Posted on 06/20/2021 6:42:29 AM PDT by george76
With power demand recovering from the pandemic, European utilities are using more coal as natural gas inventories are unusually low for this time of the year due to a cold snap in late winter and early spring.
This year, despite the record-high carbon price in Europe, the use of coal for power generation has jumped by up to 15 percent,
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Gas storage is so low now that Europe cannot afford to run extra power generation with the fuel
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Natural gas stockpiles are some 25 percent below the five-year average, and with such a right gas market, utilities run more coal-fired power generation
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Europe had already started to restock with natural gas following a harsh winter that drained inventories when a cold snap in April caused unusual additional withdrawals from storage.
“A cold snap in April caused a counter-seasonal net withdrawal of inventory, worsening the storage situation which for several months has been running below seasonal averages
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As a result of the low levels of natural gas in storage, the price of the Dutch TTF gas, the European benchmark, has rallied by over 50 percent so far in 2021. Prices are close to the highest level for late spring since 2008
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With the ultra-tight gas market, power generation from coal is rising in Europe, despite the record-high EU carbon price, which exceeded US$60.50 (50 euro) per ton in early May.
The current situation with the power mix in Europe is indicative of the challenges the continent and the European Union face in their push to make the grids greener.
Coal use in power generation is also on the rise in the United States, where the price rally in natural gas is discouraging parts of gas-fired electricity generation and is set to give coal a short-term boost
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
I can think of several US companies who destroyed some of their coal plants in the last eight years due to Obama rules. Bet they wish they had them back now.
The Minneapolis-based monopoly - Xcel Energy- Colorado hopes to increase the value of its shareholders’ wealth (a massive $2.5 billion fuel-switching scam that will hurt rate payers) by shutting down reliable, cost efficient, paid for coal fired units and replace them with not reliable (not paid for yet) energy sources.
Xcel’s Energy Plan will help its shareholders : Not the ratepayers..
As a regulated monopoly utility, Xcel is guaranteed a profit on every dollar it spends building new facilities. This is a tremendous incentive for Xcel. ( stock holders)..
Something not publicized that came out of the G7 meetings. Biden who is stopping the construction of energy pipelines and drilling within the United States, will do nothing to prevent the construction of a direct natural gas pipeline from russia to Germany. Its rank hypocrisy and for all the green talk, The EU and Russia got what they wanted.
Take it from Rahm Emanuel: Never let a ( Soros & pals created) crisis go to waste.
It looks to me that we are quickly approaching the point where ‘demand reduction’ becomes the solution.
It goes like this:
“There’s just not enough electricity to go around. You can either heat or cool your house to a comfortable temperature, have hot water and appliances, or charge up you car. You can’t have it all.”
A little price squeezing to make it painful, a few more years of indoctrinating to raise the envy factor, and we’ll be squealing on each other for leaving an extra light on.
Ah, the good old days... when you used what power you needed and then just paid the electricity bill.
Bookmark
But what about gorebal hoaxing?
Europe keeps talking big on green energy but always fails to live that way. What happened to those zero emission nuclear plants that produced energy without importing it, Germany? Enjoying your coal emissions?
Biden is an idiot, but Euro leaders are even worse.
Biden (his handlers) promote pipelines for the Taliban and Russia while killing those from which the United States could benefit.
Is that what “Building Back Better” looks like?
The history behind Germany’s nuclear phase-out |
https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/history-behind-germanys-nuclear-phase-out
Germany wants to curb greenhouse gas emissions but at the same time will shut down all of its nuclear power stations, which in the year 2000 had a 29.5 per cent share of the power generation mix. In 2020 the share was down to 11.4 percent , and by 2022 all nuclear plants are going to be shut down.
Just another 10% to the Big Guy while Europe commits suicide.
10 years ago I was touring around France and nuclear towers were everywhere. I was told France got 80% of its energy from nuclear plants. I haven’t heard anything about those closing so perhaps France has more brains than Germany.
Germany’s dirty secret has been their reliance on coal after Merkel stupidly shut down their nuclear plants in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The completion of Nord-2 pipeline will help alleviate this problem, but not solve it, and I’ll predict they’ll be back to using nuclear energy within 20 years.
The newer fuel cycles for coal and natural gas are moving forward. A pilot design based on Allan-Fetvedt Cycle built in Houston, Texas paved the way for commercial plants burning NG. The target is for a 300 MW to begin perform testing in 2022.
Merkel was the master of Biden’s capitulation.
I think the French are a bit more pragmatic. They may give a good diplomatic, global warming happy talk, but there are fewer true believers than in Germany.
To run their coal fired VW’s?
The contract for the coal sourced synthesis-gas combustion unit for the Allan-Fetvedt Cycle has been awarded. The expected efficiency of the plant is close to 45%, a drop from the natural gas fired system, the efficiency loss attributed to the energy tapped to operate the associated coal gasification unit.
The average efficiency of U.S. coal generation has risen over the last decade as the older less efficient plants ceased operation. The upper end systems tended close to 37%.
The NG fueled Allan-Fetvedt Cycle generation should achieve close to 60% efficiency, while delivering high pressure CO2 for secondary uses. If fueled from Liquified Natural Gas, the cooling potential from the fuel can reduce pumping losses in the turbine recompression stage. It is estimated this application should improve efficiency to about 75%. The E.U. could take advantage of LNG in this instance to reduce generation costs.
Even the BBC is now reporting this:
“UK fires up coal power plant as gas prices soar”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58469238
“Across Europe, shortages and increased demand from Asia have seen the cost of gas increase to the highest level on record...”
In other words, Russia is sending it’s gas to where it can get the best price.
After announcing just a few weeks ago that Britain was coal-free, the BBC does it’s best to explain away this reversal.
Eventually the dreams meet reality.
Looking forward to winter!
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