other according raises (most components for electric energy prices are political fees over here) costs short of doubled this year.

In many cities and many individiual cases, the cost raises are much, much higher.

There will be more such raises in the future.

I can afford it, but I am angry at the politicians, for principle reasons. They wallow in their incompetence and reality denial and powerpolitical intrigues, and people like me must pay for their criminal failures. May they be found by fate and given what they deserve. Won't be a pretty sight to see.

Jimbuna

12-01-22, 11:01 AM

The next energy price rise in the UK will be next month.

Like yourself, I can afford it but it still angers me to know that a great many can't through no fault of their own.

Jimbuna

12-04-22, 11:40 AM

Putin's terrifying warning to West as Russia vows to send energy prices soaring again

Moscow has vowed to respond to the West after it floated slapping a price cap on Russian oil, sparking fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin will slash more exports to Europe and send prices soaring further. Amid the war in Ukraine, Europe has been scrambling to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels in a bid to slash the Kremlin's revenue and hamstring its war efforts. But the EU still relies on Russian gas, while several landlocked countries within the bloc are still in need of large volumes of Russian oil sent via pipelines.

Russia's stranglehold on European energy supplies has already proved to be a problem globally, with his invasion of Ukraine triggering supply chain constraints, and in combination with his gas cuts to Europe, the Russian President has energy prices soaring, triggering a global crisis.

Now, the West is seeking to cut off more cash from Putin by implementing a price cap on his oil exports. This has sparked fury in Moscow, which has dubbed the measure a "dangerous" move that it is figuring out how to respond to.

Russian state news agency TASS reported on that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had already prepared Friday's price cap announcement by the G-7, the EU and Australia.

On Saturday, the Kremlin said a price cap was the "wrong move". Mr Peskov was quoted by RIA saying that "we will not accept this cap" and he warned that Moscow would complete a rapid analysis of the agreement before working out how to respond.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Moscow's ambassador to international organisations in Vienna, said Europe can forget about receiving anymore oil from Russia, despite EU sanctions exempting the most reliant EU nations like Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic from the bloc's Russian oil ban.

Mr Ulyanov tweeted: "Starting from this year Europe will live without Russian oil. Moscow has already made it clear that it will NOT supply oil to those countries who support anti-market price cap. Very soon the EU will blame Russia for using oil as a weapon."

The proposed G7 price cap is set to let non-EU countries to keep on importing seaborne Russian crude oil. Howeer, it will ban shipping, insurance and re-insurance companies from handling cargoes of Russian crude globally, unless it is sold for under $60 (£48).

There are fears that this could complicate the shipment of Russian crude that is more expensive than the determined cap, and possibly to countries that are not part of the agreement.

Russia's embassy in the US has said the cap is a "dangerous" move by the West and won't stop Moscow from finding buyers for its oil.

In comments published on Telegram, the embassy wrote: "Steps like these will inevitably result in increasing uncertainty and imposing higher costs for raw materials' consumers.

"Regardless of the current flirtations with the dangerous and illegitimate instrument, we are confident that Russian oil will continue to be in demand."

However, the EU has already been coping with far fewer Russian oil supplies amid the invasion of Ukraine. Before the war, in 2021, more than half of Russia's oil exports were sent to Europe, according to the International Energy Association. In the bloc, Germany was the main importer, with the Netherlands second and Poland third.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/style/qatari-fans-caught-ogling-world-cup-2022-s-sexiest-fan-despite-disapproval-claims/ar-AA14TtJN?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=27eb33f342574fde98bebb4c155174c1

Skybird

12-04-22, 05:55 PM

The chance that this ^will backfire right ionto the Europeans' faces, is indeed very high. For once I have to agree with the German and a few other governments who wanted to prevent this move.

See here: https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2840826&postcount=8555

Skybird

12-06-22, 06:24 PM

Mineral oil companies were not interested in supplying gasoline to Hungary at prices below market value. Many gas stations ran out of gasoline, and queues formed in front of the pumps. Now the state price cap has been lifted in Hungary.

As sign to take note of: regarding the 60 Dollar cap on Russian oil. :03:

Jimbuna

12-07-22, 06:27 AM

On a personal note: Notified by my energy supplier yesterday that my monthly bill will increase on 1st January from £163 to £188 per month.

mapuc

12-11-22, 06:24 PM

One of the problem with producing green electricity have been storing it--They could use huge and lots of them-Batteries.
Now a breakthrough seems to be around the corner

Made from carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, the molecule is transformed into an “energy-rich isomer”, one made of the same atoms but bound in a different way, when it is hit by sunlight. The isomer can then be stored as a liquid, with the energy being used later. Much later.

https://www.iflscience.com/scientists-have-created-a-molecule-that-can-store-solar-energy-for-18-years-50494

Markus

Jimbuna

12-12-22, 06:38 AM

National Grid will not trigger power blackout prevention scheme on Tuesday

The National Grid will not implement its blackout prevention scheme on Tuesday evening after French energy suppliers said they were struggling to cope with demand.

It was announced on Monday morning that the Demand Flexibility Service (DFS), which is designed to avoid blackouts, may have been brought in for the first time to reduce expected strain on the electricity grid.

The scheme sees households, which are signed up for the initiative, paid to not use things like electric ovens, dishwashers and tumble dryers between certain hours.

It is the first line of defence in the event that peak evening demand exceeds supply over the coming winter.

The DFS has been tested twice.

The UK's power grid usually relies on imports from France over the winter months to make up any shortfalls in electricity output.

However, the French nuclear power industry, which accounts for around 75% of its usual electricity generation, is in turmoil.

More than half of the reactors run by state energy firm EDF have been closed due to maintenance and technical problems.

It is exacerbating the wider energy crisis across Europe as countries face down the colder months.

That is because the continent is without the usual volumes of gas flows from Russia because of Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Octopus Energy is by far the most active energy supplier in the DFS.

It has previously released data showing that its customers had helped reduce demand by more than 100 megawatts during both tests.

Other options available to National Grid for power rationing include asking non-critical factories to shut down.

In the most severe circumstances, planned three-hour rolling blackouts could be imposed if gas-fired power came under pressure and other means of generation failed to make up the balance.

National Grid's Electricity System Operator (ESO) said last month that such a scenario was "unlikely".

Its latest report on the UK's readiness showed, under a base case scenario, that margins between peak demand and power supply were expected to be sufficient, and similar to winters of recent years thanks to secure North Sea gas supplies, imports via Norway and by ship.
https://news.sky.com/story/national-grid-will-not-trigger-power-blackout-prevention-scheme-on-tuesday-12757278

mapuc

12-12-22, 12:44 PM

A Major breakthrough will be announced tomorrow

The U.S. Department of Energy and scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are expected to deliver a big announcement related to nuclear fusion. It appears that the NIF has finally created nuclear fusion ignition, producing more energy than is put in by the lasers.

https://www.iflscience.com/major-nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-might-be-announced-tomorrow-66615

Markus

Jimbuna

12-13-22, 05:50 AM

France requests electricity exports to UK are cut as Europe energy crisis deepens

France's electricity network operator RTE reportedly asked the National Grid if it could slash its scheduled exports to Britain in half between 8am and 9am this morning as it struggled to cope with surging demand amid its own power issues. The power output issues were reportedly brought on by a lethal combination of the cold weather, strikes across its nuclear sector and delayed maintenance on its fleet of ageing nuclear reactors.

France's electricity network operator put in the request to the UK as Britain also grappled with its own fears amid the cold snap, which has plunged parts of the UK into freezing sub-zero temperatures as snow fell and caused travel chaos.

Phil Hewitt, a director at EnAppSys, said: "The French market was particularly under stress today. It was always going to be in trouble because of the reduced nuclear reactor fleet, the temperature is low and there has been a big demand spike combined with low wind."

During a normal winter, Britain relies on French energy imports to help meet demand, particularly during peak hours in the early evening. But last week, the experts warned that France could suffer from an energy shortage, raising fears that the nation would have to cut its exports to the UK like it has asked to do today.

Jean-Paul Harreman, Director of EnAppSys BV, told Energy News Live: 'We have been analysing the tightness in markets quite closely over the past months. During the moderate weather, we have already highlighted the risk of a demand spike when temperatures would drop, especially in the period before Christmas, when nuclear capacity was still on its way back up.

"With recent revisions of capacity availability, we highlighted the potential of the market reaching the maximum import levels. Last year, we saw a highest import of 13GW into the French market, but this year there is more than 13GW of additional nuclear capacity offline compared to that period.

"At current demand levels, around 70GW, the available capacity, combined with interconnectors, will be sufficient to satisfy demand. If we get a very cold spell, however, demand could spike up to levels above 90GW. If that happens, there is a significant risk of the market not clearing due to a shortage of supply.

"If the interconnectors are maxed out, it doesn't matter how much surplus capacity and how much gas in storage other countries have, it can't reach the French market."

This comes after National Grid warned that the UK may fail to shore up enough energy imports from Europe this winter and may have to roll out planned blackouts in the coldest winter months to avoid full-blown power outages.

Simon Cran-McGreehin, head of analysis at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, has previously told Express.co.uk that shortages in France make blackouts in the UK "more likely".

He said: "The issues at French nuclear power stations, coupled with the potential shortages of gas for power generation on the continent, do mean that the UK is likely to have more difficulty in securing imports this winter - National Grid has included this scenario in its 'Winter Outlook', as one of the factors that would make power shortages more likely."

And today, National Grid have looked poised to roll out another backup plan amid the cold snap and prospect of slashed exports from France after it ordered two coal units at Drax's power plant in Yorkshire to be put on standby.

It has since cancelled the plan, and said that the notice "should give the public confidence in Monday's energy supply". The network operator was also still encouraging people to continue to use energy "as normal".

While France may have to slash its exports to the UK to avoid its own crisis, Dr Jeff Hardy, Senior Research Fellow at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, has said there will come a time when Britain will send the excess energy it does not need across the Channel.

He said: "Interconnection is a good thing as it diversifies our supply, enhancing electricity system resilience. France has been suffering from nuclear power outages, which has led to a tight electricity market in France. Historically, France has supplied the UK with cheap power from its nuclear fleet. Now, it needs help, which is exactly why interconnection is a good thing for European security.

"At the same time, the UK has been rapidly increasing its renewable electricity generation, particularly offshore wind. In the future, this means the UK will be a net exporter of wind power, particularly on windy days when demand is low. This means we will need more interconnectors in the future as there will be days when we need to shed power."
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/france-requests-electricity-exports-to-uk-are-cut-as-europe-energy-crisis-deepens/ar-AA15bCvb?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=253e59e9ce984f5386ba23c2e3fbc3c7

Skybird

12-13-22, 06:31 AM

strikes across its nuclear sector
Strikes...? Like in "workers on strike, refusing to work"...? Or strike like struck by unlucky events, weather?

Jimbuna

12-13-22, 07:32 AM

I'm thinking workers on strike.

Jimbuna

12-13-22, 07:39 AM

Just found this on the subject of Strikes at French nuclear plants.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/strikes-french-nuclear-plants-whats-stake-2022-10-19/

Skybird

12-14-22, 06:59 AM

With the current weather end temperature niveau we have in Germany at present, Germany consumes 1% of its gas reserves per day.

