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Battery storage explodes – residential house destroyed
For the second time in recent months, there has been a fire in a solar storage battery with considerable damage. As we already reported in our article “Apartment building uninhabitable after solar storage battery fire“, a battery storage unit burned in Bondegg, Baden-Württemberg, at the beginning of March. The apartment building was subsequently uninhabitable. Now…
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Gas-fired power plants: hurdles in converting to hydrogen
All existing gas-fired power plants must be converted to hydrogen in the coming years. At the same time, the federal government is planning to build new gas-fired power plants in order to meet the goals of the energy transition. But the technology is far from ready for this step. The switch from natural gas to…
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Natural gas production in the North Sea: opportunities and limits
Natural gas production in the North Sea must be stepped up. In the meantime, the German and Dutch gas storage facilities are threateningly empty. One expert demand is therefore: the existing gas fields must be used even more. This applies, among other things, to the area around the Dutch city of Groningen. This is where…
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Nuclear power plants in France: Problems with downtime
On the surface, France is better prepared for failures of fossil energy imports than almost all other countries: the country has traditionally relied on nuclear power. The 18 nuclear power plants in France could actually supply the electricity needed reliably and independently, but only in theory. In practice, a large part of France’s nuclear power…
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Opel boss – small electric cars unsaleable without subsidy
The Opel boss already made critical comments about electric cars a few weeks ago. Now he is going one better. Opel boss Uwe Hochgeschurtz no longer sees any market opportunity for small electric cars in the event that state subsidies are phased out. Economics Minister Habeck has already reduced the electric car purchase premium from…
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EU targets for reducing Russian gas supplies not achievable
The EU plans to reduce Russian gas supplies by two thirds by the end of the year. At the same time, the EU is requiring its member states by law to fill their gas storage facilities to at least 80 percent by November. Calculations by the Jülich Research Centre now show that it will not…
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How effective is an oil embargo?
The EU Commission wants to impose an oil embargo on Russia. A corresponding oil embargo could take effect as early as the turn of the year. In this way, the EU Commission wants to prevent Russia from continuing to collect money to finance the war in Ukraine. At the same time, the EU wants to…
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Who invented electricity?
In our modern society, almost nothing works without electricity. Electricity is needed for practically all areas of life. Without electricity, our modern society would come to a standstill. The use of electricity is omnipresent. With the article “Who invented electricity?” we want to start a small series in which we give an overview of the…
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Habeck predicts permanently high energy prices
Economics Minister Robert Habeck sees it as a bitter and hard truth that consumers will have to pay more for fuel, electricity and heating in the future. The Minister of Economics predicts permanently high energy prices for consumers. With the high energy prices, of course, the prices for all products and services also rise and…
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Europe’s largest gas storage facility only 0.5 per cent full
Both Poland and Bulgaria no longer receive gas from Russia. The European gas storage facilities currently have a filling level of about 38 percent. However, according to the latest data from the European organisation Aggregated Gas Storage Inventory (AGSI), the largest European gas storage facility in Rehden had a fill level of just 0.51 percent…
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Expansion of wind power – plan and reality
The expansion of wind power is intended to make our energy supply independent of imported energy sources. The traffic light government wants to massively accelerate the expansion. To this end, all federal states are to designate at least two percent of their area for additional wind power plants. That was the plan. The reality is…
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Grid agency wants to auction off gas in an emergency
Discussions about gas supply in the event of a gas shortage are increasing. Actually, the situation is clearly defined in the Emergency Plan Gas of the Federal Ministry of Economics. However, several industry representatives have already spoken out in favour of an amendment to the emergency plan that would put industrial enterprises on an equal…
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Tipping the emergency plan gas before it first comes into effect
The Emergency Gas Plan of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology regulates gas supply in the event of a gas shortage. It provides for three warning levels to regulate the distribution of gas in the event of supply problems. Currently we are in the early warning stage, which the Ministry of Economics has already…
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Faeser advises citizens to stock up on emergency supplies
Slowly, our politicians are realising the extensions of their own policies. After Economics Minister Habeck called on citizens to save energy, now Interior Minister Faeser is appealing to citizens to stock up on emergency supplies. She justifies this by threatening power cuts and supply shortages due to the war in Ukraine. Faeser refers to cyber…
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Lindner takes a critical view of competitiveness in accelerated energy transition
Finance Minister Christian Lindner is critical of the accelerated expansion of the energy transition. He fears that the affordability of energy and thus also German competitiveness could increasingly take a back seat. Therefore, he is also critical of a further acceleration of the expansion. Lindner takes a critical view of affordability and competitiveness in the…