EU faces awful winters

[Polly]

Very worrying state of energy in EU. To those who have energy sources other than the grid - well done!

EU faces awful winters without gas cap - minister https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62710522

[niemeyjt]

Yes. A testament to the total failure of politicians, especially in Germany, to react to reality rather than populist policies.

As I recall one of the German leaders is actually a senior manager in a Russian gas company. Vested interests?

Greed!

[Doug]

Reports are that France has 90% of winter gas needs and after our presidents Algerian visit they are going to up export of liquid gas to us by 50%
Its electricity which is the great problem with so many reactors being out for service for cleaning and river water shortage for cooling others.

[L Austin France]

What I don't understand is ;
Given that most of Europe has been in some form of cold war state with Russia, the regime they also rely on for a good deal of their energy, why haven't more nuclear, wind, solar etc energy sources been built? Surely someone could have forseen this energy problem happening given the way Putin has been acting for many years.
It apparently takes 5-7 years to build a nuclear power plant yet how many have been commisioned in the last 10 years? I realise that nuclear would not be a prefered option but surely better than being blackmailed by Putin & his henchmen with the possibility of many dying each winter & economies ruined.

[Hotrodder]

Your asking about a reason?

Cost. Like everything. A government will try to provide as little as possible, and at the cheapest cost. Preparing for any future eventuality is not a profitable exercise.

[MAD87]

And we were hampered for 5 years by Hollande's end-of-nuclear nonsense, a bone thrown to the 'ecologists' to prop him up.
All the "green" energy here won't sustain our current consumption (intentional pun), so living more reasonably has to be added to the mix.
Trouble is, there are only so many sweaters and blankets one can wear.

[DaveW]

Ah memories of installing some of the modern- at the time - computer control systems at Heysham nuclear power station in the late seventies. I had a lovely 100 sqm computer room to install two state of the art Digital pdp11’s that took up 5 sqm. The original valve design was twenty years old and the size of computer technology had galloped along. Those machines would be lost on my smartphone today.

Shame the investment in nuclear never continued.

Quick edit - the overwhelming memory of Heysham was the smell of concrete.

[Nomoss]

When the cold weather begins we usually heat with our two 900W air/air heat pumps until, at temperatures below about 8º, they become less efficient, when we switch over to our pellet stove
The price of our electricity has now risen 25% above what it was last year, but the price of 15kg bags of wood pellets from our local supplier are up from €4,76 in November 2021 to €8.90 - an increase of 87%, and the price for a full pallet of 66 bags, delivered, has risen from €289 to €558, an increase of 93%! It's not even cheaper to buy in bulk.
This means that the cost of heating with the pellet stove is no longer economical.
I plan to continue using the heat pumps as long as absolutely possible, then use one or more of several oil filled radiators we brought from the UK and Spain 20 years ago. The house is so well insulated that one radiator set on 1kW provides enough heat for our bedroom, and we can similarly heat other rooms as necessary during the day.
I think that the current pellet prices are due to panic buying, that purchases will fall, and that pushing up their prices will leave suppliers with excess stocks of pellets into the New Year.

[exile]

It's a very good question @L Austin France and especially viewed in hindsight it is easy to see the missed opportunities.

But first the 7-8 years to build a nuclear station - which ignores the time to plan for it, breakdown/destroy opposition (NIMBYs) and lastly finance it. Nuclear stations are extremely efficient but extremely costly. So real time the start (conception) to finish (operation) on nuclear stations is probably closer to 12 - 25 years.

In that context Russia was a member of G8 until 2014 - but failed to attend from 2012 labelling the group a waste of time [just possibly in the current context he could have been right even if he has been the instrument of their demise.]

So accepting that he was viewed as real trouble from say 2012 that is only 10 years in a 12 to 25 year period to react - we were not and are not prepared.

Then we have Fukushima in 2011 which put the willies up many politicians [and not a few nuclear engineers]. AS Mad noted Hollande's reaction (reinforcing his previous position) was a halt - but not just him. Merkel demanded an immediate investigation of the German nuclear plants and their resilience to double phase failure (which is what Fukushima suffered). Result no station passed and some failed the more rigorous single phase failure. So a commitment to close all nuclear stations by 2023. No new stations and existing ones being phased out. The socialist Green coalition were all to happy to continue the policy - and perversely happy to buy in a shortfall in electricity from nuclear France.

Other countries similarly deemed nuclear as "too difficult/too dangerous" against a background of public unrest and concern.

Then we have the lack of an EU robust energy policy for the short term. Focus was on global warming; net zero by 2050; switch to renewables to replace fossil fuel based power; switch off fossil fuel based plants pdq = end of coal and use less dirty gas in the interim. Easy to be critical after the event. By 2028 the reliance on Russian gas and oil would have been significantly reduced - and I would speculate that this is one reason why Putin has reacted now. Wait and he would lose a lot of impact. This is as much an attack against the EU as it is against the Ukraine - just that they are in the literal firing line.

[manonthemoon2]

When the cold weather begins we usually heat with our two 900W air/air heat pumps until, at temperatures below about 8º, they become less efficient, when we switch over to our pellet stove
The price of our electricity has now risen 25% above what it was last year, but the price of 15kg bags of wood pellets from our local supplier are up from €4,76 in November 2021 to €8.90 - an increase of 87%, and the price for a full pallet of 66 bags, delivered, has risen from €289 to €558, an increase of 93%! It's not even cheaper to buy in bulk.
This means that the cost of heating with the pellet stove is no longer economical.
I plan to continue using the heat pumps as long as absolutely possible, then use one or more of several oil filled radiators we brought from the UK and Spain 20 years ago. The house is so well insulated that one radiator set on 1kW provides enough heat for our bedroom, and we can similarly heat other rooms as necessary during the day.
I think that the current pellet prices are due to panic buying, that purchases will fall, and that pushing up their prices will leave suppliers with excess stocks of pellets into the New Year.

I use the wood pellets as cat litter, which is normally cheaper than cat litter. Maybe I should source a cheaper litter. The last 15kg bag cost €7,80, an increase from €5,50 a couple of months before