The energy thread

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Skybird

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]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

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

Russia has offered to repair that damn thing!

[mapuc]

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]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Russia has offered to repair that damn thing!

Let them and then refuse to use it

[Jimbuna]

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]

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]

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]

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/20...nter-blackouts

Markus

[Skybird]

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]

Originally Posted by Skybird

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.

Tough times ahead mate.

[Skybird]

The overall sitrep on German energy situation:




https://www.nzz.ch/visuals/so-wirkt-...&_x_tr_sl=auto

[Jimbuna]

Link requires the reader to register.

[Skybird]

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]

Not a problem and thanks for trying.

[Skybird]

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/
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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.
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