It all feels incredibly dirty and inefficient to me for such a rich country.
*) Depending on time and location of course, but it's the case surprisingly often.
As a Swede, the more I learn about about how central Europe has been heating their homes the more disgusted I become. Like, the way e.g. Germany seems to think of burning gas as "clean". I mean, maybe compared to coal, but... you shut down nuclear plants with a plan to replace with (Russian) gas? You do understand burning this causes CO2 emissions, right?
That was the many-billion-Euro German green energy revolution your environmentalists wouldn't stop talking about a decade ago?
And now our electricity in southern Sweden (which is what we generally use to heat our houses, in contrast to most of Europe, since it used to be very cheap and clean here, just a year ago. Most use an air-to-air/water heat pump or three) is insane costly, because of a combination of idiotic leftist politicans/voters also shutting down nuclear plants while at the same time building export power connections to Europe.
It's like everyone is doing the opposite of what's sane. /rant over
Those export connections are there to benefit Germany industry who basically shut down some domestic production, because "green", and is instead importing its deficit from the others, raising the prices for everyone.
Portugal and Spain together are the only ones not connected to the shared grid and now have the cheapest energy prices in Europe, with Germany mumbling about it that this should change. Well done guys.
(More believable.)
Source?
At the moment this is leading to a quite a lot of resentment towards the EU (and Germany) here amongst people.
Even if the nuclear plants the 'greens' forced to shut down were started again this probably will not bring down the power prices very much since the demand from neighbouring states will keep them up. As an aside and since you're in the south, would you have any idea why the wind park at Lillgrund (off the coast of Malmö) is not being used [1] when power costs 5.70 SEK/kWh? It is not because of a lack of wind as the linked video - which is taken from a boat sailing at ~8 knots past the wind park - clearly shows.
Europe used to be a one big jungle and the western Europe was first to chop it all and build their wealth on it.
If now we regret it then those who did chop off all their forests should share part of their wealth if they don't want others to follow suit.
The winter is coming. Despite global warming, somebody (starts with U, ends with S) will make a pretty penny. It will teach those EU socialists (healthcare, education, functional public transport) how to do business. Fixing somebody's problem that you yourself created--Godfather would be proud.
Ah yes, the country of Urussias. Or perhaps you mean Unorways. Or Ualgerias? Or Usaudi Arabias?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_the_European_...
It’s now the largest LNG exporter in the world in 2022, though that hardly benefits the country directly in terms of making a pretty penny.
LNG only accounts for a small portion of the EU natural gas imports, most of their gas is imported in gaseous form.
Main extra-EU partners for imports of natural gas, 2021:
Russia: 39.2%
Norway: 25.1%
Algeria: 8.2%
United States: 7.3% <-- The one you're blaming.
United Kingdom: 6.5%
Main extra-EU partners for imports of petroleum oil, 2021:
Russia: 24.8%
Norway 9.4%
United States: 8.8% <-- The one you're blaming.
Libya: 8.2%
Kazakhstan: 8.0%
These figures will be updated to reflect an entirely different new world. They’re from 2021, the year before Russia invaded Ukraine and Europe’s energy supply was dramatically changed at both ends.
Natural gas in the EU is generally used to heat homes and power industry, it and other sources of energy aren’t immediately fungible.
I don’t subscribe to realism and don’t personally blame anyone but Russia and the EU member energy policies responsible for this situation unlike the Russian sympathetic commenter you originally responded to, but using pre war figures on top of pre export ban statistics does border closely on disingenuity given how loudly and rapidly changes have been occurring in 2022.
x4 price increase!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/what-lng-can-...
Though the increase in military spendings may eclipse that.
Why did Hungary remove protection for forests to allow people to collect firewood? Presumably because they think it's necessary. So what would you have them do instead, abandon their country?
For people who have studied the history of how countries and their leadership make decisions, even just superficially (eg, you've followed the news for 20 years), this is actually a very strange presumption.
It is historically just as plausible that it's not thought necessary for society as a whole, but is simply profitable for some special interest, such as (just an example, not an actual suggestion) a large forest land owner.
I thought this was obvious, unless one is very young still or one has never taken any interest in history or current events.
Not, 'What could they have done five years ago?' or 'What could they do five years from now?' I want to know how Hungarians can heat their homes 5 months from now. That's the question the government of Hungary is forced to address.
Solar panels and heat pumps seem like a good long-term solution, but that can't be done in time to keep people warm this winter. So for this winter, what would you have them do? Freeze? Travel back in time a few years and come up with a better solution?
Edit: you seem to be under the impression that this "firewood" will go to households of all income levels. GP's statement about naivete is reinforced.
I'm sure it would sting to do so, but it is an option.
If the humidity is high enough, it can take it past even. But you won't find that out by comparing summer and winter numbers in the same location, because there aren't a significant number of locations that have both summer and winter conditions severe enough to push the numbers. You would want to compare, say, Canada in winter with south Florida or south Texas in summer (or, for even more extreme, northern Scandinavia in winter with southeast Asia or equatorial Africa in summer).
Even just locally here the 25 degree F differential with ~50% relative humidity in summer would be interesting to compare to the 60 degree F differential in winter. Maybe those ultra efficient hygroscopic dehumidifiers will finally enter production.
And heat pumping to geothermal for summer might help too. I know some people locally do that. Big investment though.
Central heating is also common and often heated by garbage.
And you can survive “unaided” quite low (sleeping bags rated to -30°?) but there is a heat point where you die if you cannot escape it somehow.
I have a heat pump for heating and cooling, and my electric bills are only slightly higher in winter (5-10%).