The past days have be unusually cold for first half of Decembre, compared to the last couple of years. Its been a while since I saw temperature of -8°C - even in the snow-heavy winter two years ago it stayed at around 0 in our garden.

Skybird

12-14-22, 07:01 AM

I'm thinking workers on strike.
To hold strikes in the nuclear industry in this situation they are in can only mean they have a strong sense of black humour.

Jimbuna

12-14-22, 11:37 AM

‘Europe cutting gas faster than UK’

Europe is cutting its use of gas quicker than the UK.

That’s according to research by Drax Electric Insights and Imperial College London, revealing that Germany, Italy, France and Spain are weaning off the fossil fuel faster.

Not only is the UK behind these nations, it is not even slowing its consumption, the study claims – with Britain’s demand rising in September, compared with recent years.

The UK’s gas demand between September and November was just 0.3% lower than what was considered the norm pre-energy crisis – demonstrating no change in behaviour.

Lead author of the report, Dr Iain Staffell from Imperial, said: “The UK is an outlier on the world stage, showing no signs of reducing its appetite for gas during a time of dramatically higher prices.

“If temperatures continue to drop during the festive season, managing the energy crisis will be both more difficult and expensive unless people and businesses break their addiction to gas.

He urges UK citizens to consider merely lowering their thermostat by 1°C, which would save them £200 a year on their energy bills, stop the UK from importing in 50TWh of natural gas during the winter and save up to £3 billion on the government’s Energy Price Guarantee.

Germany has imposed a ban of illuminated advertising between 10pm and 6am, as well as had its public buildings turn thermostats down to 19°C – steps the researchers hope the UK will follow.

Penny Small from Drax added: “Britain’s long-term energy security will be strengthened by ending our reliance on expensive imported fossil fuels such as gas and instead increasing investment in homegrown renewables and innovative green technologies such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage and pumped storage hydro.”

BEIS has been approached for a response.
https://www.energylivenews.com/2022/12/14/europe-cutting-gas-faster-than-uk/

Jimbuna

12-15-22, 06:27 AM

China condemns «sabotage» against Nord Stream and calls for an end to «bullying» in energy sector

Chinese authorities on Thursday condemned the "sabotage" of the Nord Stream gas pipeline that took place in September and called for an end to "bullying" in the energy sector as Russia's invasion of Ukraine progresses.

China's ambassador to Russia, Zhang Hanhui, said he "understands Russia's actions to protect its interests in the energy market internationally." "China strongly condemns any kind of sabotage actions. Such deliberate actions destroy civilian infrastructure and it is unacceptable," he has said.

"China opposes the bullying policies put in place by some countries in the sector and will never allow foreign forces to interfere in China-Russia energy cooperation," the diplomat said in statements carried by the Interfax news agency.

He also pointed out that China has become the main consumer of natural gas worldwide and indicated that it has a "great potential to increase gas imports".

"Sino-Russian energy cooperation is a cornerstone in the relationship of the two countries and a positive factor in maintaining energy security globally. These first ten months of 2022, gas supplies from Russia to China have increased by 173 percent compared to the same period last year," he explained.

In this regard, he has shown readiness to enhance cooperation and relationship between the parties to achieve "mutual benefits". "We can also intensify cooperation in all aspects of the production chain," he stressed.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/china-condemns-sabotage-against-nord-stream-and-calls-for-an-end-to-bullying-in-energy-sector/ar-AA15iOmD?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=7a4d79c5f83e4981840002df9b90d4d9

Skybird

12-15-22, 07:02 AM

^ Hungary had capped prices on car fuel.
Result was that suppliers no longer delivered car gas to Hungary, due to the prices they were allowed to take not covering their costs.
Hungary had to stop that cap after crisis broke out over lacking fuel at gas stations.

The EU is on its way to implement a price cap on gas and oil.
Russia says it will not deliver anything to anyone obeying that cap.
China says it has huge potential to buy even more Russian gas - while already being Russia's biggest customer.

Go figure.

Germany wants to do everything with 100% renewables exclusively. The Greens categorically rule out evertyhing else: gas, nuclear, fusion, everything. They want to kill fusion research, and switch off ITER. They want it the Hobbit's way. While importing these sinful energies from abroad, however. Atomic power from France (or so was hoped), coal power from Poland, fracking gas from the US. But no nuzclear powerplants in Germanb, please. No coal powerplants in Germany please. No gas fracking in Germany please.

Not a single state in the world follows the German suicide example.

Ideology before facts.

"Die spinnen, die Germanen!"

https://www.watson.ch/imgdb/6d41/Qx,B,0,0,465,310,193,129,77,51/6600931541103382

Skybird

12-16-22, 04:43 PM

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:
-----------------

The world is burning more coal than ever before

Eight billion tons - never before has mankind burned so much coal in one year. Now, for the first time, it will exceed this threshold, experts at the International Energy Agency (IEA) predict. This would break the previous consumption record set in 2013. The new IEA annual report on the coal market casts considerable doubt on whether the current crisis on the electricity and gas markets will actually become that "historic and definitive turning point" in global energy supply, as the agency had promised in October in the run-up to the World Climate Conference.

One thing is already certain, at least: This year, the turning point has failed to materialize. According to the agency's estimates, overall coal consumption will increase by 1.2 percent within the year. Although the USA probably consumed slightly less coal this year, China and, above all, India and the member countries of the European Union used this raw material much more extensively. Strong demand for coal, a particularly climate-damaging energy source, continues to fuel global warming.

Developments in China, by far the largest coal consumer (53 percent) and, together with India, also the largest coal producer, are particularly striking. In the Middle Kingdom, economic output grew at a slower rate this year than in the past due to the zero-carbon policy, which actually did not lead us to expect a sharp rise in energy demand.

However, droughts and heat waves in China had driven up electricity consumption by air-conditioning systems and hampered production by hydroelectric power plants. That fueled coal burning, IEA experts explain. In August alone, they say, coal-fired power generation in China increased by about 15 percent over the year to more than 500 terawatt-hours. "This monthly generation level is higher than the total annual coal-fired generation in all other countries except India and the United States," the energy agency points out.

In other regions, such as Europe, it was primarily the sharp rise in natural gas prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine that spurred the switch to cheaper coal, according to the IEA. The production of hydroelectric power plants, which was also curtailed here due to the drought, and the technical problems at French nuclear power plants reinforced this trend, which efforts to improve energy efficiency and expand renewable energy sources such as wind and solar plants were at best able to slow down.

In this context, Germany occupies a thoroughly inglorious special role in the ranks of those countries that have ramped up coal-fired power plants again in the face of impending gas shortages and concerns about security of supply on the electricity market. "Only in Germany" is this reactivation taking place on a significant scale, with around 10 gigawatts of capacity, the energy agency determined.

The estimates in the IEA report on how coal consumption will continue to develop leave room for interpretation. For the EU countries, the agency assumes that increased electricity generation will remain at the elevated level "for some time," but will return to a "downward path" from 2024 due to higher energy efficiency and more expanded renewables. Global coal demand will also "stabilize by 2025" - at the eight billion ton level - according to the Paris-based experts.

But they trail off with what is a key condition for this: "A lot depends on developments in China." It cannot be ruled out, they say, that the current energy crisis with all its imponderables will fuel coal consumption even further. In addition to changes in the global economy, the weather, fuel prices and political decisions by individual governments, there are many other possible "variables".
-------------------------

Catfish

12-16-22, 04:54 PM

^ and around fifty percent of coal burning is done by China.
Regardless what german greens are doing or striving for. To change the world by force you have to become a major player :03:

Skybird

12-17-22, 08:04 AM

Hans Hofmann-Reinecke studied physics in Munich and received his doctorate in nuclear physics. After that he worked in nuclear research for many years. In the 1980s he worked for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna as a Safeguards Inspector.

https://think-again.org/namibia-ein-reality-check/
-------------------------

Green Hydrogen - A reality check

Plenty of sun and steady wind

Namibia is to become the wild card in the German energy transition. Plenty of sun, steady wind and vast land call for comprehensive PV plants and wind farms. But since Namibia is far away - not 100,000 km, but around 10,000 km - transporting electricity via high-voltage lines is not feasible.

So you have to transport the energy in another form, which requires a few steps. The electricity is transformed on site by electrolysis into hydrogen H2, which is then combined with nitrogen N2 (from the air) and electrical energy (from where, I wonder?) to form ammonia NH3. This gas is liquefied under pressure (where from, I wonder?) and brought to Europe by sea.

The distance from Namibia's port of Walvis Bay to Hamburg is about 13,000 km. Such a tanker, powered by a 62,000 HP turbo diesel, makes 26 km/h once it is underway. So it takes about three weeks for the journey and burns a few liters of fuel along the way (where from, I wonder?). After its arrival, the ammonia then goes ashore, and there, at a few hundred degrees (where from, I wonder?), the hydrogen is recovered. Fuel cells then use it to generate electricity, which is fed into the grid to keep our refrigerators and televisions running. It couldn't be simpler.

Even without a supercomputer, it is obvious that after this odyssey only a small fraction of the originally generated energy reaches the consumer, supposedly 25%, maybe even less.

This concept for the German power supply is very extravagant, to put it politely. From a technical - economic - ecological point of view, it borders on madness. But there are other aspects: human.

To this end, a few words about Namibia, which I have traveled both by car and on my own wings. My summary: It is the country of gigantic distances. From A to B it is always at least 500, but mostly 1000 km.

It is a huge desert, on which a few habitable spots are distributed, where then cities arose. But there are so few of them that it is enough to say the first half of the name and everybody knows what is meant: "Swakop", "Otji" or "Walvis". The endless Atlantic coast is uninhabitable except for a few harbors, as the name "Skeleton Coast" indicates. Crews of stranded ships that managed to save themselves ashore here died of thirst instead of drowning.

The country has 823,000 km2, which is two and a half times the size of Germany, and it has as many inhabitants as Hamburg and the surrounding area. Gross domestic product per capita is $9000 compared to $51,000 for Germany. If that is a measure of economic strength, Namibia's productivity by German standards would be equivalent to a community of half a million, with 38% unemployment.

What saves the country are diamonds, gold and uranium waiting to be found in the ground. A hundred years ago, all that was needed was a spade, a water bottle, and a "Südwester. In the meantime, this has become more difficult and gigantic, expensive machines and technical know-how are required. So the whole thing has become a playing field for international corporations. De Beers takes care of the diamonds and the Guangdong Nuclear Power Group takes care of the uranium.

So far so good. It is a "win-win" situation, which is typical for developing countries.

If to these treasures of the soil now another treasure is added, which is given to the country by wind and sun - wouldn't that be wonderful?

Well, reality is not a children's book and it speaks a different language. The fact is that the whole concept of green hydrogen is grotesquely uneconomic and that it can only work through astronomical subsidies paid by the German taxpayer. But one day, the latter might realize that the wool is being pulled over his eyes. And then he will ensure a different energy policy. And then the spending on green hydrogen from Namibia's desert would be stopped.

As a result, thousands of local employees of this project would then be out of work. The windmills, solar panels, and chemical plants would rot, blighting the beautiful landscape with their junk.

