German industry has started shutting down: One third plan or have started to reduce production

Normally in a prewar situation a country might be increasing industrial production

h/t  Rafe Champion

Russia has cut gas supply again, arguing over the German paperwork, after Canada dithered on sending the last turbine back, and Poland reneged on some dividends. Everyone is playing poker with energy, even if some of them didn’t count their cards before they started — and gas is predictably, hitting new record prices. But even before the ante was upped in the latest round, 15% of German industry were already cutting production. Many others are planning to or were considering moving. People are starting to wonder if this might be a permanent loss for the famous German industrial power.

In other news, rather frantic landlords in Germany want to be able to legally restrict temperatures of their tenants units. Someone has got to pay that gas bill, and just asking tenants to take shorter showers doesn’t seem to be working.

Now they tell us:

“Gas is now not only part of Russia’s foreign policy, but possibly also part of the Russian war strategy,” said [Klaus Müller, the president of Germany’s Federal Network Agency, Bundesnetzagentur]

If only someone saw that coming, like say, in 2018, when Germany had plenty of time to make sure energy didn’t become a threat to national security and their industrial base?

Javier Blas says Germany must make big gas reductions

With Nord Stream 1 flowing at just 20% of capacity from July 27, Germany will NOT have enough natural gas to make it throughout the whole winter **unless big demand reductions are implemented**. Berlin will need to activate stage 3 of its gas emergency program

Dutch Gas Futures hits a new record price 780% higher than a year ago:

“The European gas crisis continues to escalate. Gas prices have returned to levels only seen in March as Nord Stream flows dwindle, while the outlook for winter looks bleak for European consumers,” BCS GM said in a note.

Tradingview shows €206/MWh:

Dutch TTF Gas Price July 2022

German electricity prices for next year are up 400% on a year ago:

German power for delivery next year, the benchmark European price, shot up to a record 388 euros ($394) per megawatt hour on Wednesday — more than 400% higher than a year earlier. It later pared its gains slightly.

Though those slaves to the Australian National Energy Market would say “is that all”. We’re already paying $400 a megawatt hour. We don’t have to wait til next year. And we’re exporting gas too.

And so it begins: According to the DIHK survey of 3,500 companies the energy intensive industries are suffering so much they have to move or shut down.

Josh Owens, OilPrice

One of every six German industrial companies feels forced to reduce production due to high energy prices, a survey by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, DIHK, showed on Monday.

Nearly a quarter of the companies forced to reduce production have already done so, and another one-quarter are in the process of scaling back production due to sky-high energy prices, according to the survey of 3,500 companies from all sectors and regions in Germany.

The survey also showed that only half of Germany’s industrial companies have covered their annual 2022 gas requirements via contracts. More than a third of industrial firms still have to buy more than 30% of their annual gas needs.

German Landlords want a legal option to restrict temperatures for tenants

Germany’s second largest private real estate group, LEG Immobilien, says “”I believe that in the current war situation, the population in Germany must be made aware that renunciation is now the order of the day,” CEO Lars von Lackum told the Handelsblatt.

Coming soon? Let’s “wear a ski-jacket to dinner” for your country?

10 out of 10 based on 85 ratings

144 comments to German industry has started shutting down: One third plan or have started to reduce production

  • #
    DonK31

    This is like complaining about it being hot in the summer and cold in the winter. What the hell did they expect when they shut down their reliable sources of energy?

    590

    • #
      OldOzzie

      ABC News – Consumers warned of looming ‘nightmare’ as AEMO reports record wholesale electricity costs

      Millions of Australian households have been warned to brace for savage hikes to their power bills after prices in the country’s biggest electricity market rocketed to their highest levels on record.

      Energy Market Operator (AEMO) said wholesale power costs soared to unprecedented levels in the three months to June 30 amid the crisis engulfing the energy system.

      Average prices for the quarter were $264 per megawatt hour — an extraordinary 203 per cent increase on the first three months of the year, and about six times higher than the long-term trend.

      It was a similar story in the eastern states gas market, which AEMO noted posted a record average price of $28.40 a gigajoule (GJ) for the quarter, compared with $8.20/GJ for the same period last year.

      The unprecedented highs sparked warnings from industry experts that consumers would see massive price hikes as electricity providers sought to recover surging costs.

      Chaser

      While noting there were many reasons behind the upheaval, AEMO said one of the biggest was a lack of coal-fired power generation at various times.

      320

      • #
        OldOzzie

        Australian ‘Big Battery’ Boosts Revenue at France’s Neoen

        Higher electricity prices in Australia also helped to boost revenue across its wind and solar divisions, where sales rose by 23% and 31% respectively

        100

      • #
        Rupert Ashford

        And I guess that’s also “inherited” from the previous government by Liebor and they’ll fix it even though there’s no easy fix? They’ll ride this as far as they can to further their pet unreliable energy sources.

        The Germans are also using this as an excuse to further the interests of those energy sources, just a bit subtler than what the Dutch government is currently doing to the farmers.

        90

      • #
        GlenM

        It’s all the fault of unreliable coal. So they keep saying. The corollary as usual is more wind and battery. We all know this is going to get worse and I’m glad that U didn’t have a smart meter installed.

        70

      • #
        Russell

        I just love the way that MSM (and others) now refer blame for cost hikes to electricity “providers”.
        No one (now) knows who to blame. Is it the Retailers, Network Providers, Generators, Regulators, etc? Or all of them?
        Not sure – so let’s just call them collectively “providers”. No responsibility shafted to anyone – just so 21st century.

        Of course it’s mostly politics but then marketers within the Retail companies do cozy up to anything that might sell – maybe Climate Change?
        Let’s try a premium for Green Energy – nah it didn’t sell – not enough stupid people will pay the extra premium for nothing back.
        Let’s try solar cells on residential roofs – oops too heavy on feed-in tariffs – not sustainable and very unfair to poorer people.
        Let’s tell people that we buy only “responsibly sourced” product from wind and solar not from dirty fossil fuels. Oops – busted coal plants.

