The energy thread

[Jimbuna]

I'm thinking workers on strike.

[Jimbuna]

Just found this on the subject of Strikes at French nuclear plants.

https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...ke-2022-10-19/

[Skybird]

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]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

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]

‘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/...aster-than-uk/

[Jimbuna]

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...0002df9b90d4d9

[Skybird]

^ 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!"

[Skybird]

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:
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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".
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[Catfish]

^ 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

[Skybird]

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/
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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.
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[Jimbuna]

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]

nothing happened, nothing learned (nordsstream)

[Ostfriese]

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]

Originally Posted by Skybird

nothing happened, nothing learned (nordsstream)

That thought had crossed my mind

[Skybird]

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.