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Electricity Prices by Country

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221–230 of 312 posts

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#221
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By far more energy goes to heating than air conditioning, but a lot of heating in the US is natural gas (or oil in the northeast), especially in the colder places. About 43% of household energy use is heating and only 8% is air conditioning.[1] But for overall household electricity use, air conditioning is 17% and heating is 15% (all houses, not just all-electric houses). [2] [1] https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/u…

Up here in Alaska, heating your house with electricity would be asinine if you have any other option.

Heat pumps are becoming widespread in Scandinavia, especially Norway — even though Norway is rich in fossil fuels.

Alaska is colder, but: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/heat-pumps-alaska-oil-energy...

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#222
post #51

If you are asking yourself why prices in Germany are so high: It's mostly the price surge of natural gas after Russia cut off deliveries in retaliation to sanctions in the wake of the war against Ukraine. About 50% of the price per kw/h in Germany is set by an auction system. Electricity providers are bidding at any given point in time to provide energy for the grid. The lowest price per kw/h wins. BUT: because no on…

Nitpicking here, but it's kWh (kW * hour) and not kW/h

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#223
post #96
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I provided any judgement whatsoever, I just described how it works and the effects it had in this specific situation. Both are correct as I described them, to the best of my knowledge. If you are interested in my opinion, I'm perfectly willing to accept that this kind of auction system works efficiently and effectively under normal circumstances. But in this specific scenario, it led to consumer prices…

The problem aren’t the gas plants, the problem is the insufficient amount of cheap electricity on the market. Wind and PV heavily rely on backup power plants. So building a lot of wind and PV increases the reliance on gas plants instead of reducing it. Even the government’s own energy agency "DENA" makes this claim. See: https://www.dena.de/fileadmin/dena/Dokumente/Pdf/9262_dena-L... (p. 28f).

You need to have a lot of gas capacity but the actual usage of that capacity can drop.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just any coal, but lignite, the nastiest, dirtiest kind of coal. Definitely greener than nuclear. /s

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/En...

Graph only goes until 2020.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#225
post #84

One little thing that stuck out: The USA leads the way in terms of household electric usage in the world – an average US household consumes approximately 975 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month, three times more than for example the United Kingdom. Which got me wondering how big US domiciles are versus those in the UK. Turns out: lot of big-ass houses here in the US. https://shrinkthatfootprint.com/how-big-is-a-…

Is that an average? I had no idea it was that small in the Uk. I mean, what is the point of a house at that size? It just seems like it might as well be an apartment unit .

That is a common and valid criticism of British houses.

There are old Victorian houses built for factory workers, although most of the smallest have been demolished: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-up_two-down

But they still build things almost as small now! [1] is wasting space on three bathrooms and a staircase, and has floor plans illustrated with what seems to be rather small furniture.

On the same development they have some apartments. [2] is poorly laid out (the long hallway is wasted space) but still manages to have more living area and costs £65,000 less.

[1] https://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/new-homes/worthing/barley-gra...

[2] https://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/new-homes/worthing/barley-gra...

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#228

What I often notice when reading articles like this is people aren't aware of how electricity is priced in different countries. When I was in the UK I had one headline figure of price per KWh that covered everything. This seems to apply in a few European countries too. In Canada however I have a price per KWh and then about 7 or so different extra charges on my bill (local access fees, trasmissions charges, rate ride…

Around here, prices even change depending on time of use. Peak hours start at 4pm when people start getting off work, and solar production starts going down. My price at peak demand is more than double my off-peak prices.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#229
post #62
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To think there were nuclear reactors already built and running perfectly fine in Germany. That were closed down presumably for ecological reasons. Burning coal and natural gas instead.

They werent that many to begin with they growing increasingly expensive to run, were coming to the end of their lifespan and Fukushima was a risk that was hard to ignore. It's interesting how Poland's electricity mix has been 80% coal for decades and this passes without comment, but what really enrages some people is a few nuclear power plants in Germany being mostly swapped out with solar and wind energy. Doesnt see…

> They werent that many to begin with they growing increasingly expensive to run, were coming to the end of their lifespan and Fukushima was a risk that was hard to ignore.

Not for Japan[1]. The truth is that after Fukushima, the pro-nuclear parties lost a few state elections, which caused them to panic and give up on nuclear. Today, even Japan is over it, but in germany no one wants to admit that mistake.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Japan#Post-Fu...

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#230
post #84

One little thing that stuck out: The USA leads the way in terms of household electric usage in the world – an average US household consumes approximately 975 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month, three times more than for example the United Kingdom. Which got me wondering how big US domiciles are versus those in the UK. Turns out: lot of big-ass houses here in the US. https://shrinkthatfootprint.com/how-big-is-a-…

England has ~25,000 sqft per person. That's the simple inverse of population density.

Everything has to come out of that budget.

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