EU energy crisis - Greece restarts its coal power plants

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EU energy crisis - Greece restarts its coal power plants

Published: Wednesday, December 22nd, 2021 @ 8:18 am
By: John Steed ( More Entries )

Greece is the first EU country to see the error of its ways in trying to follow the EU's green energy dictates. It is a poor country and its citizens simply cannot afford the very high cost of the new EU electric regime. Its conservative New Democracy government is reopening its coal fired electric plants that were shuttered in 2019. Even plants that had been partly dismantled are being rebuilt so they can reopen. Prior to 2019, Greece had one of the highest percentages of coal-fired power in Europe and is on a path to restore that so it can provide reasonably priced and dependable power to its citizens.

An extended period of light winds dubbed "the Big Calm" this Fall and continuing into winter has seen wind power plummet across the continent, gas reserves hit bottom due to demand to make up for loss of wind, and now gas prices going sky high. All of that has sent electric bills soaring across Europe.

https://stopthesethings.com/2021/12/21/rapid-re-retreat-looming-winter-blackouts-force-greeks-to-reignite-coal-fired-plants/

Early last winter when a previous period of calm winds threatened Germany's power grid, Merkel's government reopened as a temporary measure a number of coal fired power plants that they had "permanently" shut down only weeks before. That temporary emergency has not ended as those plants are still operating today. However, the new Social Democrat government has announced its intention to close down all coal and nuclear power plants on an accelerated basis. How they plan to keep the lights on is still a mystery.

Since the stupid RINOs in the legislative leadership have given NC the EU electric plan on steroids, we will probably be asking ourselves the same questions in just a few years.

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Concerned Taxpayer said:

( December 23rd, 2021 @ 1:04 pm )

Greece is lucky that it still had its coal power plants around to restart. Many of the "woke" utility monopolies in the US like to blow them up or otherwise destroy them so they won't be around anymore. I have little doubt that very "woke" Duke Energy will do the same here in NC when they get the chance.

I suspect that gas power plants can be run off of coal, which would help some European countries. One of the clean coal technologies in the US is to gasify coal and then burn the coal gas in a system that resembles a gas power plant. Indeed when gas was cheaper than coal, some of those plants actually switched over to natural gas, so it is likely the reverse would also work to run gas power plants off of coal gas.

Coal gasification is an old technology. In eastern North Carolina prior to the War Between the States, there were coal gas plants in Washington and New Bern and probably elsewhere that produced coal gas and distributed it through pipes to power gas lights on streets and in homes. Washington's coal gas plant was at the corner of Bridge and Third Streets where the Doctor Pepper plant (now also gone) was later built.

Our woke military goes to extremes

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