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A New Type of Geothermal Power Plant Just Made the Internet a Little Greener

Energy News Beat

Earlier this month, one corner of the internet got a little bit greener, thanks to a first-of-its-kind geothermal operation in the northern Nevada desert. Project Red, developed by a geothermal startup called Fervo, began pushing electrons onto a local grid that includes data centers operated by Google. The search company invested in the project two years ago as part of its efforts to make all of its data centers run on green energy 24/7.

Project Red is small—producing between 2 and 3 megawatts of power, or enough to power a few thousand homes—but it is a crucial demonstration of a new approach to geothermal power that could make it possible to harness the Earth’s natural heat anywhere in the world.

Hot rock is everywhere, with temperatures rising hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit within the first few miles of the surface, but geothermal plants provide just a small fraction of the global electricity supply. That’s largely because they are mostly built where naturally heated water can be easily tapped, like hot springs and geysers. Hot water is pumped to the surface, where it produces steam that powers turbines.

The Nevada site, an “enhanced” geothermal system, or EGS, works differently. Instead of drilling into a natural hydrothermal system, Fervo dug into rock that is completely dry and effectively created an artificial hot spring by pumping down water that returns to the surface much hotter.

That strategy piggybacks on hydraulic fracturing techniques developed by the oil and gas industry. Fervo drilled two wells that each extended more than 7,000 feet down before turning fully horizontal. It then connected them by fracking, producing cracks in the rock that connected the two boreholes. Water enters one borehole cold and exits the other at a temperature high enough to drive turbines and generate power.

Fervo announced that its experiment had been a success this summer after a monthlong testing period that saw temperatures at the bottom of the boreholes reach 375 degrees Fahrenheit (191 C) and enough water torrenting through the system to produce an estimated 3.5 megawatts of electricity. Those operational figures have held relatively steady since then, according to Fervo CEO Tim Latimer, suggesting the project was ready to be plugged into the grid for the long haul. The Nevada wells were drilled close enough to a traditional geothermal power plant that the project can use existing turbines and power lines to deliver electricity to the grid.

While output is short of the company’s initial 5-megawatt estimate when it announced with Google, Latimer says further tweaks should eke out more electricity in the future. As it stands, the project is the first to achieve such a high level of performance, he notes. While two plants in northeastern France currently produce electricity from dry rocks, they operate at substantially cooler temperatures and rely on exploiting natural fault systems in the rock. Latimer says that Fervo’s results point to a strategy that can be scaled up.

Greening the Internet

Geothermal energy could help Google with a challenge faced by all tech companies trying to reduce the impact of power-hungry data centers. Wind and solar now power vast swathes of the cloud computing behind internet services and apps, but because wind and sun aren’t always available, the flow of energy derived from them isn’t either.

Google has in recent years purchased enough renewable power to cover its data operations’ annual energy use—but at any given hour of the day, on any particular grid, the electricity that flows into a data center may have to come from a dirtier source. The company is now working on a more ambitious 2030 goal to secure 24/7 clean energy on the local grids where its data centers are located. Geothermal is a leading candidate for making it possible. “There’s a very small group of options there for technologies that we could scale,” says Michael Terrell, senior director for climate and energy at Google.

The company has explored other options, like new types of small-scale nuclear reactors or hydrogen fuel produced with renewable electricity, but they will likely take more time to develop. “Out of the next set of technologies after wind, solar, and lithium-ion storage, this is the first one that’s actually out there now delivering electrons,” Terrell says of the new Nevada geothermal plant. With an output of just a few megawatts of power, it’s a long way from providing the hundreds of megawatts a typical data center might need, but he considers the concept proven out.

Although it’s now up and running, EGS still has risks. The initial costs of any project are high, simply because reaching rocks that are hot enough requires drilling thousands of feet beneath the surface. The granite beneath places like the western US is considered ideal for EGS, because it provides relatively shallow heat and lacks natural fissures, meaning the only cracks into which the water will flow are those that engineers create. But the hard, tombstone-like rock is especially difficult to drill through.

Once the hard work of drilling the wells is over, there’s still a chance that an EGS project will never tap enough heat or pump enough water to power a plant. Sometimes it’s just not possible to properly read out what conditions will be like down there in advance. And some past EGS projects have accidentally triggered destructive earthquakes by disturbing natural faults.

Those challenges can dissuade investors, says Latimer, who are more interested in doling out small sums to exciting new lab technologies or more significant investments to more proven technologies, like solar. He describes technologies like EGS—theoretically feasible, but not yet proven at large scale—as the “missing middle” for energy investment.

