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The electricity war over direct current and alternating current
In the 1880s, the electrification of the first cities and households begins. With the marketing of the incandescent lamp by Thomas Edison and the first of his company in the USA, the electrification of cities spreads rapidly. As early as 1882, Edison put his first power plant into operation in New York. It supplied its…
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Russian raw materials not dispensable everywhere
When politicians talk about a gas and oil embargo, they mainly talk about fuels, heating and power generation. It is impressive how little they know about the value chains in German industry. The fact that gas and oil are also important feedstocks for the chemical industry is virtually unnoticed. Gas and oil produce important basic…
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Gas supplies from Qatar – negotiations stall
The EU not only wants an oil embargo on Russian crude oil, but also to become independent of Russian gas as quickly as possible. Germany is counting on liquefied gas from the USA and Qatar. Economics Minister Habeck returned from his first trip to Qatar full of euphoria and spoke of firm agreements. Just a…
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Electricity price: cities save on street lighting
The drastic rise in energy costs is forcing not only private households to save, but also local authorities. Now, the first cities are planning savings in street lighting. High electricity price forces cities to save on street lighting Alexander Handschuh of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities considers reduced street lighting to be one…
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Network operators rehearse black start after blackout
The horror scenario for power grid operators is a widespread power failure, a so-called blackout. A blackout can have many causes. Weather or natural disasters, hacker attacks, technical defects, sabotage or an overload of the networks can lead to it. The major network operators are now preparing for a large-scale blackout. Ampirion and TransnetBW, two…
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Limit use of gas-fired power plants: Industry wants to conserve gas reserves
Large energy consumers from industry are considering limiting the use of gas-fired power plants. The goal is to conserve gas reserves. While the Association of the Industrial Energy and Power Industry (VIK) is backing coal-fired power plants, Habeck advocates a pragmatic approach. VIK relies on coal-fired power plants to conserve gas reserves The Association of…
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Electric car: discussion about subsidies
According to the coalition agreement, the traffic light regime wants to completely abolish the subsidy for electric cars from 2025. Currently, buyers of electric cars receive an environmental bonus of up to 9,000 euros. However, according to the coalition agreement, the subsidy for an electric car will only amount to 4000 euros from 2023 and…
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Gas embargo: trade prepares emergency supply
For a few days now, less and less gas has been coming to Germany. Now Ukraine has throttled the transport of Russian gas via the pipelines through its country. At the same time, Russia is threatening a gas embargo if the EU countries do not pay for the deliveries in roubles. A corresponding supply stop…
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Insurers should no longer insure Russian tankers
With an oil embargo, the EU wants to stop its own oil imports from Russia so that Putin can no longer finance the war in Ukraine with the revenues. However, this measure is not nearly as effective as those responsible had imagined. Russia has already begun to sell its oil to Asia, as was quite…
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Habek’s calls to save energy have caused trouble at the Schwedt refinery
The Schwedt refinery in Brandenburg supplies fuel to the north-east. With a planned oil embargo against Russia, the city fears economic repercussions and therefore brings back memories of the turmoil after reunification. The minister is furious. “Druzhba” – Russian for “mateship” – is the name of one of the longest oil pipelines in the world,…
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Gas embargo: Economist Tom Krebs warns of gigantic economic crisis
In Germany and Europe, a complete raw materials embargo against Russia has been discussed for some time. All EU states agree on coal, but only Hungary and Slovakia are demanding transitional periods for oil. These raw materials are relatively easy to obtain from other regions of the world. However, economist Prof. Dr. Tom Krebs (University…
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Environmental aid calls for halt to construction of LNG terminal
In order to become independent of Russian natural gas, Economics Minister Habeck is counting on liquefied natural gas (LNG), but Germany does not have an LNG terminal. That is why he wants to have four LNG terminals built in Germany in a rush. The first facility in Wilhelmshaven is to go into operation by the…
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Jänschwalde power plant may continue to operate for the time being
The administrative court in Cottbus has decided, following a complaint by the German Environmental Aid, that the Jänschwalde opencast mine will only receive an operating permit until 14 May this year. The Jänschwalde power plant is the third largest power plant in Germany. The power plant is fired with lignite from the Jänschwalde opencast mine.…
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The beginnings of the electrification of Germany
In our article “Who invented electricity?” we reported on the history from the discovery to the practical use of electricity. With this article, we want to briefly look at when the electrification of Germany began. Electric lighting makes its way into the cities As already reported in the first article, Werner von Siemens practically invented…
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Leaked EU document on gas supply
Russia has already suspended gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria because they refused to pay roubles. The same threatens all European countries. The EU is therefore asking countries to share gas if Russia stops supplying it. The Spanish newspaper El País has now published the contents of a leaked document. EU wants to shut down…