“A pig’s gallop.” Quick and dirty.

This week the supermajority coalition was in a hurry to pass Sigmar Gabriel’s reforms to Germany’s switch to renewable energy sources. The Bundestag vote was scheduled on Friday, 27 Jun, and the Bundesrat vote two weeks later.

But on Friday, 20 Jun, the E.U.’s competition commission threatened to torpedo the reform. On Monday Sigmar Gabriel’s state secretary went to Brussels with a revised draft, and returned with four demands from Joaquín Almunia. Sigmar Gabriel’s ministries decided they could implement three of them, though at “enormous extra costs for industry,” but not the fourth, which was to exempt imported electricity from the renewables contribution.

Meanwhile, it was Tuesday, 24 Jun, and the Bundestag’s Law and Consumer Protection committee had no draft to analyze for constitutionality and consumer protectiveness. The ministry wanted to try to get them copies of ~200 revised pages by Tuesday afternoon; the Law and Consumer Protection committee said that was too much to get through in time for a vote on Friday.

The Bundestag’s Economy committee also had no draft of the law when they met to analyze it on Tuesday.

Though the Bundesrat doesn’t have to pass the reform law, the federal states can delay it there as well.

If the reform law doesn’t get passed in time to go into effect by 01 Aug 2014, companies that use high volumes of electricity will not be able to apply in time for their 2015 exemptions freeing them from contributing to the switch to renewable energy sources.

Update on 25 Jun 2014: The S.P.D. and C.D.U. were able to deny the opposition’s request for a hearing to discuss the complex new changes because the opposition is so tiny that its right to such hearings is not guaranteed under German law. It looks like the Bundestag will pass this reform despite not understanding it.

Update on 27 Jun 2014: The committees waved the changes through. The Bundestag passed the reform package. A C.D.U. politician said, “After the reform is before the reform.”

Update on 09 Jul 2014: The superministries reached an agreement with Joaquín Almunia on the fourth of the competition commission’s four last-minute demands. Germany will start paying the eco premium for green electricity imported from E.U. countries, starting in 2017, but for no more than 200 megawatts.

(SHVINE’S gall OPP.)

Wetterbedingte Produktionslastverschiebungen kommunizieren

To communicate production time shifts in response to weather conditions.







Uniform plug.



(EYE n heights SHTECK ah!)


Water/water heat pump, which can be used e.g. for heating a residential home via groundwater according to one German manufacturer.

The U.K. government announced that to reduce its dependence on natural gas it will incentivize development of carbon-neutral water-based networks that bring heat to multiple buildings. From any body of water, such as rivers or lakes, that is exposed to sunshine the networks will take water, filter it twice, remove the extra heat via heat exchangers, concentrate that heat to 45°C via “reverse refrigeration” and pipe it to nearby buildings.

If the water is taken from a river, the current can be used to generate the electricity running the system.

England’s first such network will serve ~150 homes and a hotel|conference center in South London, said Energy Secretary Ed Davey (LibDem). He has asked the U.K.’s Department of Energy and Climate Change to draw up a map of England showing where such water-energy networks can be built.

(VOSS ah   VOSS ah   VAIR ma POOMP ah.)

Energiewende-Bremse protestieren





Induktive Ladesäule

“Inductive loading column,” a wireless recharging station for at least one German factory’s fleet of electric cars. You back the car into the column. Then, magnetism! The car’s batteries recharge in about six hours.

(In duked YVES ah   LAUD ah zoy lah.)


The amount of incoming solar radiation that might currently be convertable into electricity, in laboratory experiments.

Solar panels on the nonmilitary market produce electricity with ~14% to ~19% efficiency, said Conventional silicium solar panels can’t convert more than 34% of incoming sunlight into electricity. In 2012, Cambridge University researchers said they’d developed a new approach that could improve that by making electricity out of nonvisible light, such as heat. Their two-part system’s components each converted a different section of the spectrum of solar radiation. At least one of the two components is in the form of nanoparticles. The idea of “printing” solar panels that consist of a mix of small particles each specializing in conversion of different light wavelengths is a thrilling one.

(Fee ah oont fee ah tsig   prote CENT.)

Kaverneninspektion durch Kameras im stillgelegten Atomkraftwerk Brunsbüttel

“Camera cavern inspection in Brunsbüttel’s shutdown nuclear power plant.”





Combustion engine.



(Fair BRENN oongz moe TOR.)

Grosse Kohlelition

Grand “coal”-alition.




(GROSS ah   COAL a lee tsee OWN.)

Aufs falsche Pferd gesetzt










(Ow! fss   FALL shah   FEAHD   geh ZETTS t)





Dann doch!



(Don DOCK.)


Incendies vs. départs de feu published a French nuclear safety agency report saying approximately 100 fires broke out in electricity-generating French nuclear power stations last year, mostly caused by electrical problems. The report carefully differentiated between incendies, major fires, and départs de feu, mere fire outbreaks, at French nuclear power plants.


Price of natural gas. A March 2013 article in Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal mentioned that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the Libor benchmarks manipulation scandal came to their attention after “firms and traders” were sanctioned for reporting false data to energy index compilers in attempts to manipulate natural gas prices between 2003 and 2005.

(ED gauze prize.)


In 2011 a Goldman Sachs study apparently stated that market speculation had indeed helped drive up the price of oil for consumers. In 2012 U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner Bart Chilton said, “Using the Goldman Sachs research figure, and multiplying 10 cents times 233.9 million, would mean that theoretically there’s a ‘speculative premium’ of as much as $23.39 a barrel in the price of NYMEX crude oil.” Mr. Chilton has also said that the commodities business is a possible loophole for banks in the U.S.’s new frequently-postponed “Volcker rule” intended to reseparate banking from investment gambling.