So that's the key difference: mining diamonds, gold, uranium, etc. is sustainable. It will always be a - more or less - lucrative business. Green hydrogen is the opposite of sustainable. It is nothing but a senseless money-grab from the very beginning.

You may now ask if the government of Namibia doesn't see this too.

Probably they do, but their view might get a little blurry when someone is waving a check worth billions. With a gross national product of a whole 23 billion, that's already a strong argument. Bribery?

No, for God's sake, one is just as incorruptible here as in the EU Parliament or in the rest of the world, at least as long as too little is offered.
----------------------

Jimbuna

12-17-22, 01:29 PM

EU supports project of laying energy cable in Black Sea, - von der Leyen

The creation of an underwater energy cable in the Black Sea, in which Romania, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Hungary are involved, will make it possible to strengthen the energy security of the entire region, including Ukraine, and speed up the restoration of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which was destroyed during the Russian aggression.

This was stated by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in Bucharest during the signing of the framework Memorandum of Understanding on the project, Censor.NET informs with reference to the EU website.

"This agreement will bring the EU closer to our partners in the South Caucasus region, and will help both of our regions to achieve a "clean" energy connection," said von der Leyen.

Thanks to the energy cable, it will be possible to connect both coasts of the Black Sea and extend this line further to the Caspian Sea region - including interconnection in the field of digital communications and energy.

"This will increase the security of supply, and will also allow the European Union to receive energy from renewable sources through Romania and through Hungary," the President of the EC explained.

According to her, the Black Sea electric cable can bring great benefits to Georgia, turning the country into a hub for electricity transmission and integrating it into the EU energy market.

"The Black Sea electric cable will help supply electricity to our neighbors, — to Moldova and the countries of the Western Balkans, and certainly to Ukraine — it will help start the reconstruction of Ukraine's energy system and the recovery of the entire country," stressed Ursula von der Leyen.

She noted that the European Commission is currently waiting for the completion of studies on the assessment of this project, which have already begun, and is ready to support this project financially, as it meets the common interests of the EU, neighboring countries, and the entire region. Source: https://censor.net/en/n3387623

Skybird

12-18-22, 09:29 AM

:har:
nothing happened, nothing learned (nordsstream)

Ostfriese

12-18-22, 11:33 AM

The current research in nuclear fusion has exactly no chance to save anyone from the energy crisis and/or climate change. It's zero, nada, nothing, 0%.

There won't be fusion power plants at any points in the forseeable future, and it's extremely unlikely there will be even one fusion power plant before 2075, half a century from now.

Thorium-based nuclear reactors are -on paper- a suitable alternative to current uranium-based nuclear reactors, but that technology is barely in prototype-stage. If focussed on it will be available much earlier than fusion technology, but it still won't happen before the second half of the 21st century.

Jimbuna

12-18-22, 03:12 PM

:har:
nothing happened, nothing learned (nordsstream)

That thought had crossed my mind :)

Skybird

12-19-22, 06:03 AM

Official warning: in just the last couple of days already one eighth of the German gas reserves have been consumed. It cannot be affored that it continues at this pace throughout January and February.

Skybird

12-19-22, 06:12 AM

FOCUS writes:
------------------------

While Europe is becoming climate-neutral, China is relying hard on coal

In Europe, decarbonization is being driven forward. The central instrument for this is to be emissions trading. China is also focusing on renewable energies, but at the same time is investing massively in coal. The result: global CO2 emissions are rising, while local competitiveness is declining.
The links marked with a symbol or underlined are affiliate links. If a purchase is made through these links, we will receive a

In political reporting, rules prevail that would seem absurd to us in soccer reporting. Lovingly one describes the play of the own team. The attacking waves and even the goal shots of the opponent are not given a glance.

Which brings us to the Brussels correspondents and the results of the EU climate summit. They are being hailed this morning as a breakthrough into a CO2-free future, without relating them to the attacking game of the People's Republic of China.

The fact is: After two days of negotiations, European negotiators agreed to accelerate the decarbonization of European industry.

https://p6.focus.de/img/fotos/id_180710903/steingart1.jpg?im=Resize%3D%28630%2C767%29&impolicy=perceptual&quality=medium&hash=f5cf5e7f5fc6780a5a0574ae4268411d3ef70d5afbc1a ef1e91bd73fa3a72e53

Emissions trading to bring climate neutrality to Europe

1 Emissions trading is the key instrument for making Europe climate-neutral by 2050. In the future, a certificate must be purchased for every ton of CO2 produced. The number of certificates issued decreases from year to year, which is why their price is rising.

https://p6.focus.de/img/fotos/id_180711200/steingart3.jpg?im=Resize%3D%28630%2C928%29&impolicy=perceptual&quality=medium&hash=bfb38aa124bba89aed4d5f19b32deeb1b26807cdff492 f7c633267ec4eb8c20c

The grace period for the European export industry is coming to an end. In the future, there will be no more free certificates for production shipped abroad. The steel industry and the mechanical and plant engineering sector are likely to suffer. 3.

It is true that CO2 sinners from other continents will also have to pay for their sins, in the form of CO2 penalties at the national border. However, this CO2 border tax will not be in place until January 2026. The IT systems would first have to be converted, according to Brussels.

Which brings us to the opposing team's game. The world's second-largest economy, which will soon be number one, is moving at a completely different, much more leisurely pace.

https://p6.focus.de/img/fotos/id_180711201/steingart4.jpg?im=Resize%3D%28630%2C1166%29&impolicy=perceptual&quality=medium&hash=0d175670de143193353ea60133c40d29fc72ec5c0ae8f b47df1b9d710811e30a

In China, economic growth takes precedence over CO2 reduction

The People's Republic of China is also investing heavily in electromobility and in power generation from the sun and wind. But, and this is the crucial difference, economic growth continues to take precedence over CO2 reduction. "Actively and prudently" they will work toward climate neutrality, said CP General Secretary Xi at the start of the party congress. The word prudent is the cipher for slow.

https://p6.focus.de/img/fotos/id_180711210/stingart5.jpg?im=Resize%3D%28630%2C850%29&impolicy=perceptual&quality=medium&hash=52c16ac14ba0f03c38df99f639d5dd9c7ff4a05cbbf80 7ee35ade17a23696ff7

At the party congress, the intention to drive coal mining and coal-fired power generation to a new all-time high was reaffirmed with great frankness. This is the slightly different game strategy of our economic rival:

1. CO2 emissions in China will continue to increase year after year through the end of the decade, according to the plan. Overall, CO2 emissions will rise by nearly 300 million tons this year to 33.8 billion tons. China thus remains the world's largest coal consumer.

China relies on coal and Africa

2. energy security is at the center of all thinking, in order to be able to fulfill the promise of growth and prosperity for the billion-strong nation. After last fall's power shortage, China has relaxed the rules and several parts of the country are pushing ahead with the approval and construction of new coal-fired power plants. That's according to energy expert Yan Qin of the economic analysis firm Refinitiv in Norway.

https://p6.focus.de/img/fotos/id_180711211/steingart6.jpg?im=Resize%3D%28630%2C824%29&impolicy=perceptual&quality=medium&hash=0c1354393b802edbdcbccc6e362c6a131b03cffa065b8 42da15a0cc6a0d0d813

3 We are also seeing a double game in China's Africa policy. The largest financier of coal production in Africa to date has just made a promise that the state will no longer invest in the coal industry there. However, there is still no clarification of what this means for Chinese-African technology transfer, private financing and the continuation of the billion-euro programs already promised to expand coal production.

https://p6.focus.de/img/fotos/id_180711215/steingart7.jpg?im=Resize%3D%28630%2C790%29&impolicy=perceptual&quality=medium&hash=53eebf904fe517f9865f8f0b4147088a681237651d7e9 e1c8eca4c8814d60a45

Conclusion: The different play of the European and Chinese teams leads to an outcome that Europe cannot want in this way. Global CO2 emissions are rising, while local competitiveness is falling. Many of today's still active family entrepreneurs may soon belong to the "Last Generation". Europe is going green and China is going strong.

--------------------------

Jimbuna

12-24-22, 08:25 AM

Putin forced to slash oil output by half a million barrels a day

Russia is preparing to cut its oil output by tens of millions of barrels per month in response to a Western price cap that threatens the Kremlin’s revenues.

Alexander Novak, deputy prime minister, said oil output could be reduced by 5pc-7pc per day in response to price caps imposed by the West.

Mr Novak told state television the cuts could reach 500,000-700,000 barrels per day, which is a fraction of global supply but would nonetheless add pressure on a tight oil market.

The move threatens to drive oil prices higher, adding to cost of living pressures across the West.

As well as punishing its enemies, higher oil prices would allow Moscow to demand more money from buyers such as China and India who are snapping up Russian oil.

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, is expected to issue a decree early next week responding to the Western policy, which uses financial muscle to impose a maximum price of $60 [£50] per barrel on Russian oil exports.

The cap has been designed to lower the money the Kremlin can make from oil, which helps fund its war against Ukraine. However, it does not prevent Russian oil from flowing, given its importance to the market. Russia accounts for about 10pc of global production.

Russian oil was trading at a heavily discounted price even before the price cap, with Urals oil blend averaging $57.49 per barrel between November 15 and December 14, below the price cap and $20-$30 cheaper than Brent Crude.

Nathan Piper, head of oil and gas at Investec, said: “What they’re trying to do is to manipulate the market, perhaps to push the price up, so that even if there is a price gap they are able to achieve a higher oil price themselves.

“It’s a 100m-barrel-per-day market, but the amount of spare capacity is only 2-3 million barrels a day. So threatening to cut half a million barrels is not nothing; they’re trying to influence what is already quite a tight market.”

India and China have ramped up their purchases of Russian oil this year as Western buyers have turned their backs on the market. India bought on average just under one million barrels per day from Russia between September and November, according to Alan Gelder, oil market expert at Wood Mackenzie. Purchases before the war were negligible.

Mr Gelder said the cuts signalled by Russia were lower than what markets had feared, while traders were focused on what would happen to Chinese demand as Covid rules are relaxed, helping the economy to re-open but driving a surge in infections.

Brent crude rose 1.7pc by 11am UK time on Friday, to $82.38 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate rose to $78.98 a barrel, up nearly 2pc.

It means oil prices are now at similar levels to the start of the year, having hit highs of almost $128 per barrel in March.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/putin-forced-to-slash-oil-output-by-half-a-million-barrels-a-day/ar-AA15BysG?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=427682d165274c248624aa03ca9346f0

Skybird

12-27-22, 07:43 AM

Achse des Guten writes:
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EU emissions trading does not stop at homes either

The new EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS II) affects not only companies, but all citizens. They will be required to implement cost-intensive energy efficiency measures such as home insulation, heat pumps, solar panels and electric mobility in order to achieve climate targets.

On December 19 of this year, the European Parliament issued a press release titled "Climate action: agreement on more ambitious EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)." The corresponding press conference, which lasted about an hour, was recorded and can be viewed in full here. Explaining the initial situation, the release states:

"The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is the centerpiece of European climate policy and key to the EU's climate neutrality. It sets a price for greenhouse gas emissions, leading to significantly lower EU emissions. Industry is incentivized to reduce emissions and invest in climate-friendly technologies."

