Nations have allocated 500 billion euros to ease high utility bills since September 2021, according to an analysis from the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, and they are bailing out utilities that can’t afford to buy gas to fulfill their contracts. Government help will be key in the short term, he said, while a longer-term solution involves reforming energy markets themselves.Įurope is targeting both, though the spending required may be unsustainable. Schmitt, head of the local bakers’ guild, said some small bakeries are contemplating giving up. The bulk of his costs is “the energy required to get dough to bread, and that is a given quantity of energy.” “It’s not going to shift the world,” he said. That might save 5-10% off an energy bill that is set to rise from 300,000 euros per year, to 1.1 million next year. Schmitt is heating fewer ovens at his 25 Ernst Cafe bakeries, running them longer to spare startup energy, narrowing his pastry selection to ensure ovens run full, and storing less dough to cut refrigeration costs. Kovacs, grower van den Bosch and bakers like Andreas Schmitt in Frankfurt, Germany, are facing the hard reality that conservation only goes so far. “We want to stay on the market, not to ruin the reputation that we have developed over the years,” said Wouter van den Bosch, the sixth generation of his family to help run the business. The cost? Smaller yields, blackberries taking longer to ripen, and potentially operating in the red to maintain customer relationships even at lower volumes. It’s a decision also facing fruit and vegetable growers in the Netherlands who are key to Europe’s winter food supply: shutter greenhouses or take a loss after costs skyrocketed for gas heating and electric light.īosch Growers, which grows green peppers and blackberries, has put up extra insulation, idled one greenhouse and experimented with lower temperatures. ‘Survival mode’Įven if there is gas this winter, high prices already are pushing people and businesses to use less and forcing some energy-intensive factories like glassmakers to close. “No one could have said that three, four, five months ago, or at the beginning of this year,” he added. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said this month that early preparations mean Europe’s biggest economy is “now in a position in which we can go bravely and courageously into this winter, in which our country will withstand this.” Shutdowns aimed at halting the spread of COVID-19 have idled large parts of China’s economy and meant less competition for scarce energy supplies. They have committed to lower gas use by 15%, meaning the Eiffel Tower will plunge into darkness over an hour earlier than normal while shops and buildings shut off lights at night or lower thermostats.Įurope’s ability to get through the winter may ultimately depend on how cold it is and what happens in China. In response, governments have worked hard to find new supplies and conserve energy, with gas storage facilities now 86% full ahead of the winter heating season – beating the goal of 80% by November. The question is whether it will be enough to avoid government-imposed rationing and rolling blackouts after Russia cut back natural gas needed to heat homes, run factories and generate electricity to a tenth of what it was before invading Ukraine.Įurope’s dependence on Russian energy has turned the war into an energy and economic crisis, with prices rising to record highs in recent months and fluctuating wildly. With costs high and energy supplies tight, Europe is rolling out relief programs and plans to shake up electricity and natural gas markets as it prepares for rising energy use this winter. The restaurants already run the grills no more than necessary and use motion detectors to turn off lights in storage, with some stores facing a 750% increase in electricity bills since the beginning of the year. “We can’t turn off the lights and make our guests sit in the dark,” said Richard Kovacs, business development manager for Hungarian burger chain Zing Burger. And businesses don’t know how much more they can cut back. In poorer eastern Europe, people are stocking up on firewood, while in wealthier Germany, the wait for an energy-saving heat pump can take half a year. Bakers who can’t afford to heat their ovens are talking about giving up, while fruit and vegetable growers face letting greenhouses stand idle. Statues and historic buildings are going dark. As Europe heads into winter in the throes of an energy crisis, offices are getting chillier.
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