Energy Dependency of EU
I have been concerned about the energy policy of European Union (including UK, to hell with Brexit!) for a while. However, with the current Russian invasion, I think barbarians are at the gate, proverbially. My main problem have always been that Europe is a net importer of hydrocarbon by choice, not due to lack of resources. If a country (or a group of countries, in this case) doesn't have a natural resource, it must import it if that is required for domestic consumption. However, if they do have it, and decide not to use it either for a political or environmental policy (as the case for EU), it becomes and entirely different problem.
That infographic above shows the dependency of EU to Russian energy exports. Mind you, Russia doesn't have any other meaningful exports that pays in international currency (read USD). So you are looking at the main cash cow for Russia above. Now the world have made unprecedented amount of economic sanction on Russia to throlle Putin's war machine. However, exports to EU continues. This is simply because, Russians energy export to EU can't be mitigated overnight without major disruptions. So Russians need the money to fund their war machine, and EU need the energy to sustain their countries. So right now it is a symbiotic relationship, but we all know this is a reciepe for disaster.
Alternatives
EU need the energy. Trouble is nothing can be done overnight, even if there is a shift in the energy policy. Most of the northern Europe doesn't get enough Sun to generate sustainable Solar Power all year. There were proposals to build large scale solar farms in Morocco and Algeria, but that requires multi-billion dollars investments not only to construct the solar farms but also to construct at least 3-4 power transmission lines across the Mediterranean, similar to North Sea Link. Even if projects of this magnitude is sanctioned, it will likely take 3-5 years or more to complete. The need, however, is immediate.
Nuclear power is a carbon free option, and from my point of view, probably the most suitable option for Europe, but outside of France, it is rather non-existent! Thanks to Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi disasters, policy makers do not like Nuclear power plants. To that I say, it is easy to choose between right or wrong, but world is much more complex, and often we must choose between the lesser of the two wrongs and assume the risk. Because the alternative is far worse.
I've been reading your articles @azircon and they are on point. Good stuff! I didn't know the US exports oil! Blasphemy lol
US exports quite a bit of crude oil and even more refined products. Now you know :)
A combi of wind and solar power would be great for us in the North and Denmark do have a shit ton of Wind power, just not enough places to storage it for later use x)
well, you tell me what happened to Denmark...
Note that Denmark’s value of -35.9% for the year 2000 is not a typo. Rather, it means that the country was a net exporter of energy. And now a net importer of energy...
Country 2000 2021
🇦🇹 Austria 65.5% 58.3%
🇧🇪 Belgium 78.2% 78.0%
🇧🇬 Bulgaria 46.4% 37.9%
🇭🇷 Croatia 48.5% 53.6%
🇨🇾 Cyprus 98.6% 93.1%
🇨🇿 Czechia 22.7% 38.9%
🇩🇰 Denmark -35.9% 44.9%
🇪🇪 Estonia 34.0% 10.6%
🇫🇮 Finland 55.5% 42.0%
🇫🇷 France 51.2% 44.5%
Average 56.3% 57.5%
Whaaat. I don't know what the fuck happend haha xD
I have talked for years about the Government / World not doing enough for the renewable energy market and see what came back and bite them in the ass xD
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India is focusing on utilizing the ample solar energy available in the country. Let's hope we shift to sustainable energy sources soon!
Thanks for sharing @azicron
hope is good, but often not practical
And to think in the news "EU mulls banning oil from Russia", if this would happen the EU would go into the dark, fast.
Alternative energy in a decentralized way i what is needed in my humble opinion.
question is: at what time frame?
Time frame is not as important as the price, above $120 and the world stalls.
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If the politicians of my country wouldn't have been so corrupt we would clearly be self sufficient for any natural resource meaning we wouldn't need to import anything, but they killed Ceausescu in '89 and they started selling everything to the west afterwards.
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Romania. Got it.
Same can be said for many countries..
Nuclear power is a solution but there is always the problem of waste storage and the risk of accidents. In France, the power plants are aging, Tricastin, the largest was built in 1980 with a life span of 40 years, still in operation ... Perhaps the war in Ukraine will bring the necessary investments for the safety of these facilities.
well absolutely. Money need to be spend for maintainance of those facilities. It is the cost of freedom essentially
So, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but your post might be slightly out of date now that Putin has declared that energy can only be purchased by unfriendly countries in Ruples. This puts the EU in a super weird position... I think purchasing Ruples to purchase energy is totally a bridge too far.
It also puts Russia in a more weird position because now they'll have $0 coming in... not really the situation any invading nation wants to be in. I can't help but think that every decision Putin makes is a little step closer to suicide by war.
well, I saw the news before posting this. I am unclear how this actually unfolds.
Yeah I wasn't sure if you had... my guess is... more badly for Russia than for Europe?
Maybe...
Thanks for sharing👍
Thanks for such exhaustive explanation of something I am telling since I was at high school.
I am from Italy and here we have literally tons of energy in the form of sun, wind and water. I recently read that IT government is evaluating a 3-years plan for renewable resources but I am asking myself why those initiatives are often to be carried out during emergencies (when everything costs much more) and not in regular (and calm) historical moments.
I had a study experience in NL and there for example are exploiting a lot wind energy plus some hydro-turbines at the very big dike they built.