Now, however, the Parliament and Council agreed to reform the ETS, which entered into force in 2005, and increased their ambitions: Emissions in the ETS sectors are to be reduced by 62 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. That is one percentage point more than the Commission proposed, they said. That's why free emission allowances for companies are to be phased out from 2026 and completely abolished from 2034. According to the Federal Environment Agency, the ETS covers emissions from around 10,000 plants in the energy sector and energy-intensive industry across Europe, which together account for around 36 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe.

Homeowners face high costs

Since 2012, intra-European air traffic has also been included in the EU ETS. The system works on the principle of "cap & trade": a ceiling (cap) determines how many greenhouse gas emissions may be emitted in total by the covered installations. The member states issue a corresponding quantity of emission allowances (certificates) - some free of charge, some auctioned - and companies must submit a valid certificate for each ton of CO2 emitted. The certificates can be freely traded on the market (trade), which creates a price for the emission of greenhouse gases and creates incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Already on December 13, a preliminary agreement was reached in the EU Parliament to prevent the shift of CO2 emissions to non-EU countries in order to compensate for competitive disadvantages for EU industry. In addition, a second new emissions trading scheme (ETS II) for CO2 emissions from road transport and buildings is now to be introduced in 2027. The press release says: "Should energy prices be exceptionally high, ETS II can be postponed until 2028 to protect citizens* from excessive costs."

In other words, by 2028 at the latest, the decisions now made regarding fuels used in road transport or for heating will have a massive impact on consumers. Whether the "climate social fund" that is also planned, which is to provide support for investments in energy efficiency measures such as home insulation, heat pumps, solar cells and electric mobility, will be enough to protect citizens and small businesses is written in the stars. And then what about those who can't afford the expensive retrofits to their homes, for example? Will they have to sell their home?

Not intentions or ambitions, but obligations

The "green transition" is to be financed, among other things, by increasing the Innovation Fund, one of the world's largest financing programs for low-carbon technologies, from the current 450 to 575 million allowances. And for background on the ETS reform, it states, "The ETS is part of the 'Fit for 55 in 2030' package, which aims to reduce the EU's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent from 1990 levels by 2030, in line with European climate law." The "Fit for 55 package" was launched in July 2021 and is designed to accelerate the implementation of the European Green Deal.

According to the EU Commission, we are the last generation that can still take action against climate change in time, which is why a transformative change in our economy, society and industry must be brought about. These are no longer mere intentions or ambitions, but commitments based on the first European Climate Change Act. The "Fit for 55" package will also strengthen the EU's global leadership role as an actor and role model in the fight against climate change.

Impoverishment of EU citizens is accepted

When everything is at stake and, above all, when the EU's role model function is at stake, of course any means are justified. Whether EU citizens are impoverished by the transformation because they cannot bear the costs of the Green Deal-compliant building renovations or the traffic turnaround should then consequently also not play a role. On the EU climate bill, a June 24, 2021 EU Parliament press release notes, "Parliament approved the climate bill, which was informally agreed with member states in April, by 442 votes to 203, with 51 abstentions. It turns the EU's political promise - the European Green Deal - to become climate neutral by 2050 into a binding commitment and provides citizens and businesses with the legal certainty and predictability to be ready for the change ahead. After 2050, the EU should achieve negative emissions." And, "The Commission will present a proposal for a Union-wide climate target for 2040 no later than six months after the first global stocktake in 2023, in line with the Paris Agreement.

In line with the Parliament's proposal, the Commission will publish the maximum amount of greenhouse gas emissions that the EU is estimated to be able to emit by 2050 without jeopardizing the Union's commitments under the Paris Agreement. This so-called 'greenhouse gas budget' will be one of the criteria for setting the EU's revised 2040 target." Back in November 2019, the European Parliament declared a climate emergency and called on the Commission to ensure that all relevant legislative and budgetary proposals are fully consistent with the goal of limiting global warming to below 1.5°C.

Against this future scenario, initially trivial news from around the world no longer seems so harmless: for example, Mastercard offers a CO2 calculator that can be used to track and thus reduce one's own carbon footprint. The CO2 calculator shows approximately how much CO2 is consumed in individual purchases, from which the CO2 footprint is then calculated on a monthly basis. The use of such a card is still voluntary, but wouldn't it be very practical if all consumers could be educated to be climate neutral by means of such cards?

Everything revolves around climate targets

And what's the deal with the September 2022 "Oxford Local Plan 2040," which places great emphasis on the 15-minute city concept? While the concept of having all daily necessities within 15 minutes walking or biking distance sounds appealing at first, the planned "traffic filters" could be costly for road users who want to continue using their cars.

A Dec. 7 announcement from the city of Oxford states that traffic cameras capable of reading license plates will be installed on a trial basis starting in 2024. Now, if a vehicle passes the filter at certain times of the day, the camera will read the license plate and, unless an exemption is granted, a fine notice will be sent by mail. Residents of Oxford and some surrounding villages can apply for a permit to drive through the filters for up to 100 days a year; residents of the rest of Oxfordshire can do so for up to 25 days a year. It's a good thing that people have already practiced being on the road as little as possible during the Corona Lockdowns.

In Berlin, too, according to the December 20 edition of the Tagesspiegel, the Mobility Act is to be amended to provide "less parking space for motor vehicles" as well as "less space for moving traffic" and to control the amount of cars by "inflow metering." Everywhere you look: At the UN, EU, country and regional levels, everything revolves around the climate targets formulated in Agenda 2030 and the Green Deal. However, the crucial question of whether the measurable data on climate change actually justify the all-encompassing transformation of the economy and society to achieve these targets, which are set as absolute, is being ignored.
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The goal of the communist world revolution - the destruction of the hated bourgeois order - is finally within reach! Miserable people of all countries - unite and impoverish yourselves!

Too bad that China, India, and many other Asian and African countries do not want to participate in the European self-mutilation.

This collective madness is what you get when you raise whole generations in lack of knowledge of economic fundamentals and interrelationships, and replace reason, logic and common sense with ideological fanatism and highly biased corrupted science.

Jimbuna

12-29-22, 06:44 AM

FTSE lower as European natural gas prices fall to pre-Ukraine war levels

European stock markets tumbled into the red on Thursday as natural gas prices dropped back to their levels before the Ukraine war.

In London, the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) fell 0.6% after opening, while the CAC (^FCHI) tumbled 0.5% in Paris, and the DAX (^GDAXI) was 0.3% lower in Frankfurt.

The month-ahead European gas future contract fell as low as €76.78 per megawatt hour, its lowest level in 10 months, according to Refinitiv data.

This is thanks to warmer-than-normal temperatures this winter, and consumption reduction targets.

UK gas prices have also declined from their highs earlier this year. The day-ahead gas price closed at 155p per therm on Wednesday, compared with 200p/therm at the start of 2022, and over 500p/therm in August.

LaToya Harding·Business Reporter, Yahoo Finance UK
Thu, 29 December 2022 at 9:05 am GMT·3-min read
Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline. The FTSE was in the red on Thursday
The FTSE was down as natural gas prices dropped back to their levels before the Ukraine war. Photo: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber
European stock markets tumbled into the red on Thursday as natural gas prices dropped back to their levels before the Ukraine war.

In London, the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) fell 0.6% after opening, while the CAC (^FCHI) tumbled 0.5% in Paris, and the DAX (^GDAXI) was 0.3% lower in Frankfurt.

The month-ahead European gas future contract fell as low as €76.78 per megawatt hour, its lowest level in 10 months, according to Refinitiv data.

This is thanks to warmer-than-normal temperatures this winter, and consumption reduction targets.

UK gas prices have also declined from their highs earlier this year. The day-ahead gas price closed at 155p per therm on Wednesday, compared with 200p/therm at the start of 2022, and over 500p/therm in August.

Watch: Why did gas prices rise?

It comes as industrial action is continuing across Britain today, with the new head of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) warning that further strikes lie ahead in 2023, unless it enters negotiations over pay rises.

Incoming general secretary Paul Nowak said “we must end Britain’s living standards nightmare” – which has been fuelled by higher energy costs – and is also accusing ministers of “sabotaging efforts to reach settlements”.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/ftse-lower-european-natural-gas-prices-fall-to-pre-ukraine-war-levels-090549135.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJPr-QZLunmfKxGwzxcpIRRS8kep7GJIhhjNO8u1UTdSvIr6VQw36Op S8vS2ESpXuXgzR8J2F9Hi-hp3eyWfo0572b0vd9FFKm7bMCmHYVBS0fLLT6RXkdvipgoyNss ql43MsKSZuG6W1EmEqjsdtYym4iXgxWLGgjDYTChMaGDV

Jimbuna

12-29-22, 01:24 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHGSSpuR_FM

Skybird

12-29-22, 06:00 PM

Gas prices ma yreahc old levels in the charts, but not in reality for consumers. Not evenclose to it.

The germans have ordered gas like crazy ( allowing overpriced offerings being accepted, costing Germany additional billions of coins), and that caused a temporary over-supply in Europe where LNG tankers are parked in lines to get onloaded. That will not stay that way. Also, the reserves in Germany are currently quite high, the weather is warm, the demand is lower than usual at this time of the year.

Once these factors change again, prices will soar again. So, the prices in the charts are more or less meaningless for private customers in Germany at least, and they are no lasting trend, but a temporary snapshot. Prices will stay hiogher then before 2022, becasu of much higher dependeciy on LNG gas. And LNG gas simply always was much more expensive than pipeline gas.

Also, the price gets artificially blown up every damn year, due to ideological command and according price schemes. The Greens and their auxiliaries want the costs to soar higher and higher every year, and thast what the eU has decided for,.

Jimbuna

12-30-22, 07:43 AM

Oil prices settle lower as surprise build in U.S. stockpiles, China worries weigh

Investing.com – U.S. crude oil settled lower Thursday, as a surprise build in U.S. weekly crude stockpiles and ongoing worries about the demand outlook amid surging cases in China weighed.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude futures fell $0.56 to settle at $78.40 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent fell $0.53 to settle at $83.46 a barrel.

Inventories of U.S. crude increased by 718,000 barrels for the week ended Dec. 23, confounding expectations for a draw of 1.5 million barrels, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Gasoline inventories unexpectedly fell by 3.1M barrels, the largest draw since September, topping expectations for a build of 520,000 barrels, while supplies of distillate -- the class of fuels that includes diesel and heating oil – rose by 282,000, missing expectations for a decrease of 2.05M barrels.

The mixed petroleum data from the EIA comes as some countries are about to impose new travel restrictions for travelers from China, cooling some of the optimism that had followed the easing of COVID restrictions earlier this month. Several countries including the U.S., Italy, and Japan, imposed mandatory tests on visitors from China.

Demand, however, is expected to receive a lift from the Biden Administration's efforts to buy crude early next year to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Efforts to replenish the strategic petroleum reserves "should be supportive for the market and could have put a bit of a floor in place," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA.

Goldman Sachs, citing the recent selloff in commodity prices, cut its price target on Brent crude in 2023 to $90/bbl from $110/bbl previously, though added that it remains constructive on oil prices in the near term.

