Russia should increase gas availability to Europe
The International Energy Agency, which is backed by developed countries including many of the world’s largest energy consumers, has suggested that Russia could “do more to increase gas availability to Europe and ensure storage is filled to adequate levels in preparation for the coming winter heating season”.
Stepping up gas exports to Europe would be “an opportunity for Russia to underscore its credentials as a reliable supplier to the European market,” the IEA said.
The IEA identified a range of factors driving gas and power prices higher, including low wind generation, the cold European winter, and droughts that have hit hydropower output in Brazil and other countries.
Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, said: “It is inaccurate and misleading to lay the responsibility at the door of the clean energy transition… Well-managed clean energy transitions are a solution to the issues that we are seeing in gas and electricity markets today – not the cause of them.”
The secretary-general of Opec, Mohammad Barkindo, took a different line, saying that current gas prices reflected what he described as “the transition premium”.
Germany’s government has promised continuing support for both production and uses for hydrogen.
A California company called B2U Storage Solutions has developed a way to offer lower-cost energy storage to support power grids using old EV batteries. The company has a project that has been operating for over a year, Canary Media reported.
