Eight EU states back ‘natural gas’ in net-zero transition

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Wondering how Greenpeace, Extinction Rebellion and ilk will react to this news.  Seems like a common sense approach, so I fully expect the climate panic extremists to hate it, and raise a hue and cry.

 

Eight EU states back ‘natural gas’ in net-zero transition

A group of eight EU countries from the Balkans and the east have joined forces to defend the “role of natural gas in a climate-neutral Europe”.

In a joint paper, the group of eight calls for “combined electricity – gas solutions” in the transition to net-zero emissions by 2050.

“A transition based solely on renewable energy sources does not consider the need for a diversified energy mix in the EU,” says the paper, obtained exclusively by EURACTIV.

The paper – titled “The role of natural gas in a climate-neutral Europe” – is signed by Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

It makes the case for fossil gas in the transition away from coal power, which is a dominant form of electricity in many eastern EU member states.

“When replacing solid fossil fuels, natural gas and other gaseous fuels such as bio-methane and decarbonised gases can reduce emissions significantly,” the paper argues.

The European Commission reckons that electricity will meet 53% of the bloc’s energy demand by 2050 as the bloc moves towards reducing emissions to net-zero.

That leaves at least 40% for other energy carriers such as gaseous fuels that Brussels says will have to be fully decarbonised in order to reach the EU’s stated goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050.

Natural gas has been a major driver of Europe’s rapid transition away from coal power and is also proving a valuable back-up for variable renewable electricity generation from wind and solar power.  ...

 

Steam rises from the brown coal-fired power plant Weissweiler operated by RWE in Eschweiler, 21 January 2020. 

Power shift: EU coal output falls 24% in 2019

Global warming emissions from the power sector fell by 12% last year, led by a steep decline in coal power generation, which was replaced half by natural gas and half by renewables, according to fresh data published on Wednesday (5 February).

 

[Blackbag99 + 20]

The rate that the UK is offloading Gas, it will be a major supplier. 

I would look at Norway's distribution first.

Cost and sunk costs are not the same thing!

[Sebastian Meana + 278]

I kinda cringe when i see the word Wind and Solar at this point, i mean europe had a great energy source, nuclear power, which they managed to ruin with fearmongering bureocracy and a hate of standardization

Altho Natural gas can be converted to hydrogen with an energy loss of 25% through pyrolisis, and then use the solid carbon as idk... fertilizer or something? Running a gas turbine on hydrogen gives 21% more output per kg of air, and it wouldn't need exhaust aftertreatment, boom, you solve 3 problems in a single shot, aftertreatment, carbon emisions, and soil degradation