Safe and affordable nuclear power has to be part of our mix because, Gates argues, “it is the only carbon-free, scalable energy source that’s available 24 hours a day.” All of that has to be replaced by wind, solar, hydro and natural gas, and there is just not enough now.Īs Bill Gates points out in his smart book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” the only way to reach our climate targets is to shift production of all the big heavy industries, like steel, cement and automobiles, as well as how we heat our homes and power our cars, to electricity generated from clean energy.
Sadly, in an overreaction to the Fukushima nuclear accident, Germany decided in 2011 to phase out all of its nuclear power by 2022 - nuclear power stations that in the year 2000 generated 29.5 percent of Germany’s power generation mix. If you oppose all those, you’re not serious about what scientists tell us needs to be done right now - put in place enough non-carbon-emitting fuels to manage the destructive aspects of climate change that have become unavoidable, so we can avoid those that would be unmanageable. Achieving the scale of clean energy that we need requires not only wind, solar and hydro, but also a carbon tax in every major industrial economy, nuclear power and natural gas as a bridge. When every country jumps in at once, the price goes crazy. So, there was not enough natural gas, let alone renewables, to fill in the gap.Īmerica has enough oil and natural gas to meet its own needs for now, but its ability to export liquefied natural gas to help others is limited, especially when every utility in Europe and Asia is trying to meet newly minted environmental, social and governance standards for clean energy and therefore is desperate to import natural gas. But this industry does not ramp up quickly. This sent prices of all kinds of commodities, including oil and gas, into downward spirals.īut the economy snapped back - thanks to government stimulus programs - far faster than anticipated. First, the pandemic erupted and signaled to every major economy that we were headed for a deep recession. And pandemic-related supply chain problems for coal are making the problem worse.īut how did the bad-news side of this story emerge so fast?īlame Covid-19. This energy crunch could pinch ceramics, steel, aluminum, glass and cement suppliers in China, the story added, while it presents households in Brazil with eye-popping power bills because low river water flows have slashed hydropower output. No wonder European gas prices surged by almost 500 percent in the past year and are trading near record.”īut it’s not just Europe. That’s worrying as calmer weather has reduced output from wind turbines, while Europe’s aging nuclear plants are being phased out or are more prone to outages - making gas even more necessary. Pipeline flows from Russia and Norway have been limited. 27, when it comes to natural gas, “inventories at European storage facilities are at historically low levels for this time of year.
So, everyone is scrambling to get more, which is why the European Union’s biggest pipeline gas supplier - Russia - is now in the catbird seat and prices are skyrocketing along with blackouts.Īs Bloomberg Businessweek reported on Sept. But there is not enough of this transition fuel to go around. If you don’t have enough renewables but you want to go green, the next best thing is natural gas (as long as methane is not released in the extraction process), which emits about half as much CO₂ as coal. The bad news is that most nations are doing it in totally uncoordinated ways, from the top down, and before the market has produced sufficient clean renewables like wind, solar and hydro. The good news is that every major economy has signed onto reducing its carbon footprint by phasing out dirtier fuels like coal to heat homes and to power industries. How did we get here? In truth, it’s a good-news-bad-news story. … Make no mistake, this winter is going to be shocking. … He will invite each European leader to plead their case individually, menacingly asking each leader why he should open the gas taps to their nation specifically. The Middle East will be charging whatever they can get away with, and the capacity to deliver is limited. is likely to be on its knees, begging energy from wherever it’s available. Income inequalities will be dramatically exposed as the most vulnerable in society face a stark choice: heat or eat. As the price of energy goes higher, the costs will fall disproportionately upon the poorest in society. This winter - people are going to die of cold. Last Thursday he bluntly summed up the energy situation for the U.K. I am a fan of the financial newsletter Blain’s Morning Porridge, written by a smart, irreverent market strategist in London, Bill Blain.
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