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Gas storage levels in Germany: How secure is our supply?
Russian gas is currently flowing into the local gas storage facilities (as of May 2022) and the gas storage levels are slowly increasing. LNG could contribute to substitution as early as this year, after Economics Minister Habeck was able to get the legal basis for an accelerated expansion of LNG terminals through the Bundestag and…
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Oil company Saudi Aramco makes 40 billion more profit
The sharp rise in crude oil prices brought the Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco a record profit in the first quarter of 2022. Compared to the previous year, the group increased its revenues by a good 82 percent in the same period. The additional revenue amounts to 39.5 billion US dollars. In the same…
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Electricity price continues to rise despite elimination of EEG surcharge
With the elimination of the EEG levy on the electricity price, the Federal Government wants to relieve citizens of the burden of energy costs from July 2022. The EEG levy, with the corresponding share of VAT, currently amounts to around 4.4 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). A sample household with a consumption of 4000 kWh…
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Ministry of Economics plans to dismantle natural gas network
As participants report in the Welt, Patrick Graichen, at an event, is said to have called on representatives of municipal utilities to plan the dismantling for their natural gas network. Graichen is State Secretary in Habeck’s Ministry of Economics. Graichen referred to the timetable for the decarbonisation of Germany. According to Graichen, there should be…
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Secret charging stations for electric cars in “Dentist’s Alley”: Is grid collapse imminent?
There are clearly many more private charging stations for electric cars in Germany than the grid operators are aware of. However, the utilities fear major challenges, because they have to adapt their infrastructure to electric charging. The highest density of e-cars, and thus of unregistered charging stations, is probably in the better residential areas of…
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Prices for used electric cars: development in the first half of 2022
An astonishing change has taken place in the prices of used electric cars between December 2021 and May 2022: While just six months ago there was a drastic drop in prices even for young used e-cars, some models are now more expensive than new cars. How is this possible? Status December 2021 There have been…
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Russia stops gas deliveries to Finland
According to the Finnish energy company Gasum, Russia stopped gas deliveries to Finland on 21 May. This was also confirmed by the Russian state-owned company Gazprom Export. Gazprom Export refers to outstanding payments for gas delivered in April. The Finnish company Gasum has confirmed that it does not accept the Russian demand to pay for…
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Oil embargo: Greece and Malta prevent tanker ban
The planned oil embargo against Russia is increasingly threatening to come to nothing. Although several states are already no longer importing Russian oil, Russia is selling more oil than before the war. Now the EU wants to ban European tankers from transporting Russian oil. However, Greece, Malta and Cyprus do not want to participate in…
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France is heading for massive power supply problems
In France, the state-owned energy company Electricite de France SA (EDF) has revised its nuclear power target downwards for the third time this year. The power supply in France is thus becoming increasingly critical. The nuclear power plants operated by EDF form the backbone of the European interconnected system. France is traditionally an electricity exporter…
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How can the introduction of small nuclear power plants be accelerated?
The US is debating the regulatory process of modular nuclear power plants. The commissioning of a modular reactor helps to improve energy supply and reduces dependence on coal and gas. But to make it happen soon, the licensing process needs to be sped up. Building large, conventional nuclear power plants is slow and expensive. That…
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The majority of ministers in the traffic light government drive official cars with combustion engines
Federal government ministers want motorists to switch to electric vehicles. In doing so, they never miss an opportunity to point out the associated climate protection and, more recently, to reduce dependence on Russian energy sources. To this end, the government encouraged motorists to buy an electric vehicle with lavish subsidies. With so many arguments, one…
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Do electric cars really drive with zero emissions?
Both to achieve climate protection targets and to reduce dependence on imports of natural gas, oil and coal, motorists should switch from combustion engines to electric drive. For this reason, the state subsidizes the purchase of an electric car with up to 6,000 euros. The question is whether an electric car really does produce zero…
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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…