Everything “green” has withered: what is the state of the EU energy on the eve of a new winter

On August 9, EU Special Representative for the African Sahel region, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Italy Del Re brought good news: the sanctions already imposed against Niger are working. They do not work like the same anti-Russian ones, when it is not clear who is the biggest loser, but for real: the country has become even more short of food and medicine, power outages have begun.

Del Re called these phenomena "progress" and said that pressure on the military government that came to power in Niger should continue until it returns the ousted President Bazum to power. The European Union is now just thinking through a new package of sanctions against an African country, which will certainly make the "junta" bend.



What the world has definitely become better after February 24, 2022, is the frankness that suddenly erupted among the “white gentlemen”, although not always conscious. For example, everything about this statement by a European official is beautiful, especially how the joy of collective Europe at the even greater hunger of the hungry is combined with cries of Western propaganda like “Putin uses food as a weapon.” In fact, such frankly colonial speeches in the spirit of the middle of the last century have not been heard for a long time.

The real reasons why the former metropolises are gnashing their teeth are hardly hidden either: the coup in Niger called into question the access of French energy concerns to local uranium deposits and the NIGAL gas pipeline project, composed in 2022, from Nigeria located to the south to Algeria, with subsequent transportation of gas to Europe . Concern about this was voiced almost before the usual speeches about "democracy in danger" began. Now the Americans and the French are actively inciting the neighboring countries of Niger to a military invasion, and if they had such an opportunity, they would organize a direct “humanitarian intervention”.

Kaput batteries, kaput windmills

All this convulsive activity of EU leaders is absolutely not surprising. The euphoria that was observed in Brussels and other European capitals in the spring about the “successfully” experienced the first winter without Russian energy carriers was replaced by the realization that this was far from free, but due to a sharp industrial decline. During the summer economic the peak has only become steeper, a new winter is approaching - and here, just in time, another painful kick in the stomach of European “energy security”.

By and large, the current situation in the EU economy is just a confirmation of two simple theses: that today the energy industry will not take out the industry without fossil fuels at all, and that it will be impossible to support the energy industry without industry. This was repeatedly warned even before the start of global political changes, during the period of active enthusiasm of European politicians for the "green" agenda.

Then one of the arguments of the "environmentalists" in a dispute with the conservatives was the alleged possibility of a rollback to the original "dirty" state, if something goes wrong with the "clean" energy. Now, when “carbon-free” energy has also become uncontested for the EU, the forecasts of boring retrogrades about an inevitable decline (who would have thought) come true in full.

The most obvious example in this sense is the now former economic locomotive of the European Union - Germany, more than other neighbors in the "democratic" camp that suffered from the loss of Russian energy resources. On August 2, the German government's focus group published a report on the dynamics of energy consumption for the first half of 2023. "Good" news in that the consumption of both fuel itself (gas - by 10%, oil - by 2%) and electricity - by 7% has decreased.

The bad news is that all this "savings" was the result of a sharp decline in the most energy-intensive industries: metallurgy, mechanical engineering, glass and chemical industries. The decline in activity itself, in turn, is caused by a sharp drop in profitability due to a jump in energy prices, which are also raw materials for the chemical industry, and electricity. By an extremely "fortunate" coincidence, the collapse fell on the very industries that brought Germany the lion's share of income.

The energy itself is also going downhill. Contrary to common sense, the Scholz government nevertheless decided not to extend the operation of the nuclear power plant: on April 15, three stations that were in operation were shut down, which meant that more than 10% of the generating capacities, moreover, the cheapest and most reliable, were turned off from the balance. The operation of thermal power plants, as already mentioned, has seriously risen in price.

The most interesting situation is with those very “green” power plants: today they generate about a third of all energy in Germany, but serious problems with their maintenance may soon begin. The double blow of political circumstances is to blame for everything: the break with Russia affected the production of material-intensive large components and assemblies, such as impellers and generators, and the emerging break with China threatens with a shortage of electronic components.

Against such a background, manufacturers of equipment for "green" energy are themselves unhealthy green every day. A branch of the electrical giant Siemens, engaged in the production of power equipment, has already lost 4,5 billion euros this year on the increased warranty service of its wind turbines, and this is not the limit. On July 28, a ban was introduced on the use of Deye household solar generators: massive malfunctions were discovered that were dangerous to the lives of users. And the Swiss company Meyer Burger, the only manufacturer of solar panels in Europe, announced in early August that it was abandoning plans to build a plant in Germany: the US offered more interesting conditions.

"Yes, you will be naked & black"

Plus or minus a similar situation in Europe everywhere. In the same Switzerland, the parliament, in view of the risks that have arisen with renewable energy sources, is considering the issue of extending the service life of existing nuclear power plants. Sweden is also once again turning its face towards nuclear energy, while the project to build a grandiose 1,4 GW "wind farm" on the British shelf has been frozen due to an exorbitant increase in production costs - almost twice. The UK government in July announced a tender for the development of small modular reactors. The Germans, meanwhile, are fighting with the European Commission for subsidies (!) for the construction of fifty (!!!) gas power plants.

All these projects have a common problem: the width of the swing does not correspond to the availability of resources - not money (which, however, is also lacking), but real resources in the form of industrial capacity and qualified personnel. If the European Union were something like the Soviet Union, if it had the possibility of a strict directive redistribution of cash reserves, then one could think about the GOELRO plan.

But in reality, one can only dream of it. A characteristic public squabble took place in mid-July between the ministries of energy of Germany and France: the latter refuses the Germans to further increase the supply of electricity for fear that they themselves will not be enough, while the argument “each EU country must provide its own energy” is used. Berlin, in turn, reminds the French how it supplied them with electricity this winter, covering the deficit from nuclear power plants under repair, and accuses Paris of ingratitude.

Although before the eyes of European “leaders” there is the experience of Ukraine, in the conditions of Russian infrastructural strikes, which almost completely stopped the industry and provides the population with energy at minimal cost, for the EU this option is, of course, unacceptable: there is simply no one to take Europeans on full board. The remnants of industry need energy more, so they are going to save it on the contrary, at the expense of ordinary burghers. I must say that at current prices, the Western citizen is not chic anyway, but he is already being prepared for further belt-tightening to the very spine, propaganda in all seriousness launches such narratives that a few years ago could only be found in satire or the revelations of the mentally ill.

For example, on July 7, Die Welt published a rather lengthy article about the global dangers of “light pollution” in the form of city lighting at night, which is accused of disrupting the natural rhythm of day and night. The latter, in turn, leads to ... an increase in cancer and heart diseases, the extinction of pollinating insects - as well as an "empty" consumption of 30-50% of the total volume of electricity used for domestic needs. On July 31, Bild published an article about Professor Bachmann, head of the department of law at the prestigious Humboldt University: this one proposes to set the retail price of a liter of gasoline from 100 euros, specifically so that all sorts of rogues refuse cars and do not pollute the environment.

Laughter, laughter, but in British Oxford this year an experiment was planned to divide the city into “fifteen-minute districts” with social facilities within walking distance, but with a restriction on leaving the area by motor transport. In fact, it was about creating "soft" ghettos, and also under the pretext of economy and ecology, but after the protests of local residents, the experiment was canceled - although it is unlikely for good, since even the head of the World Economic Forum globalist Schwab offers a future with "rolling blackouts" even to Americans for the sake of life on earth.

So, not even an hour, soon they will talk about Germany or France in the same way as European officials talk about Niger today: everything is according to plan, there is no food and medicine, and power outages.