Latimer says that Fervo has focused on reducing up-front drilling costs and mitigating the risk that a project will fail, primarily through modeling based on geological data to build an accurate picture of how the geothermal system it is creating will function. That work has been aided by the US government, which has funded a project called FORGE in Utah aimed at “derisking” EGS technology, primarily by testing out pricey tools and techniques like drill bits and seismic monitoring to see what works. The lessons are passed along to startups like Fervo.

Fervo’s next EGS project, in Beaver County, Utah, is scheduled to be operational in 2026 and will be far bigger than Project Red, at 400 megawatts. The location, visible from the FORGE site, was chosen for its well-understood geology and proximity to existing transmission lines. Latimer declined to give specific cost estimates for the electricity produced from the project, but he said the project is on track to match the costs of a traditional geothermal project, and all of its future energy production is already spoken for by utilities and other electricity customers. “We’re sold out!” he says—for now, at least. Latimer says the company is in the early stages of additional projects throughout the western US.

Source: Wired.com

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Saudi Arabia seeks OPEC oil production quota cuts as some members resist

Energy News Beat

(Bloomberg) – Saudi Arabia is asking others in the OPEC coalition to reduce their oil production quotas in a bid to shore up global markets, but some members are resisting, delegates said.

The OPEC leader has been making a largely unilateral production cutback of 1 MMbpd since July, and is now seeking further support from across OPEC and its partners, said the delegates, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

Brent crude pared earlier losses and was little changed at $80.48 a barrel as of 3:56 p.m. in London.

The Saudi proposal comes amid difficult talks for the producers’ group, which was forced to delay its policy meeting by four days to Nov. 30 as Angola and Nigeria resist reductions to their own production quota limits for 2024, which were set out at the group’s last conference in June.

The producers were progressing toward a compromise on this matter before the weekend, but have yet to clinch an agreement, delegates said.

The 23-nation OPEC alliance faces pressure to intervene in crude markets, following a 17% drop in prices over the past two months amid plentiful supplies and a darkening economic backdrop. Markets could weaken further in early 2024, when forecasters including the International Energy Agency anticipate the emergence of a new supply surplus.

Saudi Arabia’s voluntary production cut of 1 MMbpd, implemented in tandem with a 300,000 bpd export reduction from Russia, is currently set to continue until the end of the year. Most analysts expect Riyadh and Moscow to extend those curbs into 2024.

Market watchers such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. have flagged the possibility that OPEC may cut deeper, and some — such as Commerzbank AG and hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand —  have warned that prices may buckle further if they don’t. Brent futures traded near $80 a barrel on Monday.

Supply reductions across the alliance would probably win back oil bulls, but they could be hard to orchestrate. Iraq, Russia and Kazakhstan have recently been pumping over their quotas, while others like the African members have lost so much production capacity, they’re in no position to cut further.

It’s also unclear whether the United Arab Emirates, a key member, will be under pressure not to proceed with a quota increase of 200,000 bpd permitted from January. Abu Dhabi secured the dispensation at the last OPEC gathering in June, in order to finally make use of recent investments in new capacity.

Source: Worldoil.com

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Lower CO2 emissions are partially due to shifts in power generation sources

Energy News Beat

We forecast the U.S. energy sector to emit about 4,790 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2023, a 3% decrease from 2022. Much of this decline results from lower electricity generation from coal-fired power plants due to higher generation from renewable sources such as solar power. We expect this trend to continue into 2024, with CO2 emissions declining 1% relative to 2023.

Almost half of U.S. CO2 emissions result from petroleum consumption, primarily by the transportation sector. In 2023, we estimate that petroleum emissions will remain relatively unchanged, with rising jet fuel consumption offsetting falling gasoline consumption.

Another large source of CO2 emissions in the United States is fossil fuel-fired power generation. Natural gas has become the largest source of electricity in the United States because it is a relatively low-cost fuel. Natural gas emissions also result from its consumption in the residential and commercial sectors for space heating and in the industrial sector for manufacturing processes. We estimate that U.S. CO2 emissions from natural gas will grow by 1% in 2023 and remain relatively flat in 2024.

Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, November 2023

The forecast reduction in CO2 emissions is largely due to lower power generation from coal-fired power plants, which we expect to contribute to an 18% decline in coal-related CO2 emissions in 2023 and a 5% decline in 2024. The electric power sector has been retiring significant coal-fired generating capacity in response to economic competition from natural gas and new renewable generating capacity.

