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by tpmx 1376 days ago
That would be something us in the north would need right now. Most house owners need like 1500-2000 kWh/month in the 6 cold winter months (november-april). With projected prices, we're looking at average family heating costs around EUR 1000-1500/month for 6 months. It will be extremely tough for homes with a single income. (That's about all of the average monthly pension.)

At the moment this is leading to a quite a lot of resentment towards the EU (and Germany) here amongst people.

2 comments

This comment reads weird after France just vetoed again Spain's proposal to export natural gas to Germany through France - the medgas pipeline.
I think people here are mostly upset about Germany shutting down their nuclear plants. Also Germany is seen as nation that controls the EU.
Yes, it is insane and it makes clear once more the only real solution to this conundrum it to become as much energy independent as possible. We heat our house with two wood-burning stoves - a 4.5 kW one in the kitchen ('vedspis' or wood-burning kitchen stove, another item the 'green' party wanted to ban by the way) and a 12 kW one in the living room. The large brick chimney warms up the second floor together with some venting to release warm air to move upstairs at the end of the evening. With 15 kW of solar panels on one of the barn roofs we're set for the months the sun makes itself known but in winter that doesn't help all that much which is why I'm looking into developing a combined heat-power system for small-scale (domestic, farm) use to solve the power + heat problem when there is no sun to be had.

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.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxOgmXJ5NiU