Stories tagged with "energy gap"

Europe Forum Lucerne: Energy – A Conflict Area, Trends and Horizons

Posted by Francois Cellier on May 4, 2009 - 9:41am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: climate change, energy gap, energy policy, energy security, peak oil [list all tags]

On April 27/28, 2009 the Europe Forum Lucerne organized a workshop entitled Energy - A Conflict Area: Trends and Horizons.

In the tradition of a townhouse meeting, the Swiss public was invited to Lucerne to listen to an impressive number of high-caliber politicians, scientists, and journalists discussing issues of energy security that Switzerland and the world will be facing in the coming years.

The author of this report attended the conference and wishes to report to the readers of The Oil Drum what he heard at the meeting … and also what he didn't hear.

It is certainly a laudable goal to get the public involved in discussions concerning energy security issues as these undoubtedly affect all of us directly. We need to be informed in order to be able to contribute to the solution of the problems facing us and in order to reach the best decisions for ourselves.

Yet this conference once again missed an opportunity to inform in an unbiased way. The discussions were dominated by political interest groups, and the people attending the meeting were sent home with assurances that there is nothing to be worried about. We were told that we still have oil and gas for decades to come.

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UK Energy Flow Chart 2007

Posted by Chris Vernon on September 5, 2008 - 10:30am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: electricity, energy, energy gap, natural gas, nuclear, oil, production, united kingdom [list all tags]

Every few years the UK Department of Trade and Industry, now Department of Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, publish a chart of the nation's energy flows. Here's the most recently published chart based on 2007 data:


Click for .pdf

It's a nice, high level overview of energy in the UK illustrating the flow of primary fuels from the point at which they become available from home production or imports (on the left) to their eventual final uses (on the right). Flows at the bottom represent exports, conversion losses and energy industry and non-energy use. The yellow blocks represent transformation (power stations and refineries).

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Energy's Role in Europe's Trade Deficits

Posted by Luis de Sousa on March 1, 2007 - 10:15am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Economics/Finance
Tags: economics, energy gap, energy imports, euro currency, trade deficit [list all tags]

On February 16th, the Eurostat released its first assessment of external trade balances for 2006 (pdf), making clear that energy is imposing an important burden on the Union’s economy. They key figures:

During 2006, euro area trade recorded a deficit of 8.2 bn1 euro, compared to a surplus of 16.2 bn in 2005. The EU25 recorded a deficit of 172.6 bn in 2006, compared with -111.8 bn in 2005.

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