The electric power sector has shifted in recent years toward renewable energy sources. Much of the recent increase in renewable generation is the result of an expected 60 gigawatts of new solar generating capacity entering service during 2023 and 2024. We expect that the solar capacity increase, in addition to our forecast of increased hydropower generation and modest gains in new wind capacity, will reduce both coal-fired and natural gas-fired power generation next year.

Source: Eia.gov

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The Green Energy Wall Gradually Coming Into Focus

Energy News Beat

It’s been obvious for many years that electricity generation from the intermittent wind and sun would never work to power a modern economy. But how would the infeasibility of the proposed energy transition finally manifest itself to put an end to the madness?

A couple of years ago I began writing about the the upcoming “Renewable Energy Wall,” for example in this piece from December 2021 titled “Which Country Or U.S. State Will Be The First To Hit The Renewable Energy Wall?” I called for readers to place their bets as to which among various jurisdictions would be the first to recognize that it could never achieve the net zero goal. But what would be the aspects of reality that would put an end to further renewable development? Would it be the soaring costs? Or perhaps the spreading blackouts? Or maybe the voters wising up? Or maybe other things that nobody had yet guessed?

Over the past few weeks and months, several parts of the coming Green Energy Wall have started to come into focus. The two factors that are emerging most significantly at this early stage are (1) voters starting to catch on, and (2) the inability of wind and solar developers to deliver projects at costs that are at all workable for consumers.

In the voter category, many places, particularly in Europe, have long had an all-party political consensus in favor of “climate action,” or some such nonsensical slogan, thus making it almost impossible for citizens to use their vote to push for any kind of sensible energy policies. But suddenly that is changing. First we had Argentina a week ago electing as President an avowed climate skeptic, Javier Milei. And then on Wednesday, the Netherlands followed suit, giving the biggest bloc of seats in its Parliament to the party of another avowed climate skeptic, Geert Wilders. Wilders’s Freedom Party delivered a drubbing to both the “center right” party of the current Prime Minister Mark Rutte, as well as to a Labor/Green coalition headed by Frans Timmermans, who is the European Commission’s Vice President and a face for the EU’s noxious climate agenda.

Euro News today has some quotes from the manifesto of the Freedom Party:

[T]he PVV manifesto . . . declares: “We have been made to fear climate change for decades… We must stop being afraid.” “The climate is always changing, for centuries,” the document goes on to say. “When conditions change we adapt. We do this through sensible water management, by raising dykes when necessary and by making room for the river. But we stop the hysterical reduction of CO2, with which, as a small country, we wrongly think we can “save” the climate.” The manifesto also calls for more oil and gas extraction from the North Sea and keeping coal and gas power stations open.

Further as to the Dutch election, here is a November 23 piece from Spiked by Fraser Myers, headlined “The Humiliation of the Dutch Establishment.” Myers makes the point that green hair-shirt energy policies have now finally made climate skepticism a winning electoral position in Europe. Excerpt:

The failure of Timmermans . . . shows that opposition to climate policy is now a significant driver of European populism. After all, as Commission vice-president, Timmermans was the face of Brussels’s stringent climate policies, including the so-called European Green Deal. The EU’s green austerity played a major role in stoking the farmers’ protests that have erupted in the Netherlands over the past few years. . . . And it’s not just agriculture that could be flattened by climate policy. As a Politicoprofile of Timmermans this week notes, the much-vaunted European Green Deal could be about to set off a wave of deindustrialisation – on a scale not seen for 50 years. Politicians who think they can get away with impoverishing their citizens, while hiding behind waffle about Net Zero, are in for a very rude awakening.

Neither Milei’s victory, nor Wilders’s, by itself means that anti-fossil fuel policies are going to disappear overnight in either country. Each of those men has far from a majority in the legislature, meaning that it will take the support of other parties to make great progress against the Green Blob. However, the process has begun.

And meanwhile the march to “green” energy, after years of uncontradicted hype, is now experiencing one reverse after another. It turns out that there are limits to how much governments can achieve by trying to hide the costs of wind and solar energy through various subsidies and tax credits. At some point, after pocketing all the subsidies and credits, the developers still must deliver power to the grid at an affordable cost; and if they can’t, they will go broke.

