There is something like the “omerta” among European politicians: not to mention the dangers of the rapid introduction of RES
A policy of switching to clean energy could lead Europe to disaster this winter, writes Forbes.
According to the author of the article David Blackman, the record rise in world gas prices could provokes the transition of many thermal power plants to oil or coalwhich will increase the cost of these resources.
In the case of Europe, however, this option is problematic due to the transition to green energy. Many countries here have shielded most of the coal and gas power plants. Last summer, this led to a crisis, when due to low winds it was necessary to return to fossil fuels.
The analyst notes that the sudden increase in demand caused a jump in gas prices. In addition, Russia responded by restricting exports, which further affected its value.
Europeans, for their part, turned their attention to coal, but even here there was not much room for maneuver: as Natasha Tyurina, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie, notes, only Russia has enough reserves to sell in the EU.
“If all European utilities switch to coal, it will lead to huge demand, which Russia cannot compensate for in such a short time. This will require supplies from other countries, such as the United States, but the situation is similar there,” the analyst said.
According to the author of the article, the problems are due to following the same policy of abandoning fossil fuels and switching to renewable energy sources. While Europe is in the spotlight today, the crisis is slowly becoming global, Blackman added.
He emphasizes that in the current situation there are no opportunities to solve problems quickly due to “meaningless political decisions“.
Overcoming the difficulties will take the same ten years needed to move to clean energy sources. The expert also referred to the report of analysts from Wood MacKenzie and Ristad Energy, who estimate the lack of investment in the search for new deposits at hundreds of billions of dollars.
“This is not something that can be fixed overnight,” – sums up the author of the article.
Gas prices in Europe have been rising since last year and are breaking records.
A month ago, the estimated price of fuel slightly exceeded $ 500 per thousand cubic meters, and at the end of September it reached $ 1,200. This is despite the fact that Russia is fulfilling all contractual obligations for supplies to the continent: their volume is approaching the historical maximum.
Unfortunately, despite the initial forecasts from August and early September for another mild winter, the circulation at the moment does not give definite reasons to expect such. It is possible to have for the first time after 4 consecutive mild winters a normal or even cold one (bel. na vremeto.dir.bg).
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