        Reliable supply is just not easy to sell especially when it’s been so reliable into the distant past.
        Retail marketers are lost and so disconnected from the engineering that they are unlikely to come up with anything by themselves.
        Once they could talk to others in their company who shared common tribe goals – cheap, reliable, safe – you know, the basics.
        Fragmentation of the electricity industry was always a bad idea and continues to give …

        150

      • #
        Ronin

        Origin Energy to announce stratospheric profits, this used to have a name, a dirty name, war profiteering.

        90

        • #
          yarpos

          Oh dear, how can it be so. Arent our suppliers struggling with the sky high global prices of gas and coal? I would have thought they would struggle to maintain margins.

          10

  • #
    Fran

    Shutting industries will result in unemployment for factory workers. This will cascade into the service industries that the factory workers support. Will the Germans/EU have to print more money to keep up?

    450

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Fran:
      It is difficult (and expensive) to get rid of workers (i.e. trained or experienced ones) and with the Unions having Director seats on the various Company Boards very hard.
      Part of the reason for partial shutdowns might be a declining economy and reduced sales. Higher energy costs are followed by recession.
      There is also a “knock on” effect as primary suppliers reduce output, those relying on supply from them have to reduce output also. Thus BASF uses about 4% of gas in Germany and are talking of shutting down (temporarily), which means that about a 100 chemical companies that produce specialty products (using basic ones from BASF) would have to shut down, followed very shortly afterwards by the German automobile industry (and others e.g. wind turbines which use specialised lubricants).
      There politicians are blind to the consequences of their policies (as elsewhere).

      241

    • #
      Indur Goklany

      A hockey stick in the price of electricity courtesy of misguided efforts to avoid a non-existent hockey stick in temperatures.

      Solving non-existent problems can be very expensive!

      230

      • #
        Russell

        Wikipedia defines “Hockey stick graphs” as follows:
        “Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records.”

        Apparently, this shape has no other mathematical significance for it to be classified in a more generic manner.

        The Climate force is so strong with this one that it may even be copyrighted to some Mann.
        Be careful using it to create a meme for your interpretation of energy prices that spick in the tail. This Ol’ Mann has a habit of litigation without conclusion …

        40

  • #
    Ted1.

    I am mystified by the idea that anything Russia does might be anything other than war strategy.

    I was surprised that they took so long to cut the gas supply. They must be testing the reaction.

    One peculiar aspect of this war that I haven’t seen noted is that even before the war Russia’s population was declining. People were leaving. Surely they weren’t dying.

    290

  • #
    Gerry

    So now the social security bill for Germany and the rest of Europe will expand and the money from taxes will shrink ……things are going well …..and the conquest of Europe has taken place without a tank rolling into Poland or rockets dropping on Berlin

    Why didn’t they listen to common sense ( eg Trump) when they had the chance ……?? Many people know he was right about this but are frightened to say the “T” word ……Ignorance and arrogance are regular bedfellows

    620

  • #
    bobby b

    Had I not watched Trump try to warn them of this exact thing, and then watched them snicker behind Trump’s back, I might have some sympathy for them.

    Burn and freeze, EU! Burn and freeze!

    720

    • #
      Mike+of+NQ

      So true, those smirking Germans snickering at Trump at the UN general assembly when he suggested they reduce their reliance on Russian gas, is still etched deeply into my memory bank.

      501

      • #
        Erny72

        Those same smirking Germans are also the one’s who’ve been dictating auterity here there and everywhere else in the Peninsula, I am very heartened to see the likes of Hungary, Italy, Spain and Greece tell Ursula van der Lyin’ to stick her ‘cut your consumption by 15% and ‘share’ it (with us) this winter’ diktat and shove it where the sun don’t shine. And with that enjoy the taste of your own austerity medicine… Pity for the people living on the Peninsula, I gather the sock-puppets and ineptocrats will be mounting various dioplomatic missions to such destinations as Brazil or Barbados this winter. I see the next COP-off is booked in that exemplar of energy efficiency the United Arab Emirates (where gardens are watered with desalinized seawater and every public building is air conditioned like the inside of your refridgerator).
        With the news that coal consumption is up, up, up, perhaps we should be thanking those pragmatic Russians for delivering the gullible warming grift a mortal body blow. If the chess masters keep their game up, once the EUssr has fallen belatedly on its arse, they may also deal a body blow to the big club in Washington and their ‘our rules based orders’. Then again, the dolts in DC might just arrange that body blow directly when they kajole the ice-cream scoffing old witch into poking a dragon in the eye tomorrow.

        10

    • #
      Lawrie

      So true Bobby. Only when enough people suffer will the rulers start feeling the heat and that is not happening yet. While I feel some sympathy for the ordinary folk who have to pay the price for the wrong decisions by their betters they did elect them in the first place. Luckily we still have the vote and it will be interesting to see who is voted in next time around. Hopefully the current crop of dead beats will be cast out. Closer will be the election of the UK prime minister next month. Liz Truss is making some encouraging noises even though her previous positions do not engender complete trust at this time. If Labour keep the climate scam going and current conditions persist Liz might make history by having the Tories re-elected for five consecutive terms.

      270

      • #
        Len

        I understand that Liz is WEF alumni

        10

      • #
        Erny72

        Lawrie, I fear you over-estimate Dizzy Lizzy; she’s just another gobshite reading from what ever script* is put in front of her to appeal to the party members. She’ll be elected because she ticks an affirmative action box, but isn’t as confronting to the UK electorate as a brown guy will be (not making slurs against Sunak here, this is simply how I envisage the party headshed are thinking). Once in, she’ll double down on squandering military aid to the US fomented colour revolution in 404, even as Senile Joe and co are dropping another lost adventure faster than a hot lump of clinker from the grate of a working generator (coal fired), which will be folly enough, but the noises on energy are more unicorn farts of the floating wind and green hydrogen flavours and squandering bucket loads of other people’s money to keep it all limping along so the British Bullshit Creators can paint it as a clean, green success story, and all justified as necessary to break Blighty’s dependence on ‘Putin’s gas’.
        No matter what granny hat she wears to evoke comparisons, she’s a feeble immitation of Maggie. I gather the Tories will get their fifth term despite Dizzy Lizzy’s most incompetent efforts, but only because the alternatives are equally vacuuous or, unbelievably, even more useless.