Just a couple of weeks ago I had a post titled “As The Transition To Green Energy Crumbles, Funding For The Climate Scare Soars.” That post had a round-up of data points in the ongoing failure of green energy to replace fossil fuels. The data points included: proposed massive off-shore wind farms off New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island suddenly canceled; stock prices of wind developers cratering as they can’t complete projects for agreed prices; major de-industrialization in Germany due to soaring energy prices. And the bad news for wind and solar energy, and for the “ESG” investing to fund it, only continues to get worse.

From the Wall Street Journal, November 19, “Wall Street’s ESG Craze Is Fading.” Excerpt:

Wall Street rushed to embrace sustainable investing just a few years ago. Now it is quietly closing funds or scrubbing their names after disappointing returns that have investors cashing out billions. . . . The third quarter was the first time more sustainable funds liquidated or removed ESG criteria from their investment practices than were added, according to Morningstar.

They provide this chart of the reversal of fortunes for these so-called “sustainable” funds:

Without private investors, the wind and solar future becomes 100% dependent on government handouts. At some point, those can’t continue either.

And from Canada’s Financial Post, November 17, by venture capital investor Henry Geraedts, “Net-zero policies colliding with economic reality.” Excerpt:

Renewables aren’t reliable and many companies are discovering they don’t pay for themselves even with unsustainably high subsidies. . . . The inconvenient truth is that the clean energy transition is not unfolding as foretold. Three decades and trillions of dollars in subsidies later, wind and solar still represent single-digit percentages of global energy demand, which continues to grow. . . . Our governments holding forth sanctimoniously about imagined climate-driven severe weather events while imposing large-scale use of wind and solar is insanity with serious consequences.

The best thing to end the wind/solar craziness will be to have one or two jurisdictions fail spectacularly as a lesson to everyone else. I wouldn’t have wanted my own New York to volunteer for that role, but that may be what’s happening.

Source: Manhattancontrarian.com

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David Staples: Danielle Smith conjures up a new A-bomb to drop on Trudeau’s meddling in Alberta power grid

Energy News Beat

Premier Danielle Smith is conjuring up a new A-bomb to drop on the meddling of the Trudeau Liberals with Alberta’s power grid.

This newly devised weapon is the key feature in Smith’s first use of the Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act, which she introduced on Monday in her bid to thwart Trudeau’s clean electricity regulations, devised to force Alberta’s electrical grid to be net zero by 2035.

The A-bomb is a proposed Alberta Crown corporation for electricity generation. It represents Alberta arming up to reverse the broken federal-provincial power dynamic. It’s also the only mechanism that will allow Alberta to meet the generational challenge of having an affordable and reliable net-zero electrical grid by 2050.

At her news conference, Smith suggested it’s not a sure thing Alberta will get the new Crown corporation. For now, she said, she’ll work with industry players to see if one is needed.

But if Trudeau’s new clean electricity regulations are enforced, ordering Alberta’s grid to be net zero by 2035, 15 years earlier than previously agreed upon, such a Crown corporation will be necessary, Smith said.

Alberta needs reliable electricity to get through cold winter days and it needs affordable electricity for people here to prosper. With five or six million more Albertans here by 2050, Alberta will also need to double its baseload electrical generation.

Private industry could do this with natural gas but the new federal regulations stipulate that all plants must capture 95 per cent of their emissions, something Smith said is not feasible, suggesting 60 per cent is possible for new plants, even as it will greatly increase costs.

Smith said she will not ask any private operators to disregard federal law, but said a Crown corporation could build new gas plants and disregard the new federal regulations if need be, adding provincial officials involved could be indemnified against federal prosecution.

As Smith described it, the new Crown corporation will be similar to Epcor, owned by the City of Edmonton, or Enmax, owned by the City of Calgary.

“We want the private sector to step in with new natural gas generation, with new nuclear generation, but if they don’t, we’ll need to step in. We’re sending a message to the market that this is a reluctant entry. It would be a generator of last resort.”

A moment later, she added, “I can’t sit back and allow for the grid to fail, for there to be insufficient investment in baseload power and for us to see the instability in the grid that we have get worse and worse, or for the affordability to get worse and worse. We have to act now.”

If existing power plants don’t meet federal regulations, Alberta’s power corporation could also purchase them and continue operating them. “These measures are not something we want to do,” Smith said. “They are planned to counteract the absurd ideological, unscientific and unconstitutional interference in Alberta’s government by a federal government that simply doesn’t care what happens to our province so long as they have a good, virtue-signalling story to tell their leftist friends and special interests.”

What to make of all this?

