Swiss expert: European electricity grid hurtling towards disaster
A new paper from the Global Warming Policy Foundation shows that the European electricity grid is hurtling towards disaster, with its constituent nations closing reliable nuclear and ‘fossil-fuelled’ power stations and hoping that the Interconnectors will make up the deficit.
According to the paper’s author, Alexander Stahel, a Swiss-based commodities expert, the European grid has relied on French and German power surpluses for many years.
However, with nuclear power in both countries being wound down and likely to soon become net power importers, and with fierce international competition for scarce gas supplies, the whole continent is now left hoping for Scandinavian hydro power and occasional surpluses of UK wind to save them.
According to Stahel, the numbers just don’t add up, and he warns that restrictions on ‘fossil fuel’ investment are making things dramatically worse:
“Fossil fuels are currently vital for keeping the lights on, but we are undermining the industry’s viability.
It needs US$300 billion of re-investment every year, for oil and gas alone, just to maintain current production levels.
However, convinced by policymakers that investments in production will become ‘stranded’, it is not even investing half this amount.”
Stahel says that Europe must simply accept that its decarbonisation targets are not achievable.
Alexander Stahel: “The Crisis of the European Energy System” (pdf)
See more here european-electricity
Header image: BBC
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Tom
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What did you expect? Going green is the pits.
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Alan
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This document must be circulated as widely as possible. This man understands what it takes to plan, build and operate a reliable electricity system. These skills seem to have been eliminated from the thinking of National Grid, the power companies and every government. A major disaster looms and it is too late to do anything about it.
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Howdy
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Why don’t they tell us something we don’t know?
It’s allready the case that the interconnects from the UK will be shut off if the supplying countries get short, so perhaps there will be a tit-for-tat ‘war’ in some places? Like why should producer countries pay the obscene world price for something they allready own?
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Boris Badenov
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Please remember, when the leftist dweebs say ‘we must reduce Carbon’ YOU are the carbon they want to reduce. Less people, less energy needed, no problem. Simple huh?
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