Posted on 09/12/2022 3:33:46 PM PDT by Libloather
Coal is re-emerging as a key source of energy for European countries racing to replace increasingly scarce natural gas as Moscow shuts off key pipeline flows.
Europe is caught in a worsening energy crisis as Russia uses its energy exports to retaliate against sanctions. So countries like Germany are turning to coal to secure energy supplies before winter hits.
Power generation using coal has shot up over 20% in France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the UK together since last year, Rystad Energy data shows. European countries have increased coal consumption this year.
"Coal is definitely making a comeback, with skyrocketing natural gas prices and drought," Ole Hvalbye, an analyst at Swedish bank SEB, told Insider. "Now it is all about surviving the winter."
Here, analysts lay out the factors shaping the appetite and market for coal - and whether they mean soaring prices for the fossil fuel will keep climbing.
Soaring natural gas prices
Moscow's drumbeat of disruptions to flows has sent European natural gas prices up 300% this year, and to record highs in August.
That has prompted power companies in Austria, the Netherlands and Italy to eye the use of coal again. German utility giant Uniper has revived a mothballed coal-fueled plant until April 2023.
(Excerpt) Read more at markets.businessinsider.com ...
We are not doing bad at the moment. I think the high today was 71. The nights are oddly cold.
Kind of funny. I jokingly told my husband they would end up doing that.
We bought more cylinders for our Buddy heater + we have a few electric ones. Wish we had a wood burner
Yeah, that outfit will pass muster in the mines.
I wore sneakers to a recovery boiler in a pulp mill once. Just once. I was told to not come back without proper leather industrial steel-toed footwear.
Yeah. I know. A friend, that now lives in AZ, calls me every February to tell me that he’s eating fresh tomatoes from his garden.
Jerk. ;)
Germany was actually considering clear cutting old growth forests to make room for wind farms, not for firewood. If they want wood for generating power they can buy pellets from the US, like UK does. But it is reported that the common people are scouring the forests for dead wood, and buying up seasoned cord wood, to use in household stoves. They know, they have heard stories from their parents and grandparents.
There are nicer places to live than USA or Europe.
8 Sept updated 9 Sept: Bloomberg: China May Boost Coal Power Plant Building Amid Energy Crunch
Engineering firm expects 270 GW of new capacity by 2025
by Bloomberg, With assistance by Dan Murtaugh, Qian Chen, and Luz Ding
That would be more than the 100 to 200 gigawatts estimated in 2020...
About 320 gigawatts of thermal power plants were added between 2006-2010...
The country put more new coal plants into operation last year than the rest of the world combined, and its proposed new coal mines account for almost a third of the global total, she said...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-08/china-to-add-more-coal-plants-than-thought-to-ease-energy-crunch
Germany & others promoted wood burning stoves (and pelletized fuel from waste wood) as “green”, which was sort of ok until this huge increase in demand outstripped supply. Indeed, my not-exactly-poor friend in Switzerland is hunting for seasoned or at least mostly seasoned cord wood presently.
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