"For oil prices, we remain constructive on oil prices in the near term given the potential for improving China demand, and lower supply growth from US shale due to discipline/tight service markets, and OPEC+ quota reduction," Goldman Sachs said.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/oil-prices-settle-lower-as-surprise-build-in-u-s-stockpiles-china-worries-weigh/ar-AA15Naht?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=b554698a477e48d5b9ce2a0a3f0b9a1e

Jimbuna

12-31-22, 06:42 AM

Putin's blackmail backfires as EU gas prices plummet to pre-Ukraine war levels

Gas prices in Europe have dropped to levels that have not been since before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine back in mid-February 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine and his supply cuts to Europe have sent prices soaring over the last 10 months, sparking a global energy crisis which has had a huge knock-on impact on billpayers across the continent, including the UK.

But even though Russia is hardly sending any gas at all to Europe at present (it supplied 40 percent of Europe's gas before the war), warmer weather across the continent has appeared to ease prices, calming fears of suspected shortages.

The European gas contract for the month ahead dropped to €76.78 (£68.07) per megawatt hour on Wednesday, the lowest price seen in over 10 months. before closing at a higher price of €83.70 (£74.20), according to the data company Refinitiv.

However, while prices may have dropped, this is not expected to lower household energy bills any time soon. This is despite the fact that rising gas prices are much to blame for bills costing double the amount they were last year on average.

Dr Anna Valero, a Senior Policy Fellow at the LSE's Centre for Economic Performance, told Express.co.uk: "My understanding is that the prices dropped due to lower demand (due to mild weather and demand management in EU countries) - but this is not expected to result in much cheaper energy bills for the foreseeable future as gas prices are expected to remain high over the coming year - the UK still relies on gas imports.

"Suppliers buy energy in advance, and Ofgem (the Government's energy regulator) determines the cost of buying energy from the market by tracking wholesale prices ahead of the next price cap. The price cap is set to rise to £4,279 in Jan 2023, though the energy price guarantee (EPG) protects households (typical household bill not expected to exceed £2500 until April 2023). The next quarterly price cap update will be on 27 February 2023."

According to Livia Gallarati, a Senior Analyst at Energy Asepcts, European gas prices have fallen sharply over the last few months due to a "lucky combination of factors".

She told DW News that these include "unseasonably mild weather, limited competition from China, which helped Europe build stocks and therefore dragged prices lower."

But she warned that now is not the time to get complacent, as prices may not stay this low forever. Ms Gallarati added: "There are a lot of factors that could lead to tight markets next winter in particular. That might mean prices could rise back up again.

"For example, China is coming back to the market with the Covid situation easing over there. Industrial demand could be coming back in Europe now that prices are a little bit lower. We can't rule out a cold spell in the winter in the next couple of months and also Europe will need to balance next winter with a lot less Russian gas than it ever did before.

All of this could mean we are facing a very hard situation and even in the longer term we need to consider what high prices are going to do to European industry, which is something will continue to face for many years to come."

This comes as Europe awaits several months of high domestic heating demand as the depths of winter is still yet to hit. While some industry bosses have warned over energy shortages in the coming months, they also fear this problem will not go away next winter either.

Meanwhile, in the UK, gas prices have also plunged back from their highs that were seen earlier this year. The day-ahead gas price ended at 155p per therm on Wednesday, compared with 200p/therm at the beginning of 2022, and over 500p/therm in August.

Despite this, bills remain high and are set to increase in April when Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's energy price guarantee increases. Dr Vallero warned: "In terms of household gas bills - a relatively high share of UK homes are heated using gas boilers (versus other European countries) - plus our homes are less energy efficient which means that we need to consume more of it.

"In April, the energy price guarantee (EPG) is set to become less generous, meaning that the level that the typical household bill will not exceed will go from £2500 to £3000 (with further support for some of the most vulnerable)."
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/putin-s-blackmail-backfires-as-eu-gas-prices-plummet-to-pre-ukraine-war-levels/ar-AA15OQs9?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=5071caff099d4895895efb9ff3b861d2

Jimbuna

12-31-22, 07:02 AM

Energy giant takes EU to court in furious backlash over 'counter-productive' tax

AUS energy giant is attempting to sue the EU in an effort to avoid a new windfall tax that is being slapped down on oil companies. ExxonMobil has lashed out at the bloc for introducing the "counter-productive" measure after it was ordered to pay a "crisis contribution" on its increased profits. Amid Europe's crippling energy crisis, major firms have seen their profits soar due to the surging increases in wholesale gas and electricity costs sparked largely by Russia's war in Ukraine and supply cuts to the continent.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called for firms raking in tonnes more cash for their oil and gas sales - even though they are not responsible for jumping prices - to be taxed on these extra profits. This measure can also be referred to as a windfall tax.

But Exxonmobil, which took home a staggering quarterly profit of almost $20 billion (£17.3 billion) in October, argues that a windfall tax would discourage investment. The major energy firm is not alone in its opposition to this measure, as other oil and gas giants have joined Exxonmobil in a furious backlash to the crackdown.

It comes after the bloc introduced a 33 percent tax on this year's profits. Profits were more than 20 percent higher than the average for the three previous years.

Exxonmobil spokesperson Casey Norton told Reuters: "Whether we invest here primarily depends on how attractive and globally competitive Europe will be."

The lawsuit - filed through subsidiaries in Germany and the Netherlands - claims the measure should not be allowed as it is a tax, a right reserved for national Governments only.

It also contests the use of the EU Treaty's Article 122, an emergency procedure that excludes the European Parliament, to slap down this kind of legislation.

Mr Norton told Politico in an email: "This litigation is driven by our concern about the unintended long-term effects of this policy on the competitiveness of European industry.

"This tax will undermine investor confidence, discourage investment, and increase reliance on imported energy and fuel products."

But European Commission spokesperson Arianna Podestà has argued that the EU is well within its right to enact such a measure.

She wrote that "the Commission maintains that the measures in question are fully compliant with EU law", adding that the measure is intended to "ensure the whole energy sector pays its fair share in these difficult times for many to address the extraordinary energy crisis resulting from the weaponisation of the energy supply by Russia".

It comes after billpayers across Europe have seen their bills rise astronomically while energy firms take home billions in extra profits.

Mr Norton said: "We recognize that the energy crisis in Europe is weighing heavily on families and businesses, and we've been working to increase energy supplies to Europe. Our challenge is targeted only at the counter-productive windfall profits tax, and not any other elements of the package to reduce energy prices."

It comes as the EU scrambles to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels to deprive the Kremlin of a huge source of revenue amid the war in Ukraine.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/energy-giant-takes-eu-to-court-in-furious-backlash-over-counter-productive-tax/ar-AA15Mgaq?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=3a145d4bf93843688435baae48e12ce3

Skybird

12-31-22, 07:19 AM

For me, the rising prices for consumers reflect the rising selling prices by the producers, and the legitimicy of their complained-about high profit stands and falls with whether they have risen costs for producing or buying the energy they sell to consumers or not. The anser to this quesiton is the decisve criterion.

I expcect to see more complaints by the EU about the profit-hungry industry in the imminent years - to distract from that the EU drives a policy that wants certain prices to soar hiogh, and pushes them upwards intentionally, or simpyl accepts that its actrions doirves prices upwards. The eU is not the ionnocent lamb in this. Its busy in making Eurpopoe econiomical unc ompetitive while trying to turn things such ways that the eU will not be accused of this, but the evil industry.

Fairness demands to mention that especially the oil industry has done its best in recent decades to hide and supress certain unwanted information on the consequences of using fossile fuels, and has done its share to slow down or prevent research on alternatives. So, the industry is no innocent lamb either.

Anyway, Europe with its moralising becomes more impotent, and Asia and America become stronger. And sinc ein our modern and insuitrilaised world you cannot become gtreener without newly inveted modenr tehcnology, I have seriuosu douzbts on that Europe at least will turn greener for sure. The current crisis shows us exactly the opposite happening, and the German incantations of salvation through renewables (which can only materialise by rewriting the laws of physics first) no longer even elicits a sardonic smile from me, but only a bored expression.

Jimbuna

01-01-23, 07:04 AM

Putin kickstarts de-industrialisation of Europe's factories

In Germany’s western industrial heartlands is BASF’s main Ludwigshafen facility, a sprawling complex that guzzles roughly as much gas as the whole of Switzerland.

Like many manufacturing giants, the chemicals maker has found that Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine and the new normal of high gas prices is challenging the business model the country’s industrial hubs were built on.

“These challenging framework conditions in Europe endanger the international competitiveness of European producers,” its boss Martin Brudermueller admitted in October as it unveiled permanent cost-cutting measures.

As the war drags into the winter, Europe is facing up to a future without any Russian gas. That is a problem for industrial companies who have relied on plentiful supplies of cheap gas delivered through pipelines from Russia.

Experts warn that the likes of Germany and Italy will lose out to factories elsewhere as their competitiveness is hurt, not least by the US. The business model that has been the backbone of Europe’s industrial heartlands may have been broken by the Kremlin.

Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING Germany, says there is a “competitiveness issue” that could drive a de-industrialisation in Europe.

“It’s not going to happen overnight but it’s clear the trend is there,” he says.

“We assume energy prices remain high for at least the next year and actually also going into 2024. Then we have the entire energy transition going on, which I think in the first stage will also come at higher energy prices and only once there is the shift made towards more renewables, energy prices will drop again.”

But some are optimistic that substitutes and a massive efficiency drive can offer hope after a tough transition. In addition, companies are trying to shorten supply chains and move production away from regimes that risk being caught up in geopolitical tensions, though Brzeski says this is likely to be more than offset by the de-industralisation trend.

Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg, says: “For the longer term outlook, three-five years plus, Europe is now forced to become a world leader in energy efficiency and will, in a few years, be selling top notch technology to the world on energy efficiency.”

He adds that, given the climate push, “this could actually turn into a blessing in disguise”.

If de-industralisation does take hold in Europe, Germany and Italy would pose the biggest drags on the region. German factories made up 27pc of EU industrial production in 2021 while Italian firms accounted for 16pc, followed by France on 11pc.

A survey by Germany’s Ifo Institute in October suggests that the chemicals and metals industries were among the most likely to say that they have to cut back on production if they needed to save on gas costs over the next six months.

The clothing, data processing and paper sectors were most likely to say they could save on gas without reducing output, hinting at the sectors most and least vulnerable in any shift.

Claus Vistesen, eurozone economist at Pantheon Macro, says: “In a way, European industry is looking in a slightly better position than we might have feared when we looked at the very, very severe disruptions earlier this year when gas prices spiked.

“So far European industry has been quite good at adapting and I think that’s good news as far as the initial judgement of those long-term challenges.”

He adds that the companies that are most reliant on gas could become “non-viable” but cautions that they are “a fairly small part of European industry”.

Nonetheless, Goldman Sachs warns that the “sizeable” permanent hit to European industrial production will be between 2pc to 3pc.

Its economist Alexandre Stott says: “While lower gas supply implies a significant hit to potential output, economic models also suggest that an economy can lower this cost by substituting away from gas as an input into production. Moreover, academic studies suggest that the ability to substitute from an energy source tends to increase over time.”

The blow “can halve once one allows for substitution away from gas towards other energy sources”, she adds.

It is not just industrial powerhouses on the Continent that are exposed. The UK is one of the most services-oriented major economies in Europe but experts believe it is still vulnerable.

