sunshine hours

Thanks to anti-fracking activities in Europe by environmentalists, the only plentiful fuel available cheap enough to use against Putin’s control is Coal.

I’ve mentioned Poland and Germany and Japan. Now it is Sweden’s turn.

“In the wake of the Ukraine crisis and Germany’s nuclear shutdown, Swedish-state-owned Vattenfall is supplying even more energy from coal. Vattenfal’s chief executive officer told Swedish public television that coal power will have an important role to play in the future.

The state-owned power company, which runs Sweden’s hydro and nuclear plants, had its annual general meeting on Monday. Despite getting badly burned by buying the now-devalued Dutch company Nuon, Vattenfall has plans to buy up even more foreign coal companies.

The Swedish state is the owner of Vattenfall. The government’s representative at the meeting says that, despite setting a goal of reducing carbon emissions, the government has no objection to Vattenfall investing in coal, and leaves such decisions to the company board.”

http://www.thegwpf.org/sweden-coal-to-play-important-role-in-future/

If Europe had jumped into fracking as soon as possible, the natural gas would have been coming on stream by now and they could be replacing coal with cleaner, lower CO2 gas. But Europe bet the farm on wind and solar. Idiots.

Japan isn’t as dumb as Environmentalists hoped. After working hard to shutdown Japans nuclear power because of the earthquake/tidal wave, Japan is choosing coal instead of renewables.

“Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing Japan’s coal industry to expand sales at home and abroad, undermining hopes among environmentalists that he’d use the Fukushima nuclear accident to switch the nation to renewables.

A new energy plan approved by Japan’s cabinet on April 11 designates coal an important long-term electricity source while falling short of setting specific targets for cleaner energy from wind, solar and geothermal. The policy also gives nuclear power the same prominence as coal in Japan’s energy strategy.”

“Before the accident, Japan got 62 percent of its electricity from fossil fuels, and nuclear made up about a third, according to government figures. Since then, utilities reverted to fossil fuels such as liquefied natural gas and coal to replace nuclear capacity taken offline. Those thermal power sources generated about 90 percent of Japan’s electricity in fiscal 2012, according to figures in the energy plan.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-13/post-fukushima-japan-chooses-coal-over-renewable-energy.html

Thanks to anti-fracking activities in Europe by environmentalists, the only plentiful fuel available cheap enough to use against Putin’s control is Coal.

“The government plans to support Ukraine and other Eastern European nations in the construction of next-generation coal-fired power plants that can generate power with less fuel, according to informed sources.

Under the initiative, Japan would stand behind the nations’ efforts to use coal—abundant in Eastern Europe—instead of natural gas, the supply of which makes them dependent on Russia. The government is expected to announce the initiative at the meeting of energy ministers from Japan and other Group of Seven industrialized nations to be held in Rome from May 5.

Japan’s support will involve the construction of coal-fired power plants using technologies known as supercritical steam pressure and ultra supercritical pressure to spin the turbines, enabling these nations to obtain electricity while using less fuel and emitting less carbon dioxide.”

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001241034