A few days ago, Bloomberg devoted a long article to Germany’s emergency preparedness to a winter which, in the midst of energy war with russia, could be more than complicated. The media, which also points out that the French situation was only apparently betteris adamant: Berlin has three months to put its measures in place.
As Bloomberg notes, Germany, its governing bodies, its cities and its businesses are, in the heart of summer, thinking about the rationing that will surely be imposed when the cold returns. Because the country, which consumes energy, depends more than any other in Europe on Vladimir Putin’s gas pipelines.
If fear, for example, a shortage of beer emerged in the country, other sectors more essential to the life of a nation are to be watched closely. Among them, that of cremation: as reported by the Reuters news agencythe dead are also big consumers of Russian gas and the sector must therefore prepare for the worst.
The cremation is very common in Germany, especially in the east: according to Reuters figures, three-quarters of people who die each year in the country choose to be cremated. This is much more than in France (39% of funerals in 2018), where the practice is however constantly increasing.
According to Svend-Joerk Sobolewski, boss of the trade union in the sector, cremation must therefore take priority in the event of gas rationing in the country: we can cut off the gas, but “we can’t stop death”.
In the long term, it is explained, the solution would probably be to go through a conversion of this practice to electricity – while waiting for the end of the long process towards renewable energies, that produced in Germany is still particularly carbonaceous.
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In the meantime, gas remains the energy most used by crematoria. Head of a funeral trade union, Stephan Neuser, explains to Reuters that one of the possible immediate solutions would be to lower their temperature during incineration: by going from 850°C to 750°C, we would save 10% at 20% gas. But the measure requires an adaptation of the regulations and a special permit.
The news agency also explains that crematoriums turn off some of their ovens, in order to use others constantly, which keeps them warm and therefore requires less gas.
“In the event of a gas cut, we would be able to continue to operate the units that are hot… This means that we could then continue to work at reduced power”says Karl-Heinz Koensgen, head of a crematorium in Dachsenhausen (Rhineland-Palatinate).
According to Svend-Joerk Sobolewski, the method could make it possible to reduce the gas consumption of the crematoriums concerned by 80%. Still, not everyone has sufficient demand to operate on this model.
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