4 ms·
The big risk here isn't just worse prices, but the grid failing entirely and people not being able to get electricity at any price. And even if it doesn't quite
by makomk 5y ago
The big risk here isn't just worse prices, but the grid failing entirely and people not being able to get electricity at any price. And even if it doesn't quite go that far, a whole bunch of businesses will fail and a large swathe of people will have to choose between heating and putting food on the table - and there's no clever tricks with subsidies or redistribution of cash that can avoid that, because the whole reason the prices are so high is because there's not enough energy for everyone.
- wongarsu 5y agoHeating in the EU is mostly oil and gas. It needs electricity to run, but not enough that electricity prices are a major issue. In the end the question is how fast the market reacts. Plant shut downs are predictable events years into the future, and in the event of an impeding black out energy prices on the spot market are going to be insane. That seems like a great incentive to build anything you can get past Nimbys fast enough. And the biggest industrial consumers shut down anyways as electricity prices rise (bad for the economy, great for the grid).