        *Recall when her opposite number Sergei Lavrov asked Dizzy Lizzy directly whether the UK would ever recognise Russia’s sovereignty over Rostov and Voronezh and she spat that Britain would ‘never’ do such a thing? After which Sergei Viktorovich remarked that the meeting was like a “comedy” and “talking to a deaf person”. And this when Dizzy Lizzy was allegedly the UK’s foreign secretary. Jesus wept.

        00

    • #
      David Maddison

      I posted a link to the video of that below.

      90

  • #

    The solution to the energy problem is simple. Restart those Nuclear and Coal fired Power Plants. Look for Gas deposits both onshore and off shore (the North Sea). Maybe start coal mining again if economic. Otherwise, import the coal from Poland. DON’T use wood from those Forests for Power Plants or home heating (only use ‘old wood’/offcuts if at all). Tell the Greens (communists) that the Forests should be managed properly for the good of the Environment. After all, don’t the Greens support the Environment? Or is it the money now?

    ‘Push Back’ by reality will eventually make this happen.

    In the short term, they have made their bed, so they must lay in it (and stay warm under the covers this Winter). Blame those ‘Pollies’ and those who voted for them for the current mess.

    QED (Quite Easily Done)

    241

    • #
      Just+Thinkin'

      QED

      That’s about all I remember from my Latin classes
      all those years ago.

      30

    • #
      Ronin

      Amazing how the Donald saw the future so clearly, you can bet the krauts aren’t smirking quite so much now and Trump can honestly say ‘I told you so”. LOL

      290

  • #
    RobB

    “Gas is now not only part of Russia’s foreign policy, but possibly also part of the Russian war strategy,” said [Klaus Müller, the president of Germany’s Federal Network

    What a genius.

    Maybe the Germans should have thought of all that before embarking their own war strategy of economic sanctions and freezing of Russian assets. Talk about 1942 all over again.

    Germans havent learnt a thing. Heil Scholz!

    250

  • #
    David Maddison

    President Trump warned Germany and Europe in general about a dependence on Russian gas.

    They laughed at him.

    In this 28sec video clip from the UN you can see the German delegation smirk or laugh at President Trump as he warns them. What a bunch of clowns!

    Trump was correct, yet again.

    470

  • #
    David Maddison

    Germany has a plan for their winter!

    Jo reported about a week ago that Germany was planning “warm up centres” in public halls etc. where freezing people can go to feel warm for a little while. But I guess they can”t live there.

    And won’t it be cruel kicking out a warmed-up person back into the cold to make place for the next freezing person?

    And I presume the heating will only work when the wind us blowing as there won’t be much solar in a German winter.

    330

  • #
    David Maddison

    Apart from shutting down industry which the Green/Left want anyway, what else is being suggested?

    Germany has so many windmills is it even physically possible to fit more?

    I think freezing in the dark is exactly where the Green/Left/Elites want the Germans.

    I hope Germany doesn’t start another World War over this.

    340

    • #
      OldOzzie

      ‘Horror chart’ suggests Germany on brink of huge energy crisis

      Consumer prices for electricity are detached from reality, the editor of Die Welt says

      In what he called a “horror chart” that he posted with his tweet, Zschaepitz showed that the price of electricity had reached almost €400 per megawatt hour on the energy exchange, or €0.40 per kilowatt-hour. If consumer prices reflected such market rates, Germans would be paying around €0.80 per kilowatt-hour rather than the current €0.30, including taxes and fees. However, such a sharp increase would be socially explosive, Zschaepitz suggests. Meanwhile, in such a case energy companies would no longer be able to produce competitively, he adds.

      80

  • #
    David Maddison

    When is an honest scientist or engineer (present company excepted) going to shout out to stop this unreliables madness?

    The silence from professional scientific and engineering associations is deafening. As is the silence from universities and government research organisations.

    1) There is no anthropogenic global warming problem.

    2) It is not economically or even engineeringly feasible, practical or possible to run an advanced society on wind, solar and Big Batteries.

    The best you can hope for is that serfs will have some night time lighting and a small amount of power to run a TV (Telescreen in Nineteen Eighty Four) to receive the latest propaganda from Big Brother and to participate in “Two Minutes of Hate”.

    380

    • #

      It is going to be interesting watching this disaster unfold…and how the perpetrators , when the penny finally drops that it won’t work, explain their way out of it.

      170

      • #
        David Maddison

        perpetrators , when the penny finally drops that it won’t work, explain their way out of it.

        We must never allow them to do that. Every single one of them who promoted and perpetuated the scam must be held to account. No exceptions! No excuses! No “ve didn’t know”.

        290

        • #
          Ted1.

          OK.

          So just who are these perpetrators you are talking about every every single one of?

          Concentrate on the message, not the messenger.

          122

          • #
            Ronin

            Work it out yourself, it ain’t hard, the list is massive.

            230

          • #
            David Maddison

            Ted1 –

            for a start, it would be all those who participated in fraudulent manipulation of historic weather data to “prove” supposed anthropogenic global warming. This has been extensively documented by Tony Heller for US data and Jo Nova and Jennifer Marohasy for Australian data.

            Then there are those who shut down debate on the validity or otherwise on supposed mechanisms of anthropogenic global warming such as whether the tiny amount of anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere really coukd produce the warming claimed.

            There are those who pretended climate was static and unchanging, ignoring historical events such as the Minoan, Egyptian, Roman and Medieval Warm periods and the little ice age.

            There are those who are becoming extremely wealthy from the fraud by becoming monopoly suppliers of solar and wind power and forcing subsidies directly out of consumer pockets.

            There are scientists and engineers who know the truth but remain silent.

