Green Europe May Be On The Verge Of Blackouts

Europe is facing power generation capacity shortages and may even risk blackouts without additional use of natural gas, one of the continent’s biggest producers of the fuel said. —Bloomberg, 16 May 2018

If you have a dangerous bend in the road and everyone knows there is a dangerous bend but nothing is done with it unless there is an accident on the road. Is that what we will see in Europe in power generation as well? Will we have to see blackouts before you see a change in policies? That remains to be seen but we are getting dangerously close in many markets. — Tor Martin Anfinnsen, Bloomberg, 16 May 2018

For the first time, the Netherlands became a net importer of gas last year, reflecting the inexorable decline in production from Europe’s North Sea fields – an issue EU policymakers are only starting to come to terms with. Although the decline of Dutch gas production was long anticipated, the abruptness of the fall came as a surprise to industry observers. This leaves policymakers in Brussels grappling with an uncomfortable reality: Despite their best efforts to liberalize gas markets and diversify supplies, Russia is likely to remain Europe’s dominant supplier for many years. —Euractiv, 16 May 2018

There has been a “dramatic and worrying collapse” in investment in clean energy in the UK in the past three years, MPs have warned. In a report published on Wednesday, the MPs on the committee blamed the trend on a succession of Conservative-led policy decisions, including cuts to green energy subsidies. Since 2015, ministers have privatized the Green Investment Bank, prematurely closed the renewables obligation to onshore wind, removed the climate change levy exemption for renewables and reduced feed-in tariffs for the small-scale renewable generation. The government has also canceled the zero carbon homes policy that was due to begin in 2016 and scrapped a £1bn competition to set up a new “carbon capture and storage” plant to remove carbon dioxide from gas plants. –Jim Pickard, Financial Times, 16 May 2018

The proliferation of renewable energy in the European Union in 2017 did not stop the majority of member states from increasing their carbon footprint. —Climate Change Dispatch, 15 May 2018

Billions have been wasted in a drive to fit green boilers in homes which could have made air pollution worse, MPs warned last night. The scheme is expected to cost £23billion but only 60,000 boilers have been installed in the past four years. Half were boilers that burn biomass such as wood, which causes a ‘serious public health issue’ by pumping out smoke and worsening local air quality, said the Commons public accounts committee. —Daily Mail, 16 May 2018