Nordstream2 project offline

[Mr Gus]

With the Brou-ha in Ukraine & "self proclaimed states" *of russia* no surprise Nordstream has folded.

By that I mean "certification" ..so it's not gone, merely in stasis.

BAH.

A scramble then for alt energy?
Will countries push through reactor plans now (yeah 6 yr build time) !?
OR will this be a new lease of life for wind energy investment in the short term?
Market predictions?

Brent crude has gone up again.

[dan_b]

I think Germany is going to have to reevaluate its plans to close all of its nuclear power stations as a response to the earthquake and tsunami from Fukushima. It'll also no doubt give Johnson an excuse to say "see, this is why we need fracking in the UK and to invest in new gas exploration in the North sea". However I read something this morning that says that known UK North Sea gas reserves are probably going to run out by 2030 and that there don't seem to be many other gas fields out there?

So it's all in on renewables?

Or is that wishful thinking?

[Bugtownboy]

Thought the US was guaranteeing NG supplies - maybe it’s just a short term play to pressurise Vlad.

[Stinsy]

Getting hooked on cheap Russian gas always was dumb. Why would you transfer so much power and wealth to your adversary? Germany (and Netherlands) are in a crisis of their own making!

Luckily the wind has been blowing and we've had more solar for the time of year than we otherwise might. The heating season will soo be over as well.

I'm guessing all gas from Russia will so be cut off...

[Moxi]

It may be a short term plan to alleviate the pressure from Mr Putin's attempts to ameliorate European reactions to his intentions regards Ukraine independence.

However, I would like to think that all the countries that had previously considered buying energy from Russia on a regular basis would now consider geopolitical behaviour of the supplying country as part of their decision matrix and make alternate arrangements for their energy. Thats not a given though as we have seen historically people forget very quickly when a tempting price is waved in their faces.

If we as a population need a gaseous based fuel as part of our supply system then the hydrogen economy appears practical (if not really scary to some like me) as theres already an ability to add hydrogen to existing natural gas, pure hydrogen consuming systems exist and are being adapted to domestic uses, and (at least in the present term) hydrogen electrolysis from water appears to be a feasible "battery" use for excess production of electrical power by wind and solar. In short it may not be the best or most efficient but its already well understood and part way to a domestic roll out already so one of the shorter lead time solutions.

For me its the age old easy thinking - we are effectively on a "war footing" with energy security and planetary welfare, build as many wind turbines and solar farms as you can sensibly find space for, they're easy to build and easy to dismantle so if we get more effective in ten years some old WT's can be pulled down but for now - make energy. Build modular electrolysing units to be installed at key positions across the country, add in bulk storage and grid injection points and feed the gas grid with excess and store the remaining bulk hydrogen (if there is any).

Carry out any conversion engineering for GT generation sets and move from natural gas to hydrogen firing .

off the back of all that check and re-check the closed cycle of water to hydrogen and oxygen to energy and water vapour to make sure that this process is a safe and re-usable as we have historically been told to make sure we are not accelerating global issues rather than reducing them.

Diversify energy production for the long term with routine checks and reviews to confirm positive outcomes.

If the majority of the world could react to energy and global damage they way they did to Covid we would be almost there by now!

Moxi

[Moxi]

yeah what Stinsey said!

Sorry i got on my soap box

Moxi

[Mr Gus]

So, does this mean we are anywhere nearer in europe to getting our "various" national lotteries to hoik half a billion pounds towards banging up w/t's for national interest? (& perhaps giving people an allowance of its kWh off their bills? ..can see ripple being in a good place for overseeing this sort of thing)

[CrofterMannie]

8 years ago we were repeatedly told that north sea oil and gas would run out in 5 years. It didn't and it won't run out in 8 more years although it will probably decline.

There is plenty still untouched West of Shetland (albeit in a somewhat high cost environment).

Longer term there are other ways to get gas to Europe eg the proposed pipeline from Cyprus to Italy but all these options are expensive and time consuming. Russian gas is available without further investment and now.

Whatever the route Europe chooses, gas is unlikely to be as cheap as it used to be for quite some time.

If we are to choose who we buy hydrocarbons from based on ethical or moral concerns (and I think we probably should) then we need to face up to the fact that there there are countries that are at least as bad as Russia that we never think twice about dealing with.

[Mr Gus]

+1 C.M.

[Mart]

Check out chart 2 from Dr Simon Webster's twitter post: