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FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — As Europe enters the throes of winter energy crisis, the office is getting colder. Statues and historic buildings are darkening. Bakers who can’t afford to heat their oven Giving up is being talked about, while fruit and vegetable growers are faced with letting their greenhouses sit idle.
In poorer Eastern Europe, people are hoarding firewood, while in wealthier Germany, the wait for an energy-efficient heat pump can take six months.and Businesses don’t know how much more they can cut.
“We can’t turn off the lights and let our guests sit in the dark,” said Richard Kovacs, business development manager at Hungarian burger chain Zing Burger. Restaurants are already running grills unnecessarily and using motion detectors to turn off lights in warehouses, and some stores have faced a 750 percent increase in electricity bills since the start of the year.
With high costs and tight energy supplies, Europe is rolling out relief and plans Shaking up electricity and gas markets As it prepares for increased energy use this winter.The question is whether this will be enough to avoid government-imposed rationing and rolling blackouts Russia cuts natural gas Need to heat homes, run factories and generate electricity, one-tenth of what it used to be Invasion of Ukraine.
Europe’s dependence on Russian energy makes war a war energy and economic crisisprices have risen to all-time highs and fluctuated wildly in recent months.
In response, governments have been working to Find new supplies And to conserve energy, the gas storage facility is now 86 percent full ahead of the winter heating season, exceeding the November target of 80 percent.They pledged to reduce gas use by 15%, which means The Eiffel Tower will be plunged into darkness When shops and buildings turn off lights or lower their thermostats at night, more than an hour earlier than normal.
Whether Europe can survive the winter may ultimately depend on how cold it is and what happens in China. The shutdown aimed at stemming the spread of COVID-19 has idled large parts of China’s economy and meant less competition for scarce energy supplies.
German Chancellor Olaf Schultz said this month Preliminary preparation That means Europe’s largest economy “is now in a position where we can enter this winter bravely and bravely, and our country will be able to withstand this winter.”
“No one could have said that three, four, five months ago or at the beginning of the year,” he added.
Even with natural gas available this winter, high prices are already driving people and businesses to use less and forcing some energy-intensive Glass makers and other factories close.
It’s also a decision facing Dutch fruit and vegetable growers, who are key to Europe’s winter food supply: shut down greenhouses or suffer after the cost of gas heating and electric lights soars.
Bosch growers who grow green peppers and blackberries have added extra insulation, left one greenhouse idle and tried to lower the temperature. cost? Yields are lower, blackberries take longer to ripen, and even with lower yields, losses may be incurred to maintain customer relationships.
“We want to stay in the market and not destroy the reputation we’ve built over the years,” said Wouter van den Bosch, sixth-generation family member who helps run the business. “We’re in survival mode.”
Kovacs, grower van den Bosch and bakers like Andreas Schmitt in Frankfurt, Germany are facing a stark reality: Protection only goes so far.
Schmitt heats fewer ovens in his 25 Cafe Ernst bakeries, runs longer to save start-up energy, narrows pastry options to keep ovens running at full capacity, and stores less dough to reduce refrigeration costs . This could save 5-10% in energy bills, which will increase from EUR 300,000 per year to EUR 1.1 million next year.
“It’s not going to change the world,” he said. Most of his cost is “the energy required to make the dough into bread, which is a certain amount of energy”.
Schmidt, president of the local bakers association, said some small bakeries are considering giving up. He said government help would be key in the short term, while the long-term solution involved reforming the energy market itself.
Europe is targeting both, although the required spending may be unsustainable. Countries have allocated 500 billion euros since September 2021 to ease high utility bills, and they are bailing out utilities that cannot afford to buy gas to meet contracts, according to an analysis by Brussels-based Bruegel think tank.
Governments have arranged for additional gas supplies from pipelines to Norway and Azerbaijan, and stepped up purchases of expensive LNG shipped mainly from the United States
natural gas price
Meanwhile, the EU is considering draconian interventions such as taxation Profiteering of energy companies And transforming electricity markets to reduce the role of natural gas costs in determining electricity prices.
But as countries scramble to replace Russia’s fossil fuels and even restart polluting coal-fired power plants, environmentalists and the EU itself say Renewable energy is the long-term way out.
Neighbors in Madrid looking to cut electricity costs and help with the energy transition installed solar panels this month to supply their housing development after years of work.
Neighbour Manuel Ruiz said: “I suddenly cut my gas consumption by 40 per cent and barely use the three radiators strategically placed in the house.”
Governments have viewed Russia as an energy supplier, but President Vladimir Putin still has leverage, analysts say. Some Russian gas is still flowing, and a harsh winter could dent public support for Ukraine in some countries. Protests have already taken place in places like the Czech Republic and Belgium.
“The market is very tight and every molecule counts,” said Agata Loskot-Strachota, senior researcher in energy policy at the Warsaw Oriental Research Center. “This is the influence Putin still has – Europe will have to deal with disappointed or impoverished societies.”
In Bulgaria, the poorest of the EU’s 27 member states, soaring energy costs are forcing households to cut extra spending ahead of winter to ensure there is enough money for food and medicine.
More than a quarter of Bulgaria’s 7 million people cannot afford home heating, the highest among a 27-country group, due to poor building insulation and low incomes, according to Eurostat, Eurostat. Nearly half of households use firewood as the cheapest and most readily available fuel in winter, but rising demand and skyrocketing inflation have pushed prices above last year’s levels.
In the capital Sofia, where nearly half a million households are heated by central power plants, many are seeking other options after announcing a 40 percent price increase.
Grigor Iliev, a 68-year-old retired bookkeeper, and his wife decided to cancel their central heating and buy an air-conditioning-heating combination for their two-bedroom apartment.
“It’s an expensive piece of equipment, but in the long run we will recoup our investment,” he said.
Meanwhile, businesses are trying to stay afloat without alienating customers. Klara Aurell, who owns two Prague restaurants, says she does everything she can to save energy.
“We use LED bulbs, turn off the lights during the day, heat only when it’s very cold, and we only use it in a limited way,” she said. “We’re also taking steps to conserve water and use energy-efficient appliances. There’s very little we can do. Only All you have to do is raise the price. That’s where it comes from.”
Babushka Artisanal Bakery, a gourmet restaurant in a wealthy district of Budapest, had to increase its prices by 10%. Despite Hungary having its hottest summer on record, bakeries use less air conditioning and ensure ovens don’t run without bread.
Owner Eszter Roboz said while it now has enough traffic to remain open, further increases in energy costs could threaten its viability.
“Doubling the cost of energy is still in line with our business operations and our calculations,” she said. “But with a three or four-fold increase, we really need to think about whether we can continue to do that.”
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