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Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages

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Re: Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages

#71
post #66

I am happy I got solar earlier this year. I thought it would be very expensive but we are very frugal with energy and it only was 7k euro to go off grid. During the day we can run anything (tons of sun so washing, dish washing, etc etc), during the night less so but we go to bed early (21:00) and get up at 5.

Next investment for you then would be chemical batteries to store power. Given that you are paying in Euros, how do you expect to get enough solar energy over winter?

Where I live (Portugal) I already did many winters with solar when renting; I had the generator on a few hours 1 day in 1 year, the rest was enough sun to make it work.

Same in Spain when I lived there.

Re: Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages

#72
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's what rich countries are doing in general: outbidding pour countries for the limited amount of resources available in the short term. I lived in Switzerland and of course they are doing great, but Swiss people won't be the ones freezing to death in winter. Also the amount of LPG redirected from India and Pakistan to Europe will have a huge effect on those countries. In Hungary the country is trying to get back…

> Also the amount of LPG redirected from India and Pakistan to Europe will have a huge effect on those countries. India's buying the excess gas from Russia though, so they have access to a seller that Europe won't touch.

There are currently no European sanctions against Russian gas. Nobody is very happy about it, but Europe would still buy that gas if the pipelines were open.

Re: Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages

#73
post #70

Here is what Switzerland is doing at the moment to prevent the worst case which would be rolling black outs. They are planning for the worst case so they don't get caught with their pants down. This includes: - Currently trying to fill as many reservoirs as possible - Securing gas in foreign reservoirs. - Plan for emergency gas plants that can be operational by January/February, the time Switzerland has the least ele…

To nitpick, Switzerland is not part of Europe.

EU does not equal Europe.

Re: Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's what rich countries are doing in general: outbidding pour countries for the limited amount of resources available in the short term. I lived in Switzerland and of course they are doing great, but Swiss people won't be the ones freezing to death in winter. Also the amount of LPG redirected from India and Pakistan to Europe will have a huge effect on those countries. In Hungary the country is trying to get back…

>Here's what rich countries are doing in general: outbidding pour countries for the limited amount of resources available in the short term. Not just energy, but food, vaccines, medical supplies, consumer products, etc. This has always been the case but now it's at the point where third world countries will probably have major civil unrest and emigration due to the shortages of food and energy they will face from bei…

If you really think that all Europeans are going to vacations and buying game consoles, you havent been to a village in an Eastern-European country yet.

I am sure that living from $70/month would be hard for any of us, but some people have to keep their whole family alive from that money, and definately depend on the government this winter. If they freeze, nobody will know about them and they will be just deleted from the statistics.

Heres a video of how the poorest part of Hungary looked like a few years ago, and I am sure their life has just gotten much worse since a few years ago: https://youtu.be/FvoTaqutfVk

Re: Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages

#75
We need more nuclear power plants and we need them yesterday, there is no other mid term solution for the ongoing/coming energy crisis. The problem is that replacing old nuclear power plants (or building new ones) takes many years, time we don’t have… Let’s see how this situation evolves.

Re: Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Here's what rich countries are doing in general: outbidding pour countries for the limited amount of resources available in the short term. Not just energy, but food, vaccines, medical supplies, consumer products, etc. This has always been the case but now it's at the point where third world countries will probably have major civil unrest and emigration due to the shortages of food and energy they will face from bei…

Poor people in Europe already die of cold every winter. The UK especially has a lot of housing in bad condition. Before the pandemic I would regularly see retirement-aged people sitting in the local indoor shopping centre all day in winter.

Where exactly? At least in Northern Europe it's very rare that even homeless would die of cold, and most of such cases are due to drunkenly passing out in the snow.

Re: Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

European != middle class.

The poor and vulnerable people in places like Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, etc. receive generous welfare and assistance from the government to not starve and freeze to death. They'll be fine. In Eastern Europe, not so much.

Are you implying that France, Germany, and Netherlands don't have homeless and elderly people? These two groups are the most at risk of dying form cold.

edit: I'm glad that you mention Eastern Europe, which is where I come from. Paradoxically, more people die from cold in the West, because their milder climates don't force them to invest in insulation.

edit2: the previous claim may be based on flawed methology, see https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/38/4/806/2966950

Re: Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages

#78
The situation in Italy is bleak - due to widespread NIMBY-ism it's basically impossible to build anything. Even hooking up a LNG FSRU temporarily in an emergency situation like the current one is a monumental feat of burocracy and fighting against everyone and everything.

There's a non zero chance that, together with the inevitable far right government that will come out of today's elections, the country will collapse between this and the following winter. Italy is just too dependent from NG, it can't just survive a total loss of supplies from Russia sadly.

Re: Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages

#80
post #22
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With electricity What a silly comment. The switch over to an electric cars is a multi year process that will take at least until 2030 just for new cars. The current problems won't last nearlt that long

Someone forgot the laws of physics regarding electricy production for the amount of cars in transit.

Petrol prices rising are part of this crisis too.

Most EVs are charged over night, when grid usage is low. Doesn’t that maximise the use of a strained system?

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