Bloomberg: Germany Revives Coal as Energy Security Trumps Climate Goals
Germany is set to boost its reliance on coal as it battles an unprecedented energy crisis — even at the expense of its ambitious climate goals.
Europe’s largest economy is burning the fossil fuel for electricity at the fastest pace in at least six years, data compiled by Bloomberg show. It’s also poised to be one of the few nations to increase coal imports next year.
On Thursday, utility Uniper SE said it would extend commercial operations of two of its coal-fired plants in Germany until March 2024 at the latest, in an effort to conserve natural gas in the coming winters.
Across the globe, highly polluting — and relatively cheap — coal is making a comeback as countries seek to prevent soaring energy costs from triggering an economic meltdown. In Europe, the crisis is acute, after Russia curbed gas supplies in the fallout of its war in Ukraine. Germany is now trying to balance the short-term priority of bolstering energy security with the longer-term goal of net-zero emissions by 2045.
Read more ….
Update: Energy crisis fuels coal comeback in Germany (Euronews/Reuters)
WNU Editor: On the one hand we hear German officials praising German efforts to cut gas production …. Germany Has Dramatically Slashed Its Dependence On Russian Gas (OilPrice.com), on the other hand we hear the opposite from other officials …. German regulator: gas consumption up, savings target missed (Reuters). But in this discussion is the uncomfortable truth that coal is making a comeback, and it is making a mockery of Germany’s vaunted green energy efforts.
One more note. According to German media reports Germany is consuming almost 1% of its natural gas stockpile per-day. That means by the end of March Germany will be out of natural gas, and when it comes to future supplies the country be completely dependent for LNG and what they can get from Norway.