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Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing

wsj.com

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Re: Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing

#21

Post by morsch »

junon wrote: post #16
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or nuclear. Sad that this isn’t seen as an option any longer Is anti-nuclear sentiment consistent across Europe?

It is here in Germany. Nobody here likes nuclear. My ex is a PhD in bioinformatics and argues against nuclear using quite outdated information, even. Nuclear is a non-starter for many. Too many people afraid of another Chernobyl or nuclear waste handling without understanding what caused the former or not being informed about how we deal with the latter, today.

You must mean tomorrow, because today, we just keep the stuff around in intermediate facilities.

Re: Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing

#22

Post by hourislate »

The articles title is misleading (more hysteria from the media). In Germany the price for a megawatt hour is 129 euro and in the UK it jumped to 330 euro.

So it seems that Energy Prices in the UK hit records. Not surprising since they put all their eggs in one basket. The rest of Europe seems fine.

Re: Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing

#23

Post by ben_w »

marvin wrote: post #4

It's weird that we have higher late-summer electricity prices that we did mid-winter this year. But all things considered, energy prices do in fact need to be high in order to support faster deployment of renewables and CO2-neutral energy. Sucks for everyone who has marginal incomes, but I'm sure we can make some adjustments to the safety net policies to mitigate that.

Much as I support transition to green energy as fast as possible, doing so in ways that increase prices create a risk that businesses which care more about money than environment just move to where the energy is cheaper and then you lose both influence over them and employment for those very same marginal income people.

I’d rather governments use general taxation to subsidise deployment of PV (or research into superconductors and storage) than encourage higher prices — the rewards form research can bring benefits that make the cost worthwhile.

Re: Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing

#25

Post by xwdv »

HonestOp001 wrote: post #14

Haves and have nots once again. The elites can make proclamations for what they want to do regarding energy generation, they will never have to live it as they will have back up generators on their compounds to deal with it. Us serfs will be at the mercy of feel good proclamations and energy programs that are not ready for prime time.

Still better than the serfs of olden days though, no?

Re: Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing

#26

Post by cure »

28511524 wrote: post #2

“Options include reserve thermal power plants, battery storage or cables for importing electricity from other markets.” Or nuclear. Sad that this isn’t seen as an option any longer.

> Or nuclear. Sad that this isn’t seen as an option any longer.

Maybe this statement is just a reflection of what can be done in a reasonable amount of time (a few years)? Planning and building nuclear plants takes an order of magnitude longer, it seems.

Re: Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing

#27

Post by dimitrios1 »

xwdv wrote: post #25
HonestOp001 wrote: post #14

Haves and have nots once again. The elites can make proclamations for what they want to do regarding energy generation, they will never have to live it as they will have back up generators on their compounds to deal with it. Us serfs will be at the mercy of feel good proclamations and energy programs that are not ready for prime time.

Still better than the serfs of olden days though, no?

Maybe, maybe not. At least back then, the threat of violent revolution was real and actualized. I don't think any group of revolters could defeat any of the modern western armies.

Re: Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing

#28

Post by lm28469 »

kohlerm wrote: post #20

hmm not sure I can follow the logic. Germany does have quite a lot of wind power doesn't it? Also AFAIK prices in Germany went up because of higher demand for Gas. And then somehow it is expected, as soon as there is a big enough crisis energy prices will go up exponentially.

Germany always had bad prices, it's been twice the French's price for as long as I can remember

https://strom-report.de/electricity-prices-europe/

Re: Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing

#29

Post by fsflover »

olau wrote: post #18
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or nuclear. Sad that this isn’t seen as an option any longer Is anti-nuclear sentiment consistent across Europe?

I think Fukushima killed much of the remaining enthusiasm, but really it's the high cost of building new nuclear plants across Europe that's keeping it from being an option. If building a new plant was cheap, I'm sure you'd see a lot more happening.

> it's the high cost of building new nuclear plants

https://whatisnuclear.com/economics.html

If markets valued the low-CO2 nature of nuclear, they’d be doing better

Re: Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing

#30

Post by guerrilla »

28511524 wrote: post #2

“Options include reserve thermal power plants, battery storage or cables for importing electricity from other markets.” Or nuclear. Sad that this isn’t seen as an option any longer.

We do hydro and biomass[1] in Sweden. I'm not sure why Germany, France and Italy, given the topographies, would have a problem with that. Have they not diverisifed as much?

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Sweden

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