EUROPEAN ENERGY CRACK

By TODD CARNEY  Writer, Freelance 

ENERGYCENTRAL - Feb 20, 2023 -  A piece from Grid looked at how Europe will deal with the upcoming summer in terms of its grid. With winter coming to a close, it appears that Europe has survived the winter without major catastrophes. This was surprising to some because Europe’s environmental push and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine turned many of Europe’s energy policies upside down. While many would probably be upset over the quality of life aspects in Europe this winter, there was no major blackout that caused widespread deaths.

While this is something to celebrate, summer is only a few months away. Last summer was several degrees warmer than the modern historic average. This warming actually helped Europe beat the energy crisis this winter because Europe’s winter was also much warmer, which caused people to use the heat less. But even though Europe does not necessarily use air conditioning as much as places like the United States, some air conditioning is needed to save lives. If people are turning up their air conditioning in the face of increased heat, that could lead to the blackouts that everyone feared for the winter.

The increased heat does not just impact energy use, it could impact the availability of energy. A significant amount of Europe’s energy came from hydropower. Increased temperatures could lead to less water.

Furthermore, even though Europe has significantly cut its reliance on Russian gas, a lot of the storage that they used to cut the reliance was actually Russian gas from the past. So now there will not be anything to replace that storage. Additionally, the further entrenchment of the Russian war makes it unlikely that there will be any type of reconciliation anytime soon.

The undetermined factor is how hot this summer will be. While trends show a warmer summer, nothing is for sure until the summer actually comes. Europe got lucky this winter (granted from factors that would create a warmer summer), they could get lucky again.

This was a very informative article, but it could have discussed load management strategies that Europe could take. Additionally, while there is no getting Russian gas back for now, Europe could expand its nuclear energy, it would be interesting to see the capabilities for Europe there. No matter someone’s views on climate change and energy sources, most will likely admit these risky scenarios are from Europe not having a long-term plan to be energy independent. Europeans need to demand this kind of plan from their leaders.

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