            There are politicians that don’t care for the truth.

            There is the Green movement, most members of which are too stupid to understand and are incapable of exercising critical thought and, dangerously believe everything they are told.

            There are those who won’t ask questions.

            There are those that hate Western Civilisation. Why do you suppose the world’s largest CO2 emitter and a nuclear and space power can do whatever it pleases without restraint?

            I could go on, the list is nearly endless.

            370

            • #
              MichaelB

              Very well put David.
              But you forgot to mention the worst perpetrators: that is the mainstream media that parrot everything peddled by so-called ‘experts’, that fail to critique any alarmist claims, and that fail to provide any coverage of alternative views.

              Without an honest, skeptical and questioning media, lies and junk science become amplified, the children remain terrified of the future, and the money continues to flow to the fraudsters and elitists.

              210

            • #
              John Connor II

              Which is what I’ve said over and over.
              It will happen but first we need to hit that tipping point, which is very close now.

              Maybe the lack of pensions, lack of food, lack of power, your life’s work destroyed, the next generation wiped out.
              What will the “snapping point” be?

              20

            • #
              Fuel Filter

              David, don’t bother. Here’s a great quote for you, and really for all here who run across people like this:

              “Arguing with a man who has renounced his reason is like giving medicine to the dead.”

              30

        • #

          Dead right David. The day of reckoning is coming

          140

    • #
      Eng_Ian

      David,
      This present company, (myself), has given up trying to inform the masses of the limits that will be imposed when the coal and gas are selectively removed from the grid. I’ve stopped explaining to people that the users cannot afford all the batteries required to run their houses, their retail outlets, their industry and their recreational facilities. I no longer provide advice on the best solution to the problems that my former clients have. And I’ve stopped explaining that a solar farm will not supply power at night.

      As far as I can see, the woke will not listen and I’m not going to waste more of my time to correct their ways. Let them fall in a heap, let them be cold/hot, let them feel the pain of their decisions. Let them be chased by the masses with pitchforks and torches.

      I’m over it. I’m just waiting for the crashes that are coming. Will it be a winter grid blackout, maybe we’ll make it to summer? Will it be a major industry closing, we’re already losing construction. Will it be uncontrolled inflation, driven by fuel pricing and an incessant need for the minimum wage to outpace inflation?

      Bring it on. Bring it on soon before everything is lost. It’s time for a great reset and the current crop have shown their colours. The damage is done, the names are known, only the outcome awaits.

      [Eng_Ian, personally I have moments of similar sentiment. Then, I think it is possible that the “collapse” will be initially spotty and therefore cause a major wake up for the woke. None of us that are still able to think rationally can afford to give up yet. On the other hand your comment is off topic. Or maybe not] ED

      260

      • #
        Ronin

        It’s like we are all standing by the side of the railway tracks, the train is coming, we can see it, we can hear it, we can see someone has removed the rails, we are waving at the driver, he takes no notice, we are helpless because we can see what is going to happen.

        140

    • #
      yarpos

      This has been one of the more disappointing aspects of this whole fiasco. I am guessing a lot of it has to do with paying mortgages and feeding families so just go with the flow.

      70

  • #
    Sean

    Look at domestic German automotive production. It’s declined from 500,000 vehicles per month to 300,000 vehicles per month over the last 5 years.

    https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/car-production

    As gas supplies tighten, I can’t see this improving.

    230

  • #
    David Maddison

    Australian politicians are so clueless they will learn nothing from this

    EXCEPT

    to claim Germany is an example of of what happens when you don’t have enough windmills.

    Australia’s answer to the German problem will be to BUILD MORE WINDMILLS.

    Don’t forget the Left, now the dominant force in Australia, subscribe to post-modernism. Post-modernists don’t believe in objective reality. Reality is whatever you “believe” it is.

    From Britannica:

    Many postmodernists hold one or more of the following views: (1) there is no objective reality; (2) there is no scientific or historical truth (objective truth); (3) science and technology (and even reason and logic) are not vehicles of human progress but suspect instruments of established power; (4) reason and logic …ETC.

    https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy

    230

  • #

    The Europeans will be praying for global warming to kick in faster than forecast !

    270

    • #
      Ted1.

      Years ago now Vladimir Putin was reported to have said that in Russia a bit of global warming might be good.

      The following summer the news reported that Russia had unprecedented bushfires.

      Fact or fiction?

      20

      • #
        yarpos

        As soon as you say “unprecedented” I lean yo fiction. Russia has bushfires , just like us.

        10

  • #
    dk_

    Not all that long ago, Germany would effectively shut down for the Month of August. After a couple years of variable lockdown, and with little or no available funds for vacation travel, it is probably a great time to politically capitalize on public dissatisfaction and to fluff up a slow news day, but there are real concerns. Key will be to see how things go toward the beginning of September. If energy costs remain high, it may be a long vacation.

    120

  • #
    Petros

    The Yanks are playing these European idiots for what they are. Can’t help feeling no sympathy for them.

    150

  • #
    Penguinite

    JoNo writes, tongue in cheek “If only someone saw that coming, like say, in 2018, when Germany had plenty of time to make sure energy didn’t become a threat to national security and their industrial base?”
    No doubt we will be singing the same refrain in 6 months’ time! Because it’s doubtful Labor will reject Green pressure to kill King Coal!

    220

    • #
      Ted1.

      What we should be campaigning now for right now is for any coal fired power station that is shut down to be mothballed, not demolished, until such time as we can be sure that it is not needed.

      The power companies know that the market they are operating in is corrupted by politics. They have to make their business plans to operate in this corrupted market.

      They know that politics can change. They know that it is not impossible for the politics to revert to the free market. A free market in which their business plans would all fail. The very last thing their business plans need is to have to compete with cheap power generation.

      So, to protect themselves from having to compete with cheap power Australian power companies commence demolition immediately a coal fired station closes to ensure that it cannot be reopened to generate cheap power.

      This policy is probably aided and abetted by government regulations requiring that the site be restored.