Persistently higher energy prices would cause a permanent impact on the economy’s potential output by reducing the amount firms find it profitable to produce, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Despite oil and gas becoming less important to the UK economy, it warned in July that in the medium term it is difficult to speed up the building of new infrastructure to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels, such as renewable or nuclear energy.

It estimates that a 10pc increase in oil and gas prices cuts potential output by 0.13pc in the first year and 0.18pc after five years.

What’s clear is that any de-industrialisation would come at an economic cost for the likes of Germany. Already subdued trend growth – the long-run average rate of expansion – could be damaged by a shift of resources from the higher productivity industrial sectors.

Goldman says even with substitution away from gas the industrial sector in Europe is likely to shrink permanently, potentially weighing on growth rates.

“You could argue a positive scenario if this is then the driver to get a more services-orientated economy, to have more automation, more high quality production, more research and development back in Europe,” says Brzeski.

“The most pessimistic scenario would be a just continuing downward trend, in which Europe continues losing potential growth because high productivity growth sectors [and] companies are moving out of Europe.”

He says the US stands to gain the most given its lower energy prices and the recent introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act.

The package includes $369bn of subsidies for “Made in America” investments that hope to boost the US electric car industry among other green technologies, help that has angered leaders in Europe.

Both friends and foe are piling pressure on Europe’s industrial sector as a tough winter takes hold.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/putin-kickstarts-de-industrialisation-of-europe-s-factories/ar-AA15RmiY?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=3e83beb7b2f04896a02557918e7e7063

Jimbuna

01-01-23, 07:25 AM

France now world's biggest buyer of Russian natural gas despite Ukraine invasion

France, already the main importer of Russian LNG in Europe, has become the world's leading importer of Putin's natural gas, beating even Japan in February and March. It comes as European imports are said to have increased by 40 percent this year.

Between January and October, France imported 4.45 million tonnes of Russian LNG, an increase of 52 percent in one year.

It comes as Russia's deputy prime minister opened the door to a return of gas supplies to Poland and Germany via the Yamal gas pipeline, which is currently unused.

But this is unlikely to happen as Europe has found other sources, including Russian liquefied natural gas.

Moscow is currently sending contradictory signals. After threatening to cut its oil production in protest against the European embargo on crude and the price cap, Russia says it is ready to resume gas deliveries via the Yamal pipeline.

"The European market remains relevant because the gas shortage persists and we have the opportunity to resume supplies," the deputy prime minister in charge of energy, Alexander Novak, told the official news agency Tass.

The European Central Bank's decision to raise interest rates in the Eurozone is likely to lead to a collapse of the Euro and to a severe economic crisis in Italy, analysts have warned.

Some described the ECB's policy decision as "kamikaze" and said it would condemn the Eurozone to a prolonged recession.

He said the Yamal pipeline, which links Russia to Poland and Germany, had been stopped for "political reasons".

Shortly after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, as supplies to Europe began to dwindle, Gazprom stopped its deliveries via Yamal. Then the Russian company demanded that Poland pay in roubles.

Warsaw refused and the Polish government terminated its contract with Gazprom.

At the end of August, the pipeline was shut down for three days of maintenance, but has not been reactivated since. The flows were then reversed to allow Poland to be supplied from Germany.

These statements could indicate that the various measures taken against Russia and its hydrocarbon production are beginning to dry up its economy.

So far, Moscow has been able to rely on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market to keep its exports high. The more flexible transport of this energy by ship allows the country to diversify its customers.

Russia has developed an ambitious programme to increase its liquefaction capacity. By 2035, it hopes to be able to export 80 to 140 million tonnes per year, compared with 35 million today.

Novatek still hopes to restart the Arctic LNG 2 project, in which TotalEnergies has invested but which has been at a standstill since the Western sanctions, by the end of 2023.

A large part of Russian production could therefore now be liquefied and then shipped to international markets.

The future of gas pipelines is more uncertain. To resume deliveries to Poland, Moscow will first have to ease its own sanctions against Warsaw.

And on the Polish side, there is nothing to suggest that they are ready to start buying from Russia again, despite the fact that they have largely diversified their sources this year.

In Europe, the pressure has eased in recent weeks as temperatures have risen. Stocks have not really been affected despite the first cold snap in December.

They have even started to be filled up again and now stand at an average of 83 percent. Germany, which had fallen to a filling rate of 87 percent, has risen to 88 percent in the last few days (compared to 77 percent at the same time last year), while Poland has a record rate of 96 percent, putting it in a strong position.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/france-now-world-s-biggest-buyer-of-russian-natural-gas-despite-ukraine-invasion/ar-AA15HNWk?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=def2b16ca54c4ebcb197635b6dca63f4

Jimbuna

01-02-23, 10:38 AM

UK power stations owner Uniper eyes 'possible insolvency' without £44bn state bailout

The boss of Germany's largest gas importer has warned that Germany's energy security would be placed in peril if Uniper is allowed to fail amid Europe's gas crunch, caused by the lack of gas flows from Russia.

Uniper, the crisis-hit German gas trader that owns seven UK power stations, has warned shareholders it faces "possible insolvency" unless they back an additional state bailout worth more than €50bn (£44.6bn).

Chief executive Klaus-Dieter Maubach told investors ahead of a crucial vote on Monday that they risked losing their entire investments in the company if they rejected the German taxpayer rescue.

The company first went cap in hand to Berlin in June, later securing €8bn in return for Finnish owner Fortum's stake, after its future was placed in peril by the loss of Russian gas flows amid the war in Ukraine.

The squeeze on deliveries from the likes of Gazprom, once its biggest supplier, had forced Uniper to buy gas elsewhere at much higher prices to meet existing contracts.

It triggered a €40bn euro net loss for the company, which provides around a third of Germany's gas and is its largest importer.

Uniper's UK interests include the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station and six other gas-fired plants.

It was revealed last month that it would need additional state support to survive after the German government withdrew a gas levy that was designed to help the country's gas importers bear additional costs.

The move prevented Uniper from raising customer prices.

Investors will vote on a package which includes up to €33bn in state-backed equity and up to €18bn in credit lines from state-lender KfW.

Ahead of Monday's extraordinary shareholder meeting in Dusseldorf, Mr Maubach said in a website statement: "(The measures) are indispensable for this company's future.

"If approval is not granted, we would have to review very critically the so-called going concern forecast for our company," he added.

"In the management board's view, a possible insolvency could lead to a complete loss for shareholders."
https://news.sky.com/story/uk-power-stations-owner-uniper-eyes-possible-insolvency-without-44bn-state-bailout-12771093

mapuc

01-04-23, 08:25 AM

Another business idea I have is making house owner totally independent from gas, oil,coal, electricity companies

Even here I need batteries with high capacity

Example:
It's winter-No wind, cloudy
A family use around xx kw per day

So they need batteries that can manage to do so for a week or more.

However it's rarely a thing that happens. Either it's windy or the sun shine.

Markus

Jimbuna

01-04-23, 12:52 PM

Energy support not the ‘solution’ to the gas crisis, energy boss says

ScottishPower’s boss said that the Government needs to insulate homes and help with a massive roll-out of renewable energy.

The Government has bought itself two years to insulate millions of British homes, plant solar and wind farms across the country and install heat pumps, the boss of a major energy supplier has said.

Keith Anderson, who leads ScottishPower, said that the Government had helped customers with an announcement that bills will be guaranteed not to rise above £2,500 for the average household.

“Hats off to the Government, they have made a big, big intervention,” he told the PA news agency.

“They have taken away a huge amount of worry and concern for customers, and that’s a good thing. A really, really good thing. That’s what we wanted.”

But he said this is not the end of the road in the energy crisis.

“No matter what policy they picked, it was never going to be the end solution.

“The policy today buys us two years to go and fix a whole load of problems at source.

“That is a mixture of building renewables like hell, and going hell for leather building it faster and faster.”

He said offshore and onshore wind are needed, as are solar. He also called for a “massive investment and acceleration in heat pump deployment to stop us burning gas”.

“The next one is going hammer and tongs at energy efficiency. You have a two-year window now to do a massive roll-out programme, properly insulating homes and helping people save energy and save money.”

He also called for the price of electricity to be decoupled from the price of gas.

“If you do those four things that’s what allows you to stop the price freeze,” Mr Anderson said.

Chris O’Shea, chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, promised to continue donating 10% of profits to help vulnerable households.

These households are still facing doubled energy bills despite the support announced on Thursday.

“We know people are deeply worried about the increase in their energy bills this winter,” Mr O’Shea said.

“Extraordinary circumstances call for us all to think differently and we know this bold customer support package from the new Prime Minister and Chancellor will bring immediate relief to hard-pressed households.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/business/energy-support-not-the-solution-to-the-gas-crisis-energy-boss-says-b2162896.html

Jimbuna

01-05-23, 12:30 PM

Europe Gets a Warm New Year Gift to Tackle the Energy Crisis

Europe is heading into the hottest January in decades, a boon for politicians, consumers and central bankers alike as they get some relief from a bruising energy crisis.

The mild weather which ended 2022 is likely to spill into the new year, and send heating demand to below the 10-year average, forecasters say. That could help nations send even more gas into storage — an unusual thing for the middle of winter — and help keep stockpiles relatively full for when it’s time to replenish them again for next year.

That would be a huge relief for almost everyone in Europe after what was a brutal 2022. Gas and power prices had surged to records, driving inflation to the highest in years and bringing economies to the brink of recession. Central banks have been forced to hike interest rates in an attempt to quell prices.

But price pressures are easing for now. Benchmark gas closed at the lowest since October 2021 on Wednesday, and is at about half the average level of 2022. Power prices have also declined sharply. Gas inventories are fuller than normal, while imports continue to be strong.

Inflation in France and Germany slowed last month. Data due on Friday for the entire euro area is also expected to show a slowdown, which will be a respite for the European Central Bank. As yesterday’s blog pointed out, the British government’s energy subsidy bill could drop by tens of billions of pounds from April as gas prices decline.

Still, it’s not yet time to fully celebrate because the energy crisis is far from over. The weather could turn quickly, and bring back all the concerns about blackouts and draining stockpiles too quickly. Despite predictions for a warm January, temperatures in the Baltics and parts of the Nordics could drop below normal in the next few days. Britain could also see “some colder interludes,” said Nicola Maxey, a Met Office meteorologist.

Then there’s the risk with Russian shipments. Pipeline flows to the EU from its previous top supplier are down around 80% compared with this time last year, and there is a real risk the remaining shipments will be halted, according to a report by the bank ING. While LNG imports have been high, and countries like Germany and Italy are boosting purchases from elsewhere, replacing the volumes from Moscow is going to be difficult.

Adding to it all, while the warm weather has been a blessing, the unusual heat has also raised concerns about climate change. It shows the work needed by governments to quell the energy crisis, without having to depend on a warming world.

But for now, cities across Europe are enjoying the balmy weather. Temperatures in Berlin reached 16C (60.8F) on New Year’s Day, a January record, while the Czech Republic registered its warmest ever New Year’s Eve. France and Germany are forecast to range between 2C to 5C above normal through to the middle of this month.

