I think that only way to make natural gas competitive, is to start fracking in Europe. In France Poland and Ukraine, there is good fracking reserves for natural gas, but this comes with high environmental cost.
Situation is indeed grim for natural gas, because gas price is rising and it is mostly based on imports what are expensive for economy as a whole. Also renewables are shaving the peak demand and therefore are making adjustable power production unprofitable. Even brand new natural gas power stations are in danger to be shut down, because demand for adjustable power is plummeting due to renewables. Wind and solar are correlating too well with peak demand. Also modern coal plants are fully adjustable and natural gas cannot compete with them at diminishing peak demand markets. —Jouni Sent from my iPad On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:20 PM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote: > As noted here several times, coal is actually increasing in Europe. They > should do something about that. See: > > http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/03/what-do-struggling-gas-fired-plants-mean-for-renewables > > QUOTE: > > The idling of power stations built to last a generation is holding back > Europe’s consumption of the fuel. The region’s demand will drop 3.5 percent > to 550 billion cubic meters in 2015 from 2010 levels, according to > International Energy Agency forecasts. Russia’s Gazprom lost its position as > Europe’s largest gas supplier to Norway last year as shipments slid, Societe > Generale SA said. > > “The switch from gas to coal in Europe is a very serious retrograde step from > a climate change perspective,” Dieter Helm, an energy policy professor at the > University of Oxford, said by e-mail. “In Germany it is worse — building new > coal power stations which will be locked in for decades.” > > > > - Jed