      We saw this in South Australia. We saw it at Hazelwood. And we saw it at Wallerawang.

      At Liddell there has been talk of installing a gas fired generator. But at Eraring we must not permit immediate demolition. Maybe too at Liddell.

      170

  • #
    Robber

    Here in Victoriastan, spot wholesale electricity prices:
    May $233.64/MWhr
    June $296.49/MWhr
    July $356.65/MWhr
    While in Qld prices have gone above $400.
    Yet Dan and the Greens discourage/ban any new gas developments.
    Will they ever learn?

    240

    • #
      Ronin

      Coopers Gap wind farm, 0 of 458 Mw.

      130

      • #
        David Maddison

        Coopers Gap wind farm, 0 of 458 Mw.

        Oh great!

        Let’s build another 50, just like that!

        200

        • #
          Ronin

          Yep, more is obviously better.
          Simple math, 1×0 = 0, 1000×0 =0.

          120

          • #
            David Maddison

            No.

            2 + 2 = 5

            Early in the novel, Winston writes that “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.” The motif comes full circle at the end of the novel after the torture Winston suffers in the Ministry of Love breaks his soul; he sits at the Chestnut Tree Café and traces “2 + 2 = 5” in the dust on his table.

            110

    • #
      Chad

      #
      Robber
      July 29, 2022 at 7:23 am · Reply
      Here in Victoriastan, spot wholesale electricity prices:
      May $233.64/MWhr
      June $296.49/MWhr
      July $356.65/MWhr
      While in Qld prices have gone above $400.

      ?? Why does QLD price increase ?
      They always have surplus to export ?

      30

      • #

        Most of the coal fired power stations in Qld are governmeny owned. The labor government is short of money so are selling high priced power to NSW but can not dicriminate so are charging the public the same to fill yheir coffers.

        00

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    You might want to look at how the board is structured for companies in Germany. It will tell you why they are cutting back on production.

    324

    • #
      David Maddison

      Well, feel free to enlighten us Peter.

      120

    • #
      Ronin

      Most likely the boards are littered with ‘activists’.

      100

    • #
      el+gordo

      ‘ … have a two-tier board structure consisting of the management board and the supervisory board. A European company (Societas Europaea) (SE) can choose between a one-tier and a two-tier board structure, however most German SEs opt for the two-tier board system.’

      60

    • #
      Dave in the States

      Europe and lots of other places are in this mess because they have “boards” running things.

      70

    • #
      el+gordo

      Taking this a little further, its disaster waiting to happen, non business principles.

      ‘The supervisory board oversees and appoints the members of the management board and must approve major business decisions. For German companies with more than 2,000 employees, half of the members of the supervisory board are elected by the employees.’ (wiki)

      40

  • #
    David Maddison

    Don’t forget that Germany’s present day socialists are just fulfilling the “green energy” plan initiated by the National Socialists and documented in Rupert Darwall’s book “Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex”.

    180

    • #
      Zane

      The Green movement is just as likely to have started as a KGB ” ideological sabotage ” operation – or ” ideological subversion ” as defector Yuri Bezmenov put it – as an adjunct to the KGB- infiltrated peace movement. The KGB had over 500,000 staff in the old USSR. Imagine that payroll. No wonder the Soviets went broke. Many were involved in suppressing internal dissent, but the rest mostly worked on counterintelligence or running down the West.

      Including Vladimir Vladimirovich P.

      The globalists (Rocket fellers) and the Club of Rome were also set up in the late 60s. Who was behind that?

      Schwab was mentored by Kissinger. Again, who is pulling the strings here?

      230

    • #

      Like an octopus The UN has extended its reach from its official peacekeeping aims and office at Geneva
      Now buildings in New York, Paris, Vienna and others. Nothing lies beyond its specialised bureaucracies-
      including Energy, Food and Agriculture, Monetary Policy and Climate Change. The UN Bruntland Report was
      first to recommend a New World Economic Order and first to use the phrase “Sustainable Development – the
      result, Agenda 21 and the rest of this quagmire.
      https://beththeserf.wordpress.com/2018/11/01/55th-edition-serf-under_ground-journal/

      80

  • #
    RickWill

    AEMO will release its Q2 2022 report today. It is the harbinger of East Coast grid collapse. It shows why inflation in Australia is at a 30 year high.

    WattClarity has a preview

    Key factors underlying the extraordinary rise in wholesale prices in Q2 included:
    – The impacts in local fuel markets of extremely high international prices for traded gas and thermal coal.
    – Reduced availability of coal-fired generation, due to scheduled maintenance as well as long- and short-duration forced outages, driving high levels of gas-fired generation, which both raised electricity prices and put pressure on local gas markets.
    – Physical fuel supply and hydrological constraints at a number of thermal and hydro generators which further limited their operational flexibility.’

    https://wattclarity.com.au/articles/2022/07/29july-qed-extreme-price-causes/

    Summer will be interesting for Australia. As will winter in Europe. Gas prices are primed to reach impressive levels. All this happening decades to centuries before the real energy crunch unless nuclear is embraced.

    Did you know that in 2021 Syukuro Manaba accepted the Nobel Prize in physics for his modelling on how CO2 is warming the planet? This shows how far the stupidity has evolved.

    Australia has been decimated by the climate clowns presenting as scientists in academia and CSIRO; promoting utter nonsense and too smug to recognise their stupidity when faced with reality.

    280

    • #
      RickWill

      The Q2 2022 report is now available and the solution to the unprecedented wholesale price is clearly stated:

      “What’s clear is the urgent need to build-out renewable energy with diversified firming generation – like batteries, hydro and gas – and transmission investment to provide homes and businesses with low-cost, reliable energy,” she said.

      https://aemo.com.au/newsroom/media-release/quarterly-energy-dynamics-report-for-q2-2022

      So spending a large fortune on W&S has to be followed by a larger fortune in hydro, gas, batteries and transmission lines then rinse and repeat. It will end when no one can afford electricity.