First, while Smith talks about this new Crown corporation in theoretical terms, there’s no way for Alberta to meet its 2050 target without such a Crown corporation. The Alberta oilsands will need the heat and clean power of nuclear. Alberta consumers will need the same for the grid, and nuclear is the only proven way to provide safe, affordable, abundant, net-zero power, as demonstrated by Ontario.

Second, the existence of an Alberta power generation company will turn on its head national power dynamics, which saw Ottawa bring in out-of-touch and overly aggressive legislation on the oil and gas industry, then impose it on Alberta, with Alberta then spending years in court trying to convince federal judges that Ottawa had gone too far.

With its Crown corporation, Alberta will possess the mechanism to defy Ottawa, to force it to take the Alberta government to court, not the other way around.

What isn’t clear is how our top courts will view Alberta reversing the established process by defying Ottawa in this manner. It’s possible it will be seen by federal judges as an insulting violation of Canada’s constitutional order.

Bottom lines? Trudeau’s government is exceptionally unpopular and likely doomed in the next election, which will make this current problem go away. That said, the push for net zero will not go away, and Smith’s move to create a Crown corporation to safeguard us and help build nuclear in Alberta is sound.

Source: Edmontonjournal.com

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Exclusive | China wielding ‘bargaining power’ with Russia over Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline

Energy News Beat
Construction of the Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline is likely to be slower than expected despite the ‘no limit’ strategic partnership between Beijing and Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to export at least 98 billion cubic metres per year of gas from Russia to China

Construction of one of Russia’s key natural gas projects to ensure a financial lifeline overseas is likely to be slower than expected as China seeks to leverage its “bargaining stance”, according to a Russian source and Chinese analysts.

The discussions with Beijing over the construction of the Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline, a long touted signal of bilateral cooperation, have progressed slowly.

The pipeline, if completed, would divert 50 billion cubic metres (1.8 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas per year that previously supplied Europe to north China, offering a significant boost to Beijing’s energy security.

To export at least 98 billion cubic metres per year of gas from Russia to China as promised by Russian President Vladimir Putin, figures from Spanish multinational financial services firm BBVA showed that the new pipeline is needed because the Power of Siberia 1 is limited to 67 billion cubic metres per year.

A source with knowledge of the issue in Russia said China is showcasing a “bargaining stance”.

“[Beijing] understands really well their bargaining power and the country is in a much stronger position,” the source said.

“It’s a specific presidential-level of pressure. It’s about cheaper payment. They can demand deep discounts.”

The source also noted that Putin is under “enormous pressure” to build the pipeline or otherwise “a huge amount of gas” will be wasted and Russia will lose money.

The project would be a new test to the “no limit” strategic partnership between Beijing and Moscow, especially after Russia was hit with unprecedented sanctions from Western countries in response to the invasion of Ukraine, which blocked Russian natural gas supplies to Europe.

Li Lifan, a Russia and Central Asia specialist at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said the proposed pipeline would be favourable for Russia as it is shorter and construction costs would be lower.

However, Li said that China once insisted on building the pipeline through the Altay prefecture in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region as it would not pass through Mongolia.

China has shown a prudent attitude towards the project, with the Power of Siberia 2 seldom mentioned in government documents or state media.

There were talks that a deal could be made during the belt and road forum held in Beijing in mid-October, but Putin eventually returned empty-handed.

During her visit to the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar in October, Russian deputy prime minister Viktoria Abramchenko mentioned that feasibility research had been completed and design work would finish this year.

She estimated that the construction of the Power of Siberia 2 could start after the design work is approved in the first quarter of 2024.

It is estimated that it will take six years to complete. The deal for Power of Siberia 1 was signed in 2014 and it started operations in 2019.

Munkhnaran Bayarlkhagva, a former official at the National Security Council of Mongolia, said that Ulaanbaatar may delay the process as it is not a necessity.

“We haven’t even talked about the pricing, tariffs, taxes, et cetera,” he said. “So [it is] safe to say nothing will happen in the 2024 construction season.”

Bayarlkhagva added that Putin met Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh on the sidelines of the belt and road forum in Beijing in October, with the Russian leader saying that “everyone agrees on the project” to obtain a confirmation from Mongolia, but no positive response was given.

The Office of the President of Mongolia declined a request to comment.

“Now the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline is the cooperation of three parties – China, Russia and Mongolia – abundant negotiation is needed by following the general market standard,” said Zhao Long, assistant director of the Institute for Global Governance Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

The project has a medium to long-term value that “[Beijing] has to make decisions based on the country’s actual demands, gas import layout, as well as the international and regional situations”, he added.

