FT - "EU faces 20 years of rising energy bills"

[DCon]

Gloomy stuff

European businesses and consumers face at least 20 years of electricity price rises, according to a leaked European Commission report on how the region can meet its green energy targets.

It also forecasts a huge growth in the number of wind farms, which would push up prices even higher.

In an assessment that examines a range of ways in which fossil fuels such as coal can be replaced with cleaner sources of energy, the 112-page report says all scenarios point to wind farms becoming the biggest source of electricity in the bloc by 2050, outstripping both coal and nuclear power.

Wind farms could provide as much as 49 per cent of EU electricity by that date, the report suggests, up from just 5 per cent today.

Average electricity prices for households and businesses would rise “strongly up to 2020-2030” under all scenarios, the document says, and the highest prices would occur after 2030 if renewable sources of power, such as wind and solar, make up a large share of energy production. For example, average prices for households could jump by more than 100 per cent by 2050 if this were the case but only by 43 per cent under a scenario that assumed more nuclear power and carbon capture and storage were used.

The assessment shows what would happen to prices, costs and energy sources under five different scenarios to make the EU less dependent on conventional fossil fuels such as coal and gas, which now account for more than half the electricity generated in the bloc.

Nuclear plants are the next biggest source, with a share of 28 per cent, while wind and hydro-electric plants, the two main sources of renewable energy, produce a combined total of 18 per cent.

Of the five scenarios examined, the highest electricity prices are forecast in a “high renewables” scenario which envisages more supply of North Sea off-shore wind plus “significant” concentrated solar power – plants that concentrate the sun’s rays to produce steam and drive a turbine – and micro power generation from solar and wind.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/fb79d...#axzz1b2WPiMyZ

[ang]

It's all very well saying prices will continue to rise but has anyone factored in the "people won't be able to pay" scenario when presenting these reports.

[C. Flower]

Very good question.

Energy is not just heating houses and driving cars. Industrial production and agriculture come into it too.

[eskerman]

all this adds to the costs of feeding a family... its all connected and I struggle to understand how we are all gonna survive this onslaught.. I think oil is low at $85 a barrel and yet I see €1.52/ltr still on the pumps locally..

Very sad and hard on so many people who are struggling to keep food on the table..

[DCon]

Nuclear stress tests reveal the European Reactors are as shaky as the European banks

Hundreds of defects have been found throughout Europe’s nuclear reactors and mostly in France, according to a EU stress test report leaked to the German and French media.

The European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (Ensreg), a group of senior officials from the national nuclear regulatory authorities from all 27 member states, said on Monday in a statement said they have yet to be informed of the content of the report.

“The commission had not made available to Ensreg any draft of the communication. However, the content of a draft was known by some Ensreg members and this draft raised major problems and concerns in Ensreg,” said the group's chairperson Tero Varjoranta.

http://euobserver.com/environment/117721



Meanwhile, in South Korea

Steve Herman ‏@W7VOA

Yonhap reports trouble at a 2nd S. Korean #nuclear plant today...now a shutdown of the Younggwant-5 (1000MWe) reactor.

https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/?q=%23nuclear&src=hash

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news...-1226486581513

[C. Flower]

Timely - both gas and electricity is going up in Ireland. We now seem to have an ESB network, ESB energy producer, and a quango to run the network. All being nicely shaped up to hand over to oligarchs ?

Most of our electricity in Ireland seems to be produced from British gas.

The idea of national / local sustainability is contrary to the EU aim of a competitive and open market, privately operated.

With the interconnector, there is no incentive for politicians here to worry about energy independence. We pay for it if it is used or not.

[Ephilant]

The simplest way out of this for individuals is to invest NOW in things like your own windmill in the back yard, a solar panel or 2 on the roof, etc.
Here we do of course have a tad more sunshine, so many houses are not on the grid because they take care of their own energy needs.
This looming energy crisis needs a little creative policital thinking. One of the propositions made here by the most dangerous politician in Europe is to make grand-aid and tax concessions to possible industrial investors subject to those investors generating their own power using clean technology, + 50% overcapacity, which they would then have to feed into the grid at no cost.
It is envisaged that this way the energy needs of the country can be met at little or no cost to the country, and energy cost to the consumer can be reduced without loss of revenue to the country.

[Slim Buddha]

Timely - both gas and electricity is going up in Ireland. We now seem to have an ESB network, ESB energy producer, and a quango to run the network. All being nicely shaped up to hand over to oligarchs ?

Most of our electricity in Ireland seems to be produced from British gas.

The idea of national / local sustainability is contrary to the EU aim of a competitive and open market, privately operated.

With the interconnector, there is no incentive for politicians here to worry about energy independence. We pay for it if it is used or not.

The alternative is to be nice to Putin.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Or wait until there is a major find off the Irish coast and nationalise the lot. Mr Kenny would be up for playing hardball with Shell for us.

He'd probably come back wearing a Shell baseball cap.

[DCon]

Air into Petrol?

A small British company has produced the first "petrol from air" using a revolutionary technology that promises to solve the energy crisis as well as helping to curb global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Air Fuel Synthesis in Stockton-on-Tees has produced five litres of petrol since August when it switched on a small refinery that manufactures gasoline from carbon dioxide and water vapour.

"We are converting renewable electricity into a more versatile, useable and storable form of energy, namely liquid transport fuels. We think that by the end of 2014, provided we can get the funding going, we can be producing petrol using renewable energy and doing it on a commercial basis," he said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...l-8217382.html

[morticia]

Air into Petrol?

If this takes off, we really will be looking at global cooling!!