      If you have not got your own heat and power production capability then you will be exposed to enormous prices increases.

      20

  • #
    Zane

    Turning down the thermostat a degree or two won’t harm them. From memory a northern European flat is far warmer in winter than the average brick veneer house in suburban Melbourne.

    Putin is unlikely to announce an Operation Reverse-Barbarossa.

    1. Germany is in NATO.

    2. Putin’s daughter lives in Munich.

    80

    • #

      Putin only wants the Eastern part of Ukraine along with the land link to the Crimea. If he had wanted to conquer/destroy the rest of the Ukraine he would have already smashed the Electricity Grid, the Water Supply and the Communications Network. And he has not.

      He is not after a new Soviet Union or Eastern Europe IMHO. Only a neutral ‘Rest of Ukraine’ as a buffer against NATO. The unintended consequence of invasion has been Sweden and Finland joining NATO.

      The USA, the EU and the UK have miscalculated here. Along with Canada, Australia, NZ and some others.

      00

      • #
        Zane

        Putin can want whatever he likes. But some people have had enough of being invaded by Russia and having the Kremlin rule over them. One Soviet Union was quite enough. My hunch is the career of Vladimir Putin, KGB colonel, is reaching its endpoint.

        00

    • #
      Graeme#4

      Agree Zane. When working and living in Germany, I found the room temps far too warm – seem to be set at 27-28C. Always used to turn my hotel room temp down, only to find it turned up again when I returned after work. Also never understood the need to warm hotel and apartment corridors.

      60

  • #
    David Maddison

    Are the Germans still mocking and laughing at President Trump now?

    180

    • #
      Lawrie

      Probably. I note Adam Creighton from the Australian, an usually sound journalist, is on his anti Trump campaign again by saying although he has fans he cannot win in 24. Wishful thinking by the never Trumpers. In 3 months we will see if the red wave is successful. It should be if one man one vote is allowed by the corrupt Democrats or more likely the unplugging of Dominion machines. There are so many who have egg on their face because Trump was right more often than they were but like any good lefty they don’t accept reality and prefer their cartoon life. Reality, however, has a 100% record of eventually making it’s presence known.

      90

    • #
      Ross

      Actually, the Germans themselves are now the victims of “Schadenfreude”. Sort of poetic, wouldn’t you say?

      50

    • #
      yarpos

      Probably, the arrogance and hubris of the EU ruling class has few limits.

      00

  • #
    exsteelworker

    This is all part of the Western left-wing agenda. Once the rich Western countries have crippled their baseload fossil fuel generation, WW3 will begin. Can’t win a war with solar panels and wind turbines. All the school kids that go on climate protests,your future is looking bleak.

    110

    • #
      David Maddison

      All the school kids that go on climate protests,your future is looking bleak.

      I bet those same tragically dumbed-down kids have never even heard of the previous world wars…

      150

      • #
        Philip

        oh yes the kids heard of the world wars. They have to teach them that because it involved the Nazis and they need to be equated with anyone on the right.

        00

  • #
    Neville

    Francis Menton has tried to calculate the full cost of changing the USA economy from Fossil fuels etc to just S & W and batteries and his final number is 433 Trillion $.
    BTW today the USA emits about 13.8% of global co2 emissions, so we can say that the cost of a 1% reduction would be about 31.4 trillion $.
    Aussies emit about 1.1% of global co2 emissions so our cost would be about 34.5 trillion $.
    Obviously these numbers are beyond logic and reason and would bankrupt every country in the world and leave all of us in ruin.

    The EU 27 cost would be about 300 trillion $ and NZ cost would be about 3.1 trillion $.

    Lomborg’s expert team recently calculated an even higher cost of 5 trillion $ for NZ and he also has the maths, stats and economic muscle to call on. NZ emits about 0.1% of global co2 emissions.

    Thanks again to the Manhattan Contrarian and his expert contacts.

    Also see this 2020 IMF list of top 20 countries GDP. USA about 21 trillion $ and Australia about 1.3 trillion $. Please stop and THINK?

    https://researchfdi.com/world-gdp-largest-economy/

    https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-1-14-calculating-the-full-costs-of-electrifying-everything-using-only-wind-solar-and-batteries

    60

    • #
      Ronin

      “Aussies emit about 1.1% of global co2 emissions so our cost would be about 34.5 trillion $.
      Obviously these numbers are beyond logic and reason and would bankrupt every country in the world and leave all of us in ruin.”

      All part of the plan and on track.

      40

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Ronin,
        since SA uses only 6.5% of the electricity, it works out at ONLY $1,258,000,000 per head of current population. I think I will use that in my next Letter to the Editor.

        60

      • #
        Evo of Gong

        One of the problems is that although we should be aiming for NET zero, most Politicians, Greens, MSM etc seem to be aiming for Zero emissions. Proper calculations show that considering Australia has a large area with low population density, a relatively small manufacturing industry, a large forest area and an even larger area of grasslands surrounded by water, we are already at net-negative emissions. A NASA study https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/149274/study-confirms-southern-ocean-is-absorbing-carbon?linkId=146650871 indicates that the southern hemisphere oceans provide a large sink for carbon dioxide.

        10

  • #

    Dead right David. The day of reckoning is coming

    50

  • #
    Serge Wright

    The excess deaths coming to Europe in winter will be something akin to another pandemic and possibly even worse. Without energy for heating, combined with food shortages, we can expect people a huge wave of respiratory disease caused by people living in cold and damp houses. Older people, babies and young children will be the most at risk and new variants of covid popping up will only add to the problem.

    This might be a big call, but are we witnessing the fall of Europe ?. It’s difficult to see how they can survive their own destructive ideology which has created the problem and even as they spiral downwards, many leaders remain steadfast in the belief that more of the same RE poison will provide a cure. If Europe does fall then you would expect the rest of the western world would become very exposed. Down here in Australia, the politicians have watched the rapid decline of Europe over the years, all due to the push to RE and have decided we should also head for the same cliff, so we can see our own fate by looking north.