Despite the slow progress, geopolitics have reinforced Beijing’s strategy for diversification of imports, said Ma Bin, an associate professor at Fudan University’s Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies.

With the snowy winter creeping into northern China, its annual natural gas consumption is estimated to increase by 5.5 to 7 per cent in 2023, year on year, to 390 billion cubic metres, according to a report by the National Energy Administration. This would reverse a 1.2 per cent decline in 2022.

“In order to ensure a stable and reliable supply of energy, China imports gas from Australia, Qatar, Central Asia and Russia,” added Ma.

Source: Scmp.com

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Second large Polish nuclear plant gets approval

Energy News Beat

PGE PAK Energia Jądrowa submitted an application for the plant to the ministry in August this year. The application included a description of project characteristics, indicating the maximum installed capacity, the planned operating period and details of the APR1400 technology to be used in the construction of the plant. According to the application, the two units will generate 22 TWh of electricity annually, which corresponds to 12% of the current electricity demand in Poland.

PGE PAK Energia Jądrowa is a 50/50 joint venture special purpose vehicle formed in April by Polish companies ZE PAK and Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE) to implement the project.

The ministry has now issued a decision-in-principle, a formal confirmation that the company’s investment project is in line with the public interest and the policies pursued by the state, including energy policy.

The decision-in-principle is the first decision in the process of administrative permits for investments in nuclear power facilities in Poland that an investor may apply for. Obtaining it entitles ZE PAK and PGE to apply for a number of further administrative arrangements, such as a siting decision or construction licence.

On 31 October last year, Poland’s Ministry of State Assets, South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, ZE PAK and PGE, and Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) signed a letter of intent to develop plans for a nuclear power plant in Pątnów.

“The implementation of the project that PGE PAK Energia Jądrowa wants to implement together with the Korean side in Patnów fits perfectly into the government’s plans in this regard,” said Jacek Sasin, Minister of State Assets. “The issuance of a basic decision for this project confirms this. So I hope that nothing will stop or prevent the further implementation of this project.”

“The fundamental decision is crucial for the construction of a nuclear power plant and allows us to proceed to the next stages of the investment,” said PGE President Wojciech Dąbrowski. “We received it less than 13 months after signing the letter of intent. In the case of such a large investment, this is a very good result. It is also proof of the commitment and good cooperation of all partners in the project and confirmation that the ambitious plan to launch the first power unit by 2035 is very realistic. The power plant will provide consumers with cheap and clean energy, and Poland, together with renewable energy sources, will provide security and energy independence.”

“I am glad that thanks to obtaining the basic decision, we will be able to continue work on the project to build a nuclear power plant in Konin/Patnów,” added Zygmunt Solorz, main shareholder of ZE PAK and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of PEJ. “This investment is an opportunity for Poland, the region and, above all, for us Poles – because nuclear energy is stable, clean and cheap energy for Polish families and companies for the next several dozen years.”

In November 2022, the Polish government announced the first plant, with a capacity of 3750 MWe, would be built in Pomerania using AP1000 technology from the US company Westinghouse. An agreement setting a plan for the delivery of the plant was signed in May by Westinghouse, Bechtel and PEJ. A decision-in-principle for that project was issued in July.

A decision-in-principle has also been issued for copper and silver producer KGHM Polska Miedź SA’s plan to construct a NuScale VOYGR modular nuclear power plant with a capacity of 462 MWe consisting of six modules, each with a capacity of 77 MWe.

The latest developments in Poland come amid speculation about who is going to form the next government, following elections last month.Opposition leader Donald Tusk looks the most likely to be able to form a coalition with enough seats to form a government. It is not yet clear what impact any change of government would have on the country’s plans for a rapid adoption of nuclear energy.

Source: World-nuclear-news.org

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Here’s what Germany’s economic health depends on

Energy News Beat

The German economy faces an uphill challenge as recent economic data has revealed with its health dependent on a few pending factors. Euronews Business takes a look at some of them.

Germany’s economy continues to remain under pressure as indicated by recent economic data with its gross domestic product (GDP) shrinking on Friday 24 November and its manufacturing sector still in contraction territory.

However, the global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data for the country, which summarises whether market conditions are expanding, staying the same, or contracting, came in at 47.1 in November – up from October’s 45.9 and the highest since July.

