{"id":65301,"date":"2023-04-23T08:51:12","date_gmt":"2023-04-23T13:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=65301"},"modified":"2023-04-23T08:51:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-23T13:51:12","slug":"europes-energy-troubles-continue-hydro-and-nuclear-output-declining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=65301","title":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s Energy Troubles Continue: Hydro And Nuclear Output Declining"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/oilprice.com\/Energy\/Energy-General\/Europes-Energy-Troubles-Continue-Hydro-And-Nuclear-Output-Declining.html\">Europe\u2019s Energy Troubles Continue: Hydro And Nuclear Output Declining<\/a><\/h3>\n<div id=\"key_points\" class=\"wysiwyg clear\">\n<ul>\n<li>Europe&#8217;s hydro and nuclear output is declining, leading to mopre energy troubles.<\/li>\n<li>Renewables are struggling to fill the gap as wind and solar output increase.<\/li>\n<li>The EU may require increased LNG imports from the US to meet energy demands.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"articleImageContainer\"><picture class=\"lozad-picture singleArticle__articleImage\" data-iesrc=\"https:\/\/d32r1sh890xpii.cloudfront.net\/article\/718x300\/2023-04-13_tn8hyex2hr.jpg\" data-loaded=\"true\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/d32r1sh890xpii.cloudfront.net\/article\/420x175\/2023-04-13_tn8hyex2hr.jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 480px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/d32r1sh890xpii.cloudfront.net\/article\/718x300\/2023-04-13_tn8hyex2hr.jpg\" media=\"(min-width: 480px)\" \/><img \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-content\" class=\"wysiwyg clear\">\n<p>Last year, Europe was on the brink of an energy breakdown as Russian gas flows dried up and most of Europe doubled down on renewable energy.<\/p>\n<p>The renewable energy bet paid off, in a way. Solar and wind electricity generation in Europe hit a record in 2022. In fact, for the first time in history, wind and solar together\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.carbonbrief.org\/wind-and-solar-were-eus-top-electricity-source-in-2022-for-first-time-ever\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">produced<\/a>\u00a0more electricity than natural gas-fired power plants.<\/p>\n<p>There was just one problem with that. Lower hydro and nuclear output more than wiped out the significance of that record output.<\/p>\n<p>Droughts were severe in Europe last year. They\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/features\/2022-10-26\/drought-from-china-to-us-hits-hydro-dams-slashing-the-top-clean-energy-source\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">threatened<\/a>\u00a0major trade routes such as the Rhein in Germany and the Po in Italy. And they also caused severe declines in hydropower electricity output. For example, in Spain, hydropower output\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aa.com.tr\/en\/europe\/spain-s-hydroelectricity-generation-drops-by-48-amid-drought-grid-operator\/2708506\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dropped<\/a>\u00a0by almost half because of the droughts. All this might\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/feb\/17\/italy-faces-another-year-severe-drought-little-winter-rain-snow-po-river\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">repeat<\/a>\u00a0this year as well.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, nuclear wasn\u2019t doing so swell, either. France suddenly found that years of underinvestment in maintenance would have consequences: emergency reactor shutdowns for repairs and maintenance.<\/p>\n<p>The problems cost EDF a massive annual loss of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/world-nuclear-news.org\/Articles\/EDF-posts-record-loss-in-France-due-to-reactor-out\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$19 billion<\/a>\u00a0as half of its reactors had to be shut down for maintenance. Most blamed the pandemic, but nuclear experts such as Mark Nelson saw the roots of the problem much further into the past when France decided to bet on renewables over nuclear.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Europe\u2019s Energy Troubles Continue: Hydro And Nuclear Output Declining Europe&#8217;s hydro and nuclear output is declining, leading to mopre energy troubles. Renewables are struggling to fill the gap as wind and solar output increase. The EU may require increased LNG imports from the US to meet energy demands. Last year, Europe was on the brink [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[265,268,281,33818,13719,579,5332],"class_list":["post-65301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-energy-crisis","tag-energy-production","tag-europe","tag-hydro-power","tag-irina-slav","tag-nuclear-power","tag-oilprice-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65302,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65301\/revisions\/65302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}