    110

  • #
    Murray Shaw

    Don’t worry, we are already paying industry to not use electricity during the morning and evening peak, 5-8, morning and night.
    Riverina irrigators are being paid not to use electricity at these times, even if they are not pumping., this will eventually be paid by the wider community as an add on to electricity bills. It will be in the Network Charges column.
    We are creating a problem to solve a non-problem.
    Can you believe this stupidity?

    150

    • #
      Ronin

      “Riverina irrigators are being paid not to use electricity at these times, even if they are not pumping., this will eventually be paid by the wider community as an add on to electricity bills.”

      We are already seeing increases, $10 for a lettuce, $11.90 for a kg of tomatoes, due to farm inputs, bad weather, covid, scarce labour etc,etc.

      60

    • #
      Serge Wright

      The end point of this crazy green logic would be to offer payment to people to end themselves with assisted dying.

      10

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    Moderated twice.

    80

  • #
    Ross

    If this plays out to its obvious logical end we can only expect a downturn in German industry. Which means less of all those wonderfully engineered German products. Who’s going to pick up the slack? Most Western countries, including the US, wont be capable because their governments (including ours ) are busily wrecking their own economies with destructive energy policies. Russia cant, never could. Japan is a possibility because it at least receives Aussie gas albeit at higher prices, has established industry with a high quality workforce.Really, this is going to benefit China/CCP the most. They have the greatest flexibility and are no doubt hoovering up every supply of gas and coal they can get their hands on. China/CCP will possibly be the main beneficiaries- again.

    10

  • #
    phil

    Every cloud has silver lining.

    Euopean wind turbine makers were already making losses this will put them out of business The Chinese will now dominate the wind turnie market ust like solar panels

    60

  • #
    Zane

    There is gigantic amounts of natural gas in the middle east – Qatar and Iran share the world’s largest gas field – not to mention around the Caspian Sea. Russia of course tries to make sure these energy resources are stranded and dependent on existing Russian pipelines to reach any markets. Iran are the international bad boys and their energy production is artificially restricted via sanctions and bans and sheer lack of capital expenditure. This situation suits Moscow to a tee.

    These so-called energy shortages are entirely political.

    120

  • #
    Honk R Smith

    I’m sure I’m missing something.
    NATO chats up newly divorced Warsaw Pact countries.
    (Failed marriages that had been arranged under complicated circumstances.)
    NATO and former Warsaw Pact countries seen leaving hotels together wearing the same clothes they had on the night before.
    (At the same time NATO increases dependency on Russian goodies.)
    The EU foreign policy rocket scientists are surprised when Russia gets agitated about its’ ex-wives’ new dating habits.
    Russia shows up at its’ favorite ex-wife’s house with a tank … and cuts off goodies.
    Ray Charles may have been able to see this coming.

    91

    • #
      Honk R Smith

      mod … really?

      30

      • #
        Richard+Ilfeld

        Seriously:
        NATO is likely defunct; not as a result of this particular year’s fiasco but because it was a hollow shell
        of virtue signalling without substance to justify US profligacy; all now moot.
        The European Community, if it survives at all, may return to being a Common Market (of shortages, weak currencies and misery);
        the German trick of subsidizing the south the buy German exports and pretending to be one happy family is done; the emergency claims
        from the center will fall on deaf ear of those on the periphery not Russian dependent, and appeals to the US are futile because of
        the diminished US capacity due to self-inflicted wounds, and lack of suitable ports and shipping.
        There will be time for thought in a long cold winter; will any nations drop the cultists in favor of rational economic policy?
        From Deutchsland to Britain to the Scandanavian countries, fossil driven prosperity is a decision away, but perhaps a bridge too far.

        10

  • #
    Zane

    A few years ago I was surprised to read well-known German arms maker Heckler and Koch was sailing close to the wind financially. However, a Luxembourg-based “finance” company known as CDE has taken a majority ownership stake in H&K. Production will be expanded at the factory in Germany and new staff added.

    Heckler and Koch is proud of its green credentials. Good to know.

    Heckler are providing the new assault rifle for the German special forces, the G95K. This beast looks strikingly similar to – wait for it – the new weapon recently chosen by the DoD for US Army frontline troops to be manufactured locally by Sig Sauer – the SIG XM5.

    A civilian version of the SIG will retail at $7999 in the US.

    30

  • #
    OldOzzie

    MADE IN GERMANY

    How gas shortages also threaten wind power

    Wind energy and Europe’s largest steel mill have a problem. The mill uses a lot of gas to forge steel rings for wind turbines. But gas prices are rising, and Russia turning off the taps could force the plant into emergency operation – or worse.

    From Video “Its Gas Usage is equivalent to 6,000 Households”

    80

  • #
    Rupert Ashford

    Joke is Aussies already have a means to control their tenants and serfs’ energy use – it’s called smart meters and powerpal and all those things.

    70

  • #
    Mike Jonas

    This is in essence a completely predictable result from Energiewende. It is stunning how often unintended consequences turn out to be predictable. I have often argued that the correct name for the Law of Unintended Consequences is actually the Law of Predictable Consequences.

    100

  • #
    John Connor II

    Normally in a prewar situation a country might be increasing industrial production

    But this is 2022.
    The days of cannon fodder are largely gone (except in Ukraine with starry-eyed foreign do-gooders and conscripted Ukrainian citizens (they’ve now raised the age to 70 so even pensioners can fight btw) get to be wiped out).

    Warfare will be, and already is, cyber in nature.
    Hack a country’s infrastructure and it’s toast for weeks to years.

    Major news uodate soon. 😉

    30

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Hysteria and greed make for expensive energy policies that won’t save the planet

    Those pushing for more actions — and more money — to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions sound a lot like Dr. Smith in the 1960s television series “Lost in Space”: “We’re doomed, doomed I say!”

    Last week, President Joe Biden claimed that climate change “is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger.” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated we have just eight years to save the planet or the world will commit “collective suicide.”

