European Energy Crisis: price per MWh now above 300 EUR in many countries

https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1472553090024984580

by wsc981 • 5 years ago

35 19 5 years ago

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ElDji• 5 years ago

EU commission wanted free market. It will lower energy prices, they said. That worked quite well isn't ?

kmlx• 5 years ago

june 2020 had the lowest ever prices. no one was complaining.

in reality these high prices are due to a combination of factors:

- countries reopened after covid at the same time across the planet leading to pressure from asia to europe

- norway’s gas infrastructure works

- cold winter and spring followed by a very hot summer which increased energy demand for heating and AC

- lack of wind in northern Europe meaning burning more coal and gas

- fire at a Russian gas processing plant in August reducing output from Russia to Europe. thus Russia couldn’t fulfil anything more than long-term contracts (no spot)

- Russia’s Putin also has an interest to put pressure on Europeans in order to fast track Nord Stream 2.

- Putin also wants Europeans to rely less on the free market and more on long term contracts, since those disincentivise investments in energy efficiency, diversification, the transition to cleaner energy sources. EU initiatives have also made Europe less susceptible to market manipulation by Gazprom than it used to be. these are big no-no’s for the Kremlin

Ekaros• 5 years ago

Also I think Norway's reservoir levels are low. Which also affects prices as they are likely to import some energy.

djbebs4• 5 years ago

Even ignoring the fact that this isn't a free market by any stretch, the fact is the EU imposes massive costs which will necessarily be reflected in the price of electricity.

For example, about 60% of the cost of electricity in Poland is tied up in buying carbon credits [1]. Now you may agree with the existence of such a system, but that doesn't make its consequences cease to be.

[1] https://twitter.com/michal_1979/status/1472635201226428416?t...

ZeroGravitas3• 5 years ago

'Free Market' doesn't mean 'no regulation', in fact the existance of externalites prevents a free market from functioning as it is supposed to.

ipspam• 5 years ago

Self inflicted problems. This is largely a result of an inability to stock and store large amounts of natural gas due to climate change activists getting their way.

Hopefully this coming nightmare of a winter will dispel people of their fantasies about transitioning to a green economy fast.

maratc• 5 years ago

Interesting why France (with its nuclear power plants) and Switzerland (with hydro) have the highest prices.

Bayart• 5 years ago

Most of the energy in France is tied to long term contracts. Spot market prices aren't really meaningful.

StephenAmar• 5 years ago

There had to shutdown a few plants in the past few days. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/edf-shares-plunge-after...

interactivecode• 5 years ago

Hopefully this speeds up the adoption of solar panels. We have the tech to be less reliant on fossil fuel and ee should be doing that

nyokodo• 5 years ago

Hopefully this speeds up the adoption of solar panels

Except the solar energy potential in Northern Europe is too low to be cost effective. Going big on solar isn’t going to lower prices.

myridium• 5 years ago

Guess that's what happens when you shut down safe, cheap, emissions-free sources of electricity for nonsense ideological reasons (nuclear power plants).

hyperman1• 5 years ago

At least in Belgium, I have the impression the nuclear reactors are end of life and based on obsolete designs. They already did a few emergency stops and underwent expensive repairs. The right question should have been if they should be replaced. Which is a lot harder to sell .

TrackerFF• 5 years ago

I'm currently paying around 0.02 EUR / KWh (or 20 EUR / MWh) here in Norway, though in a much cheaper area - so luckily I got / am getting through this pretty smoothly.

But for a country that has been blessed with low energy prices, it's currently a very hot topic.

European Energy Crisis: price per MWh now above 300 EUR in many countries

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