However, as the PMI number is under 50, in the world of economics, it means a sign of contraction – and for Germany, it is the fifth consecutive month in the sub-50 contraction territory, symptomatic of an impending recession.

What’s dragging on Germany’s economy?

Moreover, significant declines in residential constructions and new orders, along with a drastic fall in affordability, are major challenges for the economic powerhouse of Europe, and it will continue to face these headwinds moving into 2024.

Here are some of the things we can follow to gauge the health of the German economy going forward.

Residential builds

First of all, the residential construction sector in Germany in October showed an increase in the number of cancellations as 22.2% of companies cancelled projects, according to data from the IFO economic institute. It marks the largest increase since 1991.

Why is this happening? This is due to the global macroeconomic climate with rising debt levels and G7 countries tightening lending standards with many central banks putting interest rates higher for longer, which combined is not a very conducive environment for growth.

If this trend exacerbates then consumers will face further pressure on their incomes moving into the new year.

New construction orders

We can also see that new orders for constructions have been declining with companies reporting that the fall in orders increased from 46.6% in September to 48.7% in October – for context, it was only 18.7% in October 2022. Which is a whopping 166% year-over-year (YoY/0 increased drop in orders.

In Germany, the construction sector contributes 6% to the country’s GDP and accounts for a fifth of total output, and one in 10 jobs.

It is instructive to mention here that after the Covid-19 pandemic, when the money supply was at its peak, and interest rates extremely low, billions of euros were injected into this sector resulting in overpriced valuations with house prices rising 66%.

Interestingly, construction activity/output rose by 16% between 2015 to 2022.

Source: Euronews.com

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The post Here’s what Germany’s economic health depends on appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

It Will Happen Suddenly – and most likley before the election

Energy News Beat

Authored by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

As the Great Unravelling progresses, we shall be seeing many negative developments, some of them unprecedented…

 

Only a year ago, the average person was still hanging on to the belief that the world is in a state of recovery, that, however tentative, the economy was on the mend.

And this is understandable. After all, the media have been doing a bang-up job of explaining the situation in a way that treats recovery as a general assumption. The only point of discussion is the method applied to achieve the recovery, but the recovery itself is treated as a given.

However, as thorough a distraction as the media (and the governments of the world) have provided, the average person has begun to recognise that something is fundamentally wrong. He now has a gut feeling that, even if he is not well-versed enough to describe in economic terms what is incorrect in the endless chatter he sees on his television, he now senses that the situation will not end well.

I tend to liken his situation to someone who suddenly finds all the lights off in his house. He stumbles around in the dark, trying to feel his way. Although he can picture in his mind what the layout of his house is, he is having trouble navigating, often bumping into things. This is similar to the attempt to see through the media and government smokescreens during normal times.

But soon, as his government undergoes collapse, he will be getting some bigger surprises. He will find that the furniture has inexplicably been moved around. Objects are not where they are supposed to be, and it is no longer possible to reason his way through the problem of navigating in the dark.

Many of those who observe the daily news reports are beginning to figure out that they are being fed misinformation. Many are beginning to recognise that neither political party truly represents them or, for that matter, is even concerned for their welfare.

These folks are now navigating in the dark.

But the bigger surprises have not yet occurred. There will be a certain amount of lead-up, plus a great deal of confusion, but the actual occurrences will be sudden. No one will be able to predict the dates on which they occur, except those very few people who control the triggers to these events.

Crashes in the Markets

Major bull markets rarely end with a whimper. They end with a major upside spike. And, unfortunately, brokers and investors alike tend to think that, if the market has been up for the last week, the last month, or the last year, it can be expected to be up again tomorrow. This makes them prime pickings for governments who may choose to falsely inflate a given market, creating an upside spike to encourage investors to toss their last few coins into the pot, just before the bottom drops out.

In previous eras, it could take time for people to sell, and even in panic times, the bloodletting was not instantaneous. However, with the Internet, all that is necessary is a major sell-off by one entity—one that goes through the stops of a large number of investors, and in a flash, the market goes though the floor. (Editor’s note: Stops are orders placed with a broker to sell a security when it reaches a certain price.) The average investor wakes in the morning to find that he has been wiped out.

Commitments by Governments

Should there be a currency crash, as is expected in many countries, promises made by governments will be abandoned suddenly, as though they had never existed. Whilst millions of people will find themselves lost, unable to function without their entitlements, governments will evade their guilt through finger-pointing. Tories will blame Labour; Labour will blame the Tories. (The equivalent will take place in other countries.) The net result will be the disappearance of entitlements, either in part or in total. The public will take out its anger through increased hatred of whichever party it is that they already consider to be the evil one. They will fail to understand that collapse was unavoidable.

