The naïve, indeed dangerously ignorant and unrealistic conclusion, is that dependence on natural gas justifies still greater emphasis on renewable energy. In fact, it is the renewables policies that have resulted in this gas dependency.
By John Constable, Net Zero, Oct. 7, 2022
Europe is in the midst of the worst energy crisis for a generation or more, a crisis that has been in the making for many years and was beginning to become acute even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine accelerated the process. Mr Putin had a clear intention to capitalize on the weakness in European energy supply, something that has now been made manifest in the intimidatory sabotage of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
There is very little that the European states can do in the short run, but it is of critical importance that the causes of the current crisis are correctly identified, otherwise counterproductive remedial measures will result.
The naïve, indeed dangerously ignorant and unrealistic conclusion, is that dependence on natural gas justifies still greater emphasis on renewable energy. In fact, it is the renewables policies that have resulted in this gas dependency.
The energy and economic system must have a thermodynamically competent fuel somewhere in the scheme, and this inevitably has been natural gas for most European states, since both solar and wind are of such low entropic quality that they contribute little or less than nothing to security of supply.
Yet, in a bizarre paradox, European policymakers, notably those of Germany and the European Union, have systematically deprecated fossil fuels since the 1990s in an effort to seize international leadership on climate change, while at the same making the remaining fossil fuel of natural gas the sole thread by which economic and societal stability hands.
Forceful promotion of renewable energy through instruments coercing consumers to buy its output at above market prices has not only cost European consumers an additional €770 billion in subsidies to green energy since 2008, but has discouraged exploration for fossil fuels and the development of available resources of coal, oil and natural gas.
It has also made the European markets increasingly dependent on imports, imports that must be bought on the short-term markets because the output from the wind and solar fleet varies over all timescales from seconds to decades.
The EU’s policy could not have been more damaging to the interests of the European states if it has been drafted in the Kremlin itself.