Sanctions War: French and German Electricity Prices Up by 1,000 Per Cent over 2021
The economic powerhouses of the European Union, France and Germany, both set records on Friday for electricity prices, as the West’s sanctions war with Russia continues to bite.
This time last year the cost of electricity per megawatt-hour (MWh) in both France and Germany sat at around 85 euros.
On Friday, both countries set record highs, with the cost climbing by at least 1,000 per cent from last year to €850 in Germany and over €1,000 in France, Le Monde reports.
While the price of energy has been rising since the end of the lockdown measures across the world last summer, Europe, and Germany in particular, have been subject to soaring prices as a result of slowing flows of gas from Russia following the sanctions clash following the February invasion of Ukraine, with many thermal power plants using natural gas to generate electricity.
Despite longstanding warnings from figures such as former President Donald Trump, Germany has remained heavily reliant on Russia for gas while it has pursued so-called green energy sources and shut down nuclear power stations.
Though Russia has claimed that the current shortfalls in gas shipments have come as a result of technical issues with the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, others have suggested that it is a retaliatory strike in response to sanctions levied against Moscow.
The Russian economy has seemingly weathered the sanctions far better than expected.
France, which unlike Germany has not abandoned nuclear power, has still been impacted by the gas price shocks, and is currently suffering from significant maintenance problems with its nuclear power sector. Currently, only 24 of 56 nuclear reactors owned by the state-owned Électricité de France (EDF) electricity company are operational due to issues with corrosion, driving French electricity production to a historic low.
Green Fail: Germany to Reconnect First Coal Power Plant to Energy Grid
In a demonstration of the failure of Germany’s pursuit of so-called “green energy” and its policy of relying on Russian gas in the meantime, a coal-fired power plant will be reconnected to the nation’s electricity grid.
While the economic powerhouse of Europe — so called — scrambles to secure energy sources before the winter months, the previously shuttered Mehrum coal power plant in Lower Saxony will become the first to once again be connected to Germany’s grid.
On Monday, the manager of the Czech-owned EGH operating company, Kathrin Voelkner said: “We have declared the return to the electricity market. We assume that we will return to the grid in the short term,” according to the Frankfurter Neue Presse newspaper.
The move was preceded by the federal government implementing an emergency ordinance to allow mothballed oil and coal-powered plants to open back up until April of next year, as the country faces a shortfall in its energy amid the conflict in Ukraine.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck, a leading member of the German Greens, has described the decision to turn back on coal plants as “bitter” but a necessary evil.
While the government has allowed for the return to coal power, the socialist SPD-led traffic light coalition government has so far refused to abandon its decision to shut its remaining nuclear power plants by the end of the year, a move that followed years of anti-nuclear policies from former Chancellor Angela Merkel following the Fukushima meltdown in Japan.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/08/27/f...last-year/
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/08/03/g...ergy-grid/
The economic powerhouses of the European Union, France and Germany, both set records on Friday for electricity prices, as the West’s sanctions war with Russia continues to bite.
This time last year the cost of electricity per megawatt-hour (MWh) in both France and Germany sat at around 85 euros.
On Friday, both countries set record highs, with the cost climbing by at least 1,000 per cent from last year to €850 in Germany and over €1,000 in France, Le Monde reports.
While the price of energy has been rising since the end of the lockdown measures across the world last summer, Europe, and Germany in particular, have been subject to soaring prices as a result of slowing flows of gas from Russia following the sanctions clash following the February invasion of Ukraine, with many thermal power plants using natural gas to generate electricity.
Despite longstanding warnings from figures such as former President Donald Trump, Germany has remained heavily reliant on Russia for gas while it has pursued so-called green energy sources and shut down nuclear power stations.
Though Russia has claimed that the current shortfalls in gas shipments have come as a result of technical issues with the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, others have suggested that it is a retaliatory strike in response to sanctions levied against Moscow.
The Russian economy has seemingly weathered the sanctions far better than expected.
France, which unlike Germany has not abandoned nuclear power, has still been impacted by the gas price shocks, and is currently suffering from significant maintenance problems with its nuclear power sector. Currently, only 24 of 56 nuclear reactors owned by the state-owned Électricité de France (EDF) electricity company are operational due to issues with corrosion, driving French electricity production to a historic low.
Green Fail: Germany to Reconnect First Coal Power Plant to Energy Grid
In a demonstration of the failure of Germany’s pursuit of so-called “green energy” and its policy of relying on Russian gas in the meantime, a coal-fired power plant will be reconnected to the nation’s electricity grid.
While the economic powerhouse of Europe — so called — scrambles to secure energy sources before the winter months, the previously shuttered Mehrum coal power plant in Lower Saxony will become the first to once again be connected to Germany’s grid.
On Monday, the manager of the Czech-owned EGH operating company, Kathrin Voelkner said: “We have declared the return to the electricity market. We assume that we will return to the grid in the short term,” according to the Frankfurter Neue Presse newspaper.
The move was preceded by the federal government implementing an emergency ordinance to allow mothballed oil and coal-powered plants to open back up until April of next year, as the country faces a shortfall in its energy amid the conflict in Ukraine.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck, a leading member of the German Greens, has described the decision to turn back on coal plants as “bitter” but a necessary evil.
While the government has allowed for the return to coal power, the socialist SPD-led traffic light coalition government has so far refused to abandon its decision to shut its remaining nuclear power plants by the end of the year, a move that followed years of anti-nuclear policies from former Chancellor Angela Merkel following the Fukushima meltdown in Japan.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/08/27/f...last-year/
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/08/03/g...ergy-grid/