Assumed National Strengths Will Vanish

International alliances will fall away. Former allies will suddenly not be at the side of the failing nation.

Former friends will sign alliances with the other side.

Trade agreements will suddenly cease.

Wealth, initiative, and favour will flow to the new foremost country and its allies.

All of the above will happen incrementally—not by any means on the same day—but in each case, the actual occurrence will be sudden.

Just as Julius Caesar was at his peak of power when his fellow members of the Senate drew their knives, a powerful nation is coddled right until the time of its fall. In this regard, the US will see the greatest abandonment of loyalties that any nation will experience.

(The greater the empire, the greater the pretence of loyalty to it. And the greater the abandonment when the fall comes.)

When an empire collapses, it dies slowly. Unless it comes to an end through conquest, it deteriorates in a series of sudden jolts. Its leaders grasp at anything that might cause a delay, even if this means a worse outcome in the end. The process may take years and even decades. However, it is in the first few years that the major events occur—the events that create the most significant damage.

This occurs for two reasons. The first is that the leaders of the country, believing in their own power, believe that they can maintain control of their trade, their overseas control, their military, etc. and find that, when the crashes come, the rats desert the ship in every area. The second reason is that any empire builds its strength upon lies and exaggeration as much as it builds on its true attributes. After a crash, these lies and exaggerations fall away, and in a short time, it becomes clear that the empire was, in its latter stages, a house of cards.

The warning signs are already taking place but are not heavily publicised.

The stage is set, and we are approaching the first major events.

The victims in this play are, unfortunately, the average people, who simply hope to have a decent life. They will be caught unawares and unable to even understand what has occurred, let alone take action to save themselves. Those who have not spent the previous years educating themselves and preparing an alternative life will suffer most greatly.

All who live in a country that is undergoing collapse will be negatively affected. Some will do better than others, but to live on this slim hope is much like being fortunate enough to live on the outskirts of Hiroshima in 1945.

There is little comfort in being one of the least injured. Better to have been in another country altogether – both during the actual event and during the terrible time that is sure to follow.

*  *  *

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The post It Will Happen Suddenly – and most likley before the election appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Killer mines in Kuwait keep Gulf War alive and deadly

Energy News Beat

Kuwait City, Kuwait – The Israeli military has said that it has planted landmines along parts of the Gaza-Israel fence to prevent further infiltrations of the Palestinian armed group Hamas following its attack on southern Israel on October 7.

But laying mines has far-reaching consequences — especially for civilians — long after conflicts have ended.

More than three decades after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990-1991 by 100,000 Iraqi soldiers under Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, landmines and unexploded military ammunition still kill and injure civilians, some of whom were born after the end of the Gulf War.

While a United States-led international air and ground military operation defeated Iraqi troops in 43 days and forced them to retreat from Kuwait on February 28, 1991, it is estimated that Iraqi soldiers laid about two million landmines in Kuwait’s deserts, coastlines and cities, and abandoned large quantities of unexploded ordnance.

In the years that followed the end of the war, mine clearance operations took place in Kuwait and removed an estimated 1.65 million mines. Yet, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) estimates that the country’s desert areas “remain contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance” and that the remaining 350,000 landmines are “yet to be located”. UNMAS did not respond to a request for an interview.

“I came to Kuwait because my dream is to travel the world, but instead I ended up in a desolate desert with landmines. On top of that, snakes and scorpions get into the tent where I live”, said Sunil Kumar. The 24-year-old Indian shepherd looks after a flock of sheep in the desert areas bordering a road linking Kuwait to Iraq, dubbed the “Highway of Death” since Operation Desert Storm’s forces bombed retreating Iraqi army units there in February 1991.

“My biggest fear is that if something happens to me, my body will likely not be repatriated to India. That is what happens to us, the poor people,” Kumar, 24, told Al Jazeera. Migrant workers who account for about 96 percent of Kuwait’s private sector workforce, face widespread labour rights abuses, including delayed or unpaid wages and long working hours. “It is my destiny to be here, so may God protect me,” added his co-worker, Younus Ali, a 30-year-old Bangladeshi shepherd who has been working in Kuwait’s desert for seven years.

 The shadow of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990-1991 still looms over the Gulf emirate. 

     

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The post Killer mines in Kuwait keep Gulf War alive and deadly appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

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