Energy: Europe on its knees for absurd German maximalism

Can a continent be a slave to the often absurd choices of a single nation for over 150 years? Yes and that is exactly what is happening in Europe.

The European gas crisis has been making headlines for months, but that hasn't stopped Germany from continuing to shut down half of its nuclear capacity by the end of the year and push for an acceleration of the elimination of its plants. coal by 2030, all this sending the European and national energy system into crisis.

Let's see the latest:

• Russian gas has not yet begun to build up the necessary pressure at the Mallnow pumping station, between Poland and Germany, through the Yamal gas pipeline. Indeed the gas flows from west to east to feed Poland;
• France has closed two nuclear power plants and is currently absorbing electricity from other countries.
• Energy prices are down, compared to the crazy highs of two days ago, but only due to the interruption of Christmas economic activities and the prospect of strong supplies of liquefied natural gas from the USA, where, given the price differential, the tanks started to sail towards the EU.

Despite the disaster created, despite the loss of competitiveness of the European economic system, despite the impoverishment of families, despite everything Germany continues in its wicked choice to close its current nuclear power plant, despite France having chosen the opposite, to close the coal and to focus only on natural gas imported from Russia and on “green” funds which are unstable and unable to supply the European industry. Yet it is clear that you can also build a million wind turbines, but without wind you will have no electricity.

Coal and nuclear power made up 40% of the overall energy mix in Germany. Meanwhile, renewables have made up 41% of the mix. Paradoxically, the green choice to close with nuclear power has led to an increase in the use of coal, given the instability of wind and solar sources. Was it possible that no one had thought about it so far?

This year, Germany plans to close the Grohnde, Gundremmingen C and Brokdorf nuclear plants, which will leave Germany with only three active power plants. The last three will be withdrawn by the end of next year.

Regarding coal, Germany has agreed to phase out coal by 2030, compared to its previous goal of withdrawing coal from the country by 2038. Two incomprehensible choices, which put Germany in a critical position, but it is not over. Natural gas should also be eliminated by 2040 and no new gas plants will be installed from 2026. Who will provide the electricity needed to heat German homes? Mystery…

This would be the grid that is currently struggling to supply energy to its people, and the grid that currently relies for 40% on nuclear power and coal-fired power that is set to be phased out.

If the situation was bad in general, due to the choices made by Germany, the “Semaforo” government has made the situation worse. We cite two examples:

• At a time when Germany's energy dependence on Russia is total, the German government has decided to close satellite broadcasts of the Russian Today channel in German , also forcing the law. A useless provocation, which infuriated the Russian foreign minister Lavrov, who promised an answer. Who knows why the gas doesn't reach Mallnow… ;
• the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will not have rapid approval. Chancellor Scholz said the approval is "a technical matter", so it will take a long time. Another irritation for Moscow.

In the last 150 years it has caused Germany only tragedies and disasters for Europe. Now it's up to energy, but the sector changes, and the result does not change.

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The article Energy: Europe on its knees for the absurd German maximalism comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/energia-leuropa-in-ginocchio-per-lassurdo-masimalismo-tedesco/ on Fri, 24 Dec 2021 11:00:32 +0000.