Shipping News, Coal Edition
Here’s an amusing story about Germany’s increasing dependence on coal via Eurointelligence.
One of the more shocking statistics about German electricity production is that coal constituted some 32% in the third quarter of 2021. Coal is not only the largest single source of power generation in Germany. Its share has been rising, up from 26.4% from a year earlier. The reason is the increase in gas prices. The withdrawal of three nuclear power stations at the beginning of this year, and the remaining three at the beginning of next year, will lead to a further increase in the proportion of coal in energy production. Robert Habeck [Vice-Chancellor of Germany] wants coal to become the fallback in case Russia cuts off the gas. So there could a massive short-term increase in coal production.
Except the industry is not ready for it. One big problem is transportation. We reported on the falling levels of the river Rhine, and its huge role for Germany’s supply chain. This is where all the heavy stuff is transported, like coal. Germany has no problems importing coal, but struggles to get the coal to power stations. Apart from low water levels, the capacity of Germany’s logistics industry is being used up to transport wheat and other cereals from Ukraine. The rail system is also overloaded. Transportation infrastructure is fixed in the short run. And since coal production is ultimately doomed, nobody has invested in long-term transportation infrastructure projects, and we presume nobody will.
The reason for the lack of investment is the government’s plan to phase out coal production by 2030. What they did not see coming is the reversal of the downward trend in global production that started last year and that, we presume, will have continued this year. Habeck’s plan to expand coal production further in case of a Russian gas embargo came as a shock to the industry, as Bild reports. They were not prepared for this. It means the decommissioned coal-fired power stations would have to be dusted off and rekindled. They also haven’t invested in staff.
Remarkably Stupid in Many Ways
- Angela Merkel mothballed nuclear power plants to appease the Greens.
- The Nord Stream II natural gas pipeline is ready to deliver gas but is totally shut down due to sanctions
- Nord Stream I needs repairs but sanctions limited availability of parts
- Rather than put the nuclear plants back in production Germany is resorting to more coal but supply constraints hinder getting the coal to the plants.
- German Greens would rather use more coal than nuclear.
- Sanctions have driven up the price of natural gas so much that Germany is discussing rationing natural gas.
- Coal is the single largest method of generating electricity in Germany, 32 percent in the third quarter of 2021 up from 26.4 percent. It’s use is undoubtedly higher today.
Well Done Germany!
Also note Germany’s Climate Protection Minister Mandates More Coal to Produce Electricity
And Let’s Investigate Alleged EU Environmental and Climate Change Progress
This is what happens when you mandate green energy and have no legitimate plan to get there.
US vs Germany
In the US, president Biden had no realistic plan to phase out fossil fuels but sought to mandate targets anyway.
Fortunately, on July 15, I was pleased to report Hooray! Senator Manchin Finally Kills Biden’s Build Back Better Initiative
Unfortunately, Biden Declares Climate Emergency to demand more green energy.
Fortunately, I expect the Supreme Court to nix whatever Progressive nonsense Biden concocts to deal with climate change. See the above link for discussion.
This post originated on MishTalk.Com.
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Mish
Do some research about Levelized Costs of Energy (LCOE) Mish. Electricity generation sources’ costs are compared using this technique. Lazard.com provides the LCOE gold standard for more than a decade. Lazard currently states that utility scale renewables are cheaper to BUILD and OPERATE than to operate any EXISTING utility scale electricity source. NO nuclear plant for the past 20 years has been constructed on time and within budget. Nuclear power isn’t even close to being cheap before consideration of decommissioning and waste disposal. Anyone who watched Fukushima blowup knows that catastrophic failure risks everything. Look behind Fukushima and see a headland so high it would take an end of the world tsunami to flood the top. But it was a few million cheaper to build it on the shore than to build pipes and pumps raising cooling water up the hill. Nuclear industry engineering and business decisions can’t be trusted. Asserting anything else is pathetically, treacherously, stupid.
Jimmy Carter: “[The US] is just an oligarchy, with unlimited money being the essence….”
William Casey (CIA Director 1981-1987): “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”
This ‘psstory’ comment is ridiculous. The idea that there was ever a ‘free market’ is laughable, especially in the energy industry. You haven’t heard of the Standard Oil Trust and the Seven Sisters so your comment this is simple minded ignorance. It was ‘free market’ capitalists, in a treacherous attempt to cut labour costs, that gave China its industrial capacity. Now their ‘centrally planned’ economy will overcome the White West. The Global South has repudiated US-NAYOYO leadership. This risks completely changed trade patterns where the White West is excluded from almost every source of raw materials and markets for their ‘services’.
It’s akin to Obama dumping Osama at sea or Clinton expanding NATO and bombing Yugoslavia (Monica Lewinsky!) and expanding NATO … an opportunity for domestic partisan jostling … and here we are, in a war with Russia.
Everyone loves having their cake and eating it too. In
Europe they complain about the EU but if asked if they want to leave it few
want to. The same for the Euro. The Germans complain about the Greece, Spain
and Italy and Greece, Spain and Italy complain about Germany but when asked if
they want to leave the Euro few want to. The UK was able to leave the EU only
because they had their own currency, never really saw themselves as
Continentals and the Continentals never really saw them as European either. Before the Russian invasion the inter-country
bitching revolved around the “holier than thou” arguments over (fill in the blank) issues that in many
cases remind me of what we see in the US.
That has mostly changed. Finding solutions to the big issues
such as survival dominates the discussions now. The ECB is searching for ways
for the EU to survive financially in a time of dire necessity and now that
Germany itself has need of the ECB rather than the opposite possible solutions
that were rejected before suddenly become relevant. The EU obviously needs a
deep, liquid bond market like you find in the US so to get that you are going
to need the EU to be able to issue bonds or more likely take over some of the
bonds of member nations such as Italy and now Germany. I should mention that
Hamilton got the finances of the new country in order by having the federal
government assume the debts of the states and financed the interest payments by
selling land and taxes on booze. I do not know what shape it will take but the
conditions and the willpower to do it are present thanks to Putin.
In the US there are 10-year Federal bonds but individual
states also issue 10-year bonds and there is no incapability. The individual
state 10-year bonds trade at different prices depending as to their ability to
repay bondholders. Texan bonds trade at much higher prices than Illinois ones
for example. In the EU the same is true. Of course it is more complicated than
that but the EU and the ECB are trying to find its “financial feet” you might
say and the political changes will be coming also because that has to be
changed somewhat also. The process is ongoing and the next few years are going
to be very interesting.
Hasn’t gone well for them so far, but if the EU collapses and they don’t, they can call it a win.
Lmao. Would expect chaos everywhere else first before UK. Having lived in France, I do like the french but if true this would be their loss – guess folks will just skip France next time – plenty other places to go.
Empathy? They lost the vote (and most accept it) but are taunted as if they voted the other way.
– Coal, 22%
– Natural Gas, 38%
– Etc & rounding, 2%
Wind and solar have gone way up in recent years, and now we have less reliability. Imagine that.