“The first half of the month could rank among some of the warmest on record over the last few decades if things unfold as expected,” said Matthew Dross, a meteorologist at forecaster Maxar Technologies Inc.
—Rakteem Katakey
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/europe-energy-crisis-updates/?leadSource=uverify%20wall

Skybird

01-08-23, 07:03 AM

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung writes:
----------------------------------
"Russia has lost the energy battle," says International Energy Agency chief.

What better place for the International Energy Agency's (IEA) headquarters in Paris than near the Eiffel Tower? The iron structure could also pass for a big rig in an oil field. Last year, however, Fatih Birol, the director of the IEA, probably had little time to look directly at the French landmark from his office. Drastic increases in energy prices and supply fears over the war in Ukraine kept him too busy.

This year, things are likely to get even trickier for the Turkish economist. "The key word right now is conflict when it comes to energy," Birol says in his calm manner. The 64-year-old IEA director is fully aware of the impact of his words, traveling incessantly from one international meeting to the next to provide data, reports and advice to the wealthy, mostly Western governments that make up the IEA's membership. Birol may have started his career at Opec, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. But today he strongly promotes a shift to renewable and other low-emission energy sources such as nuclear power.

He hopes governments will learn from the conflict. "Europe in particular needs to practice self-criticism. It was not a good idea to be so dependent on one country. It could have been any country, this time it was Russia," he says. For months, Birol has been warning against neglecting energy security in energy and climate policy. Governments should no longer be guided only by which energy source appears cheap at first glance, Birol says. Other long-term variables also need to be factored in, he said.

Germany's dependence on Russian natural gas is a lesson in this, and one that is now costing all of Europe dearly. "Until now, we in Europe have received cheap gas from Russia - for years. But the costs we are now paying are enormous," Birol says.

Birol knows what he is talking about. The IEA is a child of the crisis. The organization had been founded in 1974 by the industrialized countries as a counterweight to Opec of the petro-states because of the oil price shock at the time. The 29 members of the IEA, including Switzerland, have committed themselves to maintaining a stockpile of oil equivalent to at least 90 days of today's normal consumption. In this way, the consumer countries have prepared themselves for emergencies. The IEA coordinates the release of reserves.

However, the crisis is not only concentrated in Europe or the Western industrialized countries. The consequences of the war in Ukraine are being felt globally, creating new geopolitical tensions and deepening existing rifts. Added to this are the effects of climate change, which are hitting poorer countries particularly hard. He illustrates this with an example: The summer in Pakistan was exceptionally hot, with temperatures reaching 54 degrees Celsius. Air conditioning systems were in constant use, and electricity demand soared. Pakistan covers an important part of its energy needs with liquefied natural gas (LNG) for electricity production. But because Europeans were paying 20 percent more for the gas, the LNG destined for Pakistan was diverted. "Put yourself in Pakistan's shoes," Birol says.

The example also highlights that fossil fuels are far from being eliminated from the global energy system. Moreover, when trade flows for energy goods are diverted, it can cause enormous shockwaves and unintended consequences. In a global energy crisis, poorer countries often lose out, even as richer countries feel they are in the eye of the hurricane. The gap between low-income developing countries and the wealthy West deepens.

But the biggest change may initially affect Moscow itself. Until February 24, Russia was still one of the world's largest energy exporters. It will lose this important role in the next few years. Birol even says, "Russia has lost the energy battle." By this he also means that Russian companies are dependent on Western technologies for oil and gas production. Without these, Moscow has problems maintaining or expanding production volumes. In addition, he said, Russia will need several more years, especially in gas supplies, to redirect flows to China. But Birol says Russia may also have lost its reputation in Beijing for being a reliable partner.

In international climate policy, however, the centers of power are also shifting. For years, the EU, which often perceives itself as the climate champion, had complained that the U.S. was not following suit. In August, Democratic President Joe Biden signed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. This is accompanied by the most comprehensive climate program in American history. For Birol, it is even the biggest climate policy action since the international Paris climate agreement, which was adopted in 2015. With around 370 billion dollars, Washington wants to boost the production and also the purchase of green technologies - be it batteries, electric cars, renewable energies or hydrogen.

For Birol, however, it's clear: "It's not just about climate policy, but also about giving American industry the first starting place in the race for clean technologies in the future." In doing so, the U.S. wants to put the brakes on China's dominance in many key new technologies. However, Europeans are also affected by the new American program, which has a protectionist effect.

A counter-program is already being worked on in Brussels. In Birol's view, European countries need an overall plan for green technologies for two reasons: First, energy costs in Europe are likely to remain high in the coming years. For energy-intensive industries such as petrochemicals, steel, cement or aluminum, it will be difficult to keep up with competition in the U.S., China and India, he says. The second reason, according to Birol, is more structural: producers of batteries, electric vehicles or electrolysis are also to be strengthened in Europe.

The IEA director, meanwhile, brushes off concerns about a European industrial policy that could further drive a subsidy race. "Europe has to respond to the industrial policies of other countries like the U.S.," Birol says. While he hopes for healthy competition between economic blocs, he nevertheless speaks warningly of many countries erecting trade barriers: "The name of the game right now is protectionism." So Birol also sees more conflict in trade policy in the years ahead, even though cooperation would be the most beneficial way to deal with climate change.

Nevertheless, international cooperation lives on. For example, the idea of a climate club has been circulating in politics for years. In such a club, like-minded countries would unite to push through common climate goals. The G-7 countries, the seven largest Western economies, agreed on such a club in December under the chairmanship of Germany. The IEA has been given the task of installing a secretariat for this association. Especially in the industrial sector, coordination on how to decarbonize globally could be helpful.

"But the success of such a club depends on how many of the emerging economies will participate," Birol says cautiously. He is addressing the problem of China and India not being part of it. The original idea of a climate club was also to introduce punitive tariffs against countries whose climate policies are not as strict as those of the club members. Birol, however, argues against punitive tariffs, saying, "It should be a nice club." Participating countries should instead commit to reducing the carbon footprint of their industrial sectors.

Another new dividing line was provided last year by Opec, which, along with other petro-states such as Russia, Mexico and Kazakhstan, decided to cut production despite American threats and cajoling. And this in the midst of an energy price crisis. It is clear that producer states always want higher prices and revenues, Birol says.

But states have mostly taken a responsible position in their past decisions, he says. "The cut in production in November was a surprise. In doing so, petrostates accepted a deterioration of the global economy." Are petrostates flexing their muscles? Birol says it may be a sign "that they are looking for a new oil policy."

But it is not Europe that suffers most from high energy prices, but poorer nations. In many countries in Asia and Africa, however, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is not seen as the reason for high energy and wheat prices. Birol spoke with many government officials in Indonesia, India and African countries who perceive a struggle between Russia and the West. "The difference in perception could be an important geopolitical fault line between the West and many developing countries," Birol says.

But the economist also finds it incomprehensible when Europeans lecture African countries. Climate policy could thus deepen the fault lines even further, for example if it is stipulated that African natural gas reserves should not be exploited. Birol calculates, however, that Africa's share of global emissions would only rise from 3 percent to 3.4 percent over the next ten years if all fields were tapped. Birol shakes his head, "We can't dictate to Africans what they should do."

But competing realities also exist in the energy policies of Western countries. Two IEA reports, released in December in quick succession, once said that global coal consumption was at an all-time high, and another said that renewable energy expansion was at an all-time high. The world will add as much electricity from renewables in the next five years as it has in the past twenty. It also fits the picture that Birol clearly sees nuclear power making a comeback worldwide. But the IEA director is convinced that the current crisis will accelerate the energy transition. "The obituary for the 1.5-degree Celsius climate policy target is premature," Birol says.

For some time, there has been debate about whether the 1.5-degree maximum global warming target is even achievable. Last year's climate summit in Egypt put a further damper on expectations in this regard. Birol, however, considers this discussion irresponsible. For him, sticking to an ambitious target is necessary to keep the momentum going. Birol feeds his optimism by looking at the data. He says a new and clean energy economy is forming.

First, he says, investment in security of supply is currently the biggest driver of renewable energy growth. Countries want to reduce their dependence on oil and gas imports. Second, countries are using industrial policy to promote green technologies. And third, climate policies are being pushed forward, he said. "We will remember 2022 not only as a sad year of the Russian invasion, but also as a historic turning point in the use of clean energy," Birol says with conviction.

Birol is already getting restless; he has other appointments. How he himself saves energy, he reveals only in small doses. He says that he has never bought a car because he doesn't have a driver's license. The IEA director, however, takes governments to task; they should use price signals and mandatory requirements to ensure that the population saves energy. Birol says, "But I don't trust people completely."
------------------------------------------

Skybird

01-09-23, 11:26 AM

About wombats.
------------------------

https://i0.wp.com/think-again.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/WOMBAT.png?resize=1000%2C653&ssl=1

There was once this Woody Allen movie about everything you always wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask. I'm sure you've cleared up all your questions on the subject by now. However, I strongly suspect that you are highly naive in another area - and you know exactly what I'm talking about.

It is here and now about this problem of mega-giga-tera-watts or watt-hours, which even overtaxes the cognitive abilities of our top-class personnel in politics and media. I will now answer all your questions about this, without taboos and in simple language.

Moving things

If we want to move things in everyday life - repair the car or go on a trip - then we need money to do it; we can't do it without it. That's the driving force behind all the changes we want to make. Even in the technical-physical world, all changes need such a magical force, without which nothing works.

It's called energy, and it can come in different forms - motion, heat, radiation, electricity, etc. These different "currencies" of energy can also be exchanged for each other, but not always without losses.

A particularly pleasant form of energy is electricity. It can be easily transported and transformed into the other forms of energy without any losses. It can be used to heat the water for your morning coffee, run a Tesla car, light a Christmas tree or make a computer calculate. And as with money, we need different amounts of this magical power for different applications.

The wombat in action

Morning coffee water requires less energy than the ICE train on the journey from Munich to Frankfurt. And just as we have defined units for the quantity of money, for example the Euro (Eu) or the Wumms (Wu), we also need a unit to describe quantities of energy. Temporarily, I would like to give this unit the name "Wombat (Wb)", in reference to the Wumms. I try to use simple language here

For the morning coffee, about one tenth of a Wombat = 0.1 Wb is consumed. Together with the refrigerator, heater, and other helpful appliances in the house, we draw something like 350 Wb from the various outlets each month; this figure may vary somewhat from household to household.

For each Wombat, we pay the manufacturer a certain price, say around 0.30 euros.

An unfortunate name

Now, it can be interesting to know how many Wombats come out of the socket at each moment, just as it is interesting to know how much distance we cover each moment when driving a car. We call this the "speed" and measure it in kilometers per hour (km/h), even if we are not driving for a whole hour. Correspondingly, we measure the instantaneous energy consumption in wombats per hour (Wb/h), and call that "power".

As the devil would have it, the engineers have come up with their own name for the "wombats per hour", namely the "kilowatt" = 1000 "watts" . But for the wombat itself there is still no name. One helped oneself now with it, by saying, a Wombat is the quantity of energy, if one hour long the achievement of a kilowatt from the plug socket flowed. And then one gave the poor animal the name kilowatt times hour, or briefly "kilowatt hour".

So:

Power: 1 wombat per hour = 1 kilowatt.

Or 1 Wb/h = 1 kW

and

Energy: 1 wombat = 1 wombat/hour x 1 hour = 1 kilowatt x 1 hour

Or 1 Wb = 1 kWh

Is it because of the big numbers?

