Hope this will be a wake up call for the countries to double down on green/nuclear energy instead of sucking Russian/Middle Eastern tit.
Scarblac•26m ago
Nuclear takes like 15 years to build, it's being worked on but it won't be much more relevant soon.
Green energy isn't very useful for heating in winter.
AdamN•19m ago
Green energy is super useful for heating in winter. At this point heat pumps are better than gas in almost every way unless the temperature is well below freezing. So it's just a matter of electricity which Italy and Belgium can get from the current mix of green energy (wind and even solar) and other forms (nuclear, coal, etc...)
Schmerika•14m ago
> Green energy isn't very useful for heating in winter.
Solar energy isn't the only 'green' energy. The wind, tides, geothermal vents, rivers etc all continue to work as well or better in winter.
Plus there's a lot of room for improvement elsewhere, like insulation.
throw310822•8m ago
The wake up call should be for Europe to stop allowing the US and Israel to do what they want, starting from the US arrogance that led to the war in Ukraine and the subsequent punishment that Europe inflicted on itself by sanctioning Russia. We should go back buying gas from Russia and from anyone who sells it, keeping as many suppliers as possible, using diplomacy and any power we can project (political, financial or military) to stop other countries from messing up our economy- starting again from Israel, the US, Russia, etc.
Joeri•5m ago
The majority of Belgium’s electricity comes from nuclear, wind and solar. They have been greatly expanding wind parks in the north sea, and they’re in the early stages of deploying SMRs. But the reality is that Belgium still needs a lot of natural gas for electricity production and its large chemical industry, and that all of this gas has to be imported.
Long term there is the European hydrogen strategy which aims to convert a lot of the current natural gas storage and transportation grid to hydrogen and use that in places that currently use LNG, but this requires inventing new technologies so is not a quick fix.
burnt-resistor•31m ago
800 lbs. gorilla: for energy generation uses (so excluding petrochem processes explicitly requiring petroleum feedstock without any closely practical substitute(s)), the goal of decarbonization is essential not just for climate change reasons.
mrtksn•30m ago
AFAIK, 1970s energy crisis pushed Europeans to invent efficient small cars so let's hope this crisis pushes EU into completely abandoning fossils in favor of electricity generated by local means like nuclear, solar, hydro, wind etc. Even if the war doesn't go long enough, the contrast between Spain and Italy in energy security is stark enough to make a point.
Maybe Trump is playing 4D chess after all, pushing Europe into independence so US can spend its energy on China :)
zeristor•6m ago
How many different types of Dementia are there?
Are there 4?
mytailorisrich•27m ago
Europe has plenty of shale gas but refuses to exploit it. Nuclear was stopped or even dismantled. There is such a lack of strategic thinking that at some point the only logical conclusion is that we like to suffer and to lose.
Schmerika•13m ago
> at some point the only logical conclusion is that we like to suffer and to lose.
Or that our political and media class are captured...
wiseowise•31m ago
Scarblac•26m ago
Green energy isn't very useful for heating in winter.
AdamN•19m ago
Schmerika•14m ago
Solar energy isn't the only 'green' energy. The wind, tides, geothermal vents, rivers etc all continue to work as well or better in winter.
Plus there's a lot of room for improvement elsewhere, like insulation.
throw310822•8m ago
Joeri•5m ago
Long term there is the European hydrogen strategy which aims to convert a lot of the current natural gas storage and transportation grid to hydrogen and use that in places that currently use LNG, but this requires inventing new technologies so is not a quick fix.