    The world is suffering from a “climate emergency” and “climate catastrophe.” Every heat wave, storm, flood, drought and blizzard no longer is weather but instead irrefutable evidence of our looming demise.

    Those overcome by hysteria cannot think or act rationally. Yet politicians and policymakers, including Biden, are intent on igniting more flames, like serial arsonists.

    The reason is simple: money.

    50

    • #
      BrianTheEngineer

      Power really. The EU stuck to the teat of Russian Power and the rest of the West soon to be beholden to deliveries of wind turbines and PV’s from China

      60

  • #
    Zane

    Powerful vested interests are behind Germany’s green agenda and reliance on Russian pipeline gas. The late German billionaire Aloys Wobben, owner of wind turbine manufacturer Enercon, was clearly an important player. Gazprom and its German enablers like ex-Chancellor and Putin buddy Schroeder will be another. Siemens also has an interest in wind. And who knows who really controls the influential Greens party which usually hold the balance of power in the German parliament. But they care a lot more about politics than ecology, it would seem.

    100

  • #
    Dennis

    Australian industry has been suffering from government ordered forced closures as the electricity grid struggles to supply peak demand periods, and are compensated with taxpayer’s monies for the losses incurred.

    The transition to unreliable and very expensive energy continues to be a heavy financial burden.

    100

  • #
    BrianTheEngineer

    Apparently the USA’s recession is just transitory. LOL

    100

    • #
      another ian

      OK – but seems to me that the rest of the world where it didn’t is doing their level best to shove that down the memory hole

      00

  • #
    John Connor II

    By polling a representative sample of UK households, Nous found “fewer than one household in 20 is aware of the scale of the problem,” says Marsh.

    “The crisis is not what people already feel their living costs have increased by, it’s how much more serious, how much further those flood waters are going to rise and how little preparation most households have done in anticipation,” he tells Sifted. “We’re really worried that for many households, this is going to be utterly ruinous.”

    https://sifted.eu/articles/fintech-cost-of-living-inflation-crisis/

    Two in five (40%) UK employees live payday to payday and have no emergency savings, according to a Willis Towers Watson study

    The proportion living payday to payday increased by generation, with 20% of Baby Boomers living this way, 38% of Gen X, 47% of Gen Y, and 56% of Gen Z.

    The number of employees struggling financially also increased on a sliding scale of salary, with 27% of those earning £65,000 or more living hand to mouth, 30% who earn between £35,000 and £64,999, and 47% earning less than £35,000. The report suggested that financial difficulty is therefore more than just a matter of income.

    While general saving topped the list of employee priorities at 52%, 40% of respondents said they had a lack of emergency savings and couldn’t or probably couldn’t raise £2,500 if an unexpected bill came up in the next month.

    Better management of spending was the second-highest priority (42%), debt repayment was third (38%), fourth was housing payments (37%), and fifth was other major expenditures such as a car, furniture or home improvement (34%).

    Nearly a third (29%) also reported having financial problems that are negatively affecting their lives, with stark differences between those struggling financially and those not.

    Fifty-nine per cent of people living pay cheque to pay cheque said their debt affects their quality of life, compared to 9% of those not living pay cheque to pay cheque. Similarly, 36% said money concerns stop them from doing their best job, compared to 8% of those not living hand to mouth.

    https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/news/employees-are-living-payday-to-payday

    The problem isn’t so much the cost of living but more the general population’s blissful ignorance of reality.
    People’s information comes from script-regurgitating bunnies on the nightly news or paper-rag.
    The alarm bells have been going off for years and now the “she’ll be right!” mentality has changed to “what do we do!?”.
    No awareness, planning or preparation has it’s consequences.
    How different would things be if the masses were as informed as they should be?

    “In extraordinary events ignorance of their causes produces astonishment.”
    – Marcus Tullius Cicero

    70

    • #
      Ronin

      I’m thinking of all the extra power available when these paycheck to paycheck people get flicked off the grid.

      20

  • #
    Philip

    Is electricity the only thing in the world that as it gets cheaper to make it gets way more expensive ?

    100

  • #
    Philip

    I am of only average intelligence and years ago I said I don’t think its a good idea to rely on Russia for gas.

    100

  • #
    David Maddison

    The current thinking matching exactly that of the National Socialists in the 1930’s.

    Wind power, using the cost-free wind, can be built on a large scale. Improved technology will in the future make it no more expensive than thermal power. This is technically and economically possible and opens up a quite new life-important type of power generation. The future of wind is no longer small windmills, but very large real power plants. The wind towers must be at least 100 m [330 ft] high, the higher the better, ideally with rotors 100 m [330 ft] in diameter. This kind of high cage mast is already built in the shape of high radio masts.

    The surplus electricity from the windmills, situated along the sea coast, will be used for the production of very inexpensive hydrogen. This will make many products less expensive. Fertilizers will fall in price. The hydration of coal to liquids will be cost-effective. The cost can be reduced from 17 pfennig per litre [64 pfennig per gallon] to 7-8 pfennig per litre [26-30 pfennig per gallon]. In this way about one billion Reichsmark can be saved, which today goes abroad (for importing oil). The 300,000 workers in the coal mining industry can keep their jobs, 200,000 in the mines and 100,000 for the liquefaction of coal. The cost savings will make it possible that an additional 400,000 workers can be paid in the transforming process of the industry.

    One of the earliest proponents of man-made global warming theory was none other than the Luftwaffe High Command’s chief meteorologist Hermann Flohn.

    Quotes from:

    http://en.friends-against-wind.org/realities/how-renewables-and-the-global-warming-industry-are-literally-hitler

    40

  • #
    MattM

    I remind my son every week that the world is full of idiots. I tell him do not lie down and be walked over. Climate change is complete idiocy.

    70

  • #
    red edwards

    If I may parody a UFO song:

    “lights out, lights out, in Hanover,
    Hold tight, ’til the freeze. . . ”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/29/hanover-bans-hot-showers-as-russian-gas-crisis-begins-to-bite.html

    20