Those who deal with the matter professionally have either understood the correlations over time or have at least become accustomed to them. However, the more "energy", or rather "energy problems", determine everyday life and politics, the more frequently misunderstandings occur.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the issue often involves very large numbers. If you want to know how many wombats = kWh all German households consume in a year, for example, you have to multiply the average monthly consumption by 12 and then by 40 million, i.e.

350 kWh x 12 x 40 000 000 = 168 000 000 kWh = 168 000 000 MWh = 168 000 GWh =168 TWh

The prefixes k = kilo = thousand, M = mega = 1 million, G = giga = 1 billion, T = tera = 1 trillion make it easier to write the big numbers.

How many nuclear power plants would we need to supply all these households? To do this, we calculate the power needed, which is wombats per hour = kilowatts, which is the total annual energy consumption divided by the 8766 hours of the year:

168 000 000 kWh / 8766 h = 19 160 000 kW = 19 160 MW = 19 GW.

A nuclear reactor emits something like 1.2 gigawatts (GW), so you would need 19 GW / 1.2 GW ≅16 reactors. There were already that many in Germany at one time. What there weren't back then were electricity problems and fear of freezing and blackout. But we're saving the planet today.

https://think-again.org/was-sie-schon-immer-wissen-wollten/

Jimbuna

01-15-23, 08:15 AM

India offers Russian oil a back door into Britain

India offers a back-door for imports of Russian oil into Britain, new figures suggest, blunting Britain’s efforts to restrict funding for the Kremlin.

British energy buyers have stepped up imports from India’s biggest refinery, which itself has stepped up crude imports from Russia, according to trade data.

It suggests buyers have replaced some imports directly from Russia with imports from Russian-fed refineries, indirectly supporting Russian oil flows.

Such a supply chain is entirely legal under UK rules, but the data has raised concerns that British efforts to cut off cash to the Kremlin are being undermined.

Oleg Ustenko, adviser to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, said companies were “exploiting weaknesses in the sanctions regime”.

“The UK must close the loopholes that undermine support for Ukraine by allowing bloody fossil fuels to continue flowing across our borders,” he said.

China and India have stepped up purchases of discounted Russian oil shunned by some traders in the West since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.

The giant Jamnagar refinery on India’s west coast imported 215 shipments of crude oil and fuel oil from Russia during 2022, four times as much in volume as it bought in 2021, Kpler data analysed by Global Witness shows.

At the same time, the UK has imported 29 shipments, or 10m barrels, of diesel and other refined products from Jamnagar since the war began, compared to seven shipments, or 4m barrels, during 2021. Buyers include Shell, BP, Trafigura, PetroChina and Essar.

Refineries tend to import from several sources and mix fuels together, meaning crude oil from Russia is likely to have been used to make diesel exported from India to the UK, though it is not possible to say for certain exactly what goes into each barrel.

“Pre-conflict, it was pretty rare for Indian refiners to process Russian crude,” says Alan Gelder, refining expert at Wood Mackenzie. “Now, about one in five barrels of the crude oil that they process is Russian.

“They [Indian refiners] have always exported to Europe, but they are exporting more now because it’s more attractive as Europe’s diesel prices are higher: it’s shorter of diesel because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“A big chunk of that diesel they produce now will be based on Russian crude oil.”

Steve Sawyer, director of refining at Facts Global Energy, says India and China “are exporting diesel - and some of it will have come from Russia.”

He stresses that Western restrictions on Russian oil were not designed to stop Russian oil exports altogether, because of their importance to the global market.

The UK only banned Russian oil and diesel imports on December 5. Under those rules, an imported barrel is deemed to have come from the last country where “substantial processing” took place.

This means that crude oil from Russia that is refined into diesel elsewhere, such as in India, can perfectly legitimately be imported into the UK. The rule stems from longstanding tax rules, though campaigners fear it amounts to a loophole that supports Russian coffers.

Seven shipments from Jamnagar have arrived in the UK since the ban on Russian oil and diesel imports came into force last month.

Louis Wilson, senior campaigner at Global Witness, said: “Exploiting this loophole by bringing Russian oil in the back door puts money in the Kremlin’s pocket, violates the spirit of the UK’s embargo and undermines BP and Shell’s condemnation of the war in Ukraine.’’

Shell said: “Shell made its decision to withdraw from all Russian hydrocarbons with conviction. We are delivering on this, in line with guidance from European governments, including the UK, and in full compliance with sanctions, applicable laws and regulations.

“Under continued guidance from such governments and through our tight internal controls, including strict no Russian-origin product contract clauses with suppliers, we are seeking to avoid fuels that may contain products refined in Russia.”

BP said: “BP takes compliance with sanctions and export controls very seriously and seeks to comply with all applicable regulatory frameworks around the world. We continue to have very strict processes and controls for maintaining compliance with applicable trade sanctions, including the UK’s Russia sanctions.

“We conduct thorough checks on all trading counterparties and certificates of origin and other documents are used to evidence the origin of products.”

A Government spokesman said: “In light of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and weaponisation of energy, the Government has taken steps to end all imports of Russian fossil fuels including a ban of oil and oil products. Importers must be able to provide proof that goods are not of Russian origin.”

Trafigura, PetroChina and Essar did not comment.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/india-offers-russian-oil-a-back-door-into-britain/ar-AA16lq9L?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=4bfc032244dc46d2b42f9b2d704dd070

Jimbuna

01-16-23, 06:51 AM

The boss of Norwegian energy giant Equinor has said he does not expect gas and electricity bills to return to the levels they were before Covid.

Anders Opedal told the BBC this was down to the costs of moving from fossil fuels to less damaging energy sources.

He said also that windfall taxes on energy firms were affecting investment in projects in the UK.

Equinor, like many other energy companies,has reported record profits because of higher gas prices.

The firm, which makes most of its money producing oil and gas, is one of Europe's biggest energy companies, with operations in 36 countries around the world including the UK.

In its most recent financial results, it reported pre-tax profits of $24.3bn (£19.8bn) between July and September compared to $9.7bn in the same period the year before.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64270157

Skybird

01-16-23, 07:07 AM

The most obvious reason why prices will not go back to previous levels, surprisingly gets not mentioned often: LNG gas is much more expensive than pipelined gas. Simple. That was the argument why nobody in the German industry wanted to increase buyings of overpriced American LNG gas, while Russian gas was much cheaper. Now we must buy it, we have no choice anymore. Also, many sales of LNG to 'Asia have been rechnalled to Europe - by placing much higher heaps of money on the table than the Asians did. Same with Africa, where LNG now is rare.

Jimbuna

01-17-23, 10:57 AM

Garzweiler coal mine furore symbolises European governments' energy conundrum

Germany's Garzweiler mine could hardly be more symbolic of the conundrum facing much of Europe right now.

A country partially run by the Green Party is tearing down wind turbines to make way for more coal extraction.

From an environmental point of view this is fairly obviously not good. Coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels.

But those in charge of Europe's most important economy, for now, have had to sacrifice climate change policies in order to keep the lights on.

It comes as riot police backed by bulldozers removed scores of activists from buildings in an abandoned village during a second day of confrontations over the expansion of the Garzweiler mine.

Officers climbed ladders to reach protesters perched on roofs and walls in Luetzerath, which energy firm RWE wants to clear to expand its energy facility.

The problem is that coal may be dirty but it is cheap and reliable and the infrastructure to get it out of the ground and into power stations already exists and functions perfectly well.

And in the aftermath of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and subsequent energy shock, particularly due to the availability of Russian gas, Germany believes it could be the difference between business as usual and rolling blackouts.

This is also why the country has extended the lifespan of some of its nuclear power stations, despite promising to close them.

Germany is not alone.

Poland is expanding coal production and Bulgaria is extending the life of its coal mines.

The UK has done the same for a number of coal fired power stations to ensure security of supply this winter.

In fact global coal consumption rose to an all-time high in 2022.

The good news is that there are many who believe this is a blip.

The International Energy Agency says that the global energy crisis will, in the end, accelerate the clean energy transition.

It predicts that emissions of fossil fuels will peak by 2025 as coal use falls over the coming years and demand for natural gas plateaus by the end of the decade.

Germany, for its part, says it will still phase out coal by 2030, although that doesn't lessen the symbolism of what's happening at Garzweiler.
https://news.sky.com/story/germany-garzweiler-coal-mine-furore-symbolises-european-governments-energy-conundrum-12785239

Skybird

01-19-23, 01:50 PM

I just learned that the mini-series in six parts "Blackout", based on the bestselling novel "Blackout" by Mark Elsberg, already was broadcasted on cable TV Joyn last year. It is now coming to uncoded open TV, station is Sat-1. Every Thursday from January 26th on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcYVJBT4Ju0

Not to be mistaken with a movie of same title from 2020.

Jimbuna

01-21-23, 06:41 AM

Natural gas in 5th week of freefall that has more than halved its value

Investing.com -- Five weeks running and the bulls in natural gas aren’t catching a break yet from the weather.

Futures of the heating fuel on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Henry Hub were headed for a 5% drop in the latest week, adding to their 48% drop over four previous weeks, as temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere remained unseasonably high for a winter.

The front-month February gas contract on the Henry Hub hovered at $3.19 per mmBtu, or metric million British thermal units, as Friday’s close approached. It fell to as low as $3.11 during the session, sending gas bulls up gasping for air on fears of the market tumbling to $2 levels. Fortunately, for the longs, the moment passed, with the $3 support holding.

Bulls in natural gas have experienced their most painful month in years after the start of what the industry is calling the warmest winter in two decades.

Analysts say there is still time to fix the market, but Mother Nature had to cooperate — and quickly too.

“There is still the remainder of January, as well as the months of February and March, left to go before the end of the winter withdrawal season, therefore, weather will still play a large role in the bullishness or bearishness of NYMEX gas futures prices,” analysts at Houston-based energy trading consultancy Gelber&Associates said in a note to their clients in natural gas.

“But without meaningful, extended cold periods in the longer-range forecasts, it sets up end-of-season gas storage to potentially land in notably bearish territory by April 1,” the note said.

Gelber’s analysts observed that through the initial 2.5 months of the winter withdrawal season, natural gas inventories have fallen by a total of 760 bcf or billion cubic feet — which was 213 bcf bearish versus the five-year average.

“Even with the potential for at least another two sizable bearish withdrawals on the horizon, unless there are some big surprises from Mother Nature over the next few weeks, the 2022-23 winter will retain its position as the smallest to-date draw in the last five years well into February,” the analysts said.

Gas production, comparatively, was up more than 5 bcf per day year-over-year.

The conventional wisdom on the Henry Hub seems to be that in order for the bulls to find any upward trajectory, February needs to come in colder than average, culminating in at least one more 200-plus bcf storage withdrawal this season.

Another bullish catalyst would be if the Freeport LNG terminal — closed for months now, stalling consumption of 2 bcf per day or 60 bcf per month — came back in full force by February, putting back on course exports of liquefied natural gas.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/natural-gas-in-5th-week-of-freefall-that-has-more-than-halved-its-value/ar-AA16zyfF?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=384f10fbfabf4483a13ff2ce56c8ad47