Potential oil bottleneck points persist in privately held and/or operated oil infrastructure. Oil traders now own oil refineries. Pipelines are included in the infrastructure large banks have somehow acquired part ownership of. U.S. bank Morgan Stanley invested in the “global oil tanker operator” Heidmar in addition to “fuel chain supply manager” TransMontaigne. An F.A.Z. article described how the world’s three largest oil trading firms, Switzerland-based Gunvor, Vitol and Glencore—”prescient” commodity markets pioneer Marc Rich’s old firm—work today, supposedly on the basis of fast-computer-based price arbitrage rather than speculation. Moving into production, Glencore is now invested in oil wells, coal mines and metals mines, after its late-2012 fusion with Swiss competitor Xstrata.

Apparently a landmark 2003 U.S. Federal Reserve decision allowed U.S. investment banks to start “trading oil cargoes.” In July 2013 the Fed announced it was “reviewing” that decision. Though Fed deregulation may have unleashed the Wall Street side of recent international commodities speculation problems, the Fed probably cannot fix it now without simultaneous coordinated reforms from other regulators around the world.

(ILL prize.)

Schwimmender Gashafen als Anlandepunkt für internationale Flüssiggastanker

“Floating gas harbor as a landing point for international liquid gas tankers.” Steve Coll wrote that the first liquid natural gas (L.N.G.) contract was signed between Britain and Algeria in 1961, with conversion plants and transport ships that used refrigeration. Figuring out how to engineer natural gas into liquid forms made it possible to ship it cheaply around the world and created an international gas market. Initially the big oil companies searched for and developed gas fields outside their home countries, liquefying and exporting Middle Eastern and African natural gas instead of the pre-shipping method of just burning or flaring it off at the wellhead because building, protecting and maintaining pipelines requires quantities of time, money and cooperation that companies and countries aren’t always prepared to invest. Later, fracked gas from doing… terrible things to domestic rock was sold in the new gas market created. Much initial L.N.G. tech investment was driven by South Korea and Japan’s need for power, Coll wrote.

South Korean shipyards are now building giant floating harbors where international L.N.G. tankers can dock and unload. These giant floating harbors—they must be interesting-looking!—can be sailed around the world. They will make it possible for countries that previously had no natural gas or were dependent on e.g. one pipeline to buy gas at relatively competitive international prices. Might also reduce the total number of lands willing to frack themselves to a few fracking “specialist” countries.

(SHVIM men dare   GAUZE haw fen   olz   ON lond ah POONKT   foor   internot SEE OWN ALL ah   FLOOSS ig gauze tonk ah.)






(B OW! begin.)

“Intelligente Stromzähler nur mit intelligentem Datenschutz”

“Intelligent electricity counters,” so-called smart meters, but “only with intelligent data protection.” German data protection officer Peter Schaar (his official title is Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information) praised some recent developments on the data protection front but criticized weaknesses remaining in protecting e.g. employee data and the data that can be gleaned from smart meters. Schaar has been warning against excessive technology-driven transparency of electricity consumers since at least 2011. His office produced a pro-consumer guideline in 2012 to supplement the 2011 Energiewirtschaftsgesetz (Energy Industry Act) amendments that enabled the smart meters which the smart grid will need for flexible management of renewable energy sources and which so-called “smart customers” are to be able to use to manage their own utility consumption. The guideline points are to flow into law eventually.

(In TELL ee GENT ah   SHTROAM tsay lah  noor   mitt   in TELL ee GENT em   DOT en SHOOTZ.)


Pump storage power stations.” Pumping water into a mountain lake when electricity is cheap, and allowing it to drain out through power-generating turbines when electricity is more expensive, is rather efficient contemporary energy storage (“80% efficiency” for short-term storage of a few hours). Excess electricity is hard to store in quantity and tends to be sold off to neighboring countries instead, so storage issues might be one reason why Germany has quadrupled electricity exports since-and-despite closing eight nuclear power plants in 2011. A more obvious reason would seem to be the success of the Energiewende, large-scale infrastructure investments Germany is making to switch to renewable power sources such as solar and wind.

Of course villagers, fish and tourists near mountain lakes don’t appreciate constant changes in water levels. But the switch to renewable energy sources has undermined the financial benefits of draining lakes every day at lunchtime. Power prices used to peak around noon, so Germany’s >30 pump storage power stations drain their lakes through turbines during daylight hours, pumping the water back up the mountain at night. That demand-driven price spike is now being offset by the daylight collected by solar panels, which private citizens have been encouraged to install on their roofs. Utility companies are starting to not expand, not build, not renovate and shut down their lake storage power stations, as they wait for new technologies.

Next-generation electricity storage options will have to store power not only for hours but also for months, to buffer seasonal fluctuations. Small storage options that, like photovoltaics, can be installed in quantity in e.g. private houses will aid the decentralization trend. Large storage options under discussion include gas chemistry and big hollow concrete spheres lowered to high-pressure depths on the ocean floor: to store energy they would be filled with air and then allowed to refill with seawater, driving turbines.

(POOMP shpy chh ah CROFT verk ah.)









(Nets ent GELT beh fry oong.)



(Croft VAIR meh cup loong.)





(Eh eh geh   OOM log ah.)

Stromanbieter wechseln

“To switch electricity providers.” Many industries in Germany have been granted electricity rebates that are ultimately being paid by individual consumers. Some policy watchers are concerned that electricity prices are rising so rapidly in Germany because consumers are on the hook for avoidable surplus costs. Competitive “market forces” are supposed to prevent consumer abuse, yet not enough people are switching providers for the utilities to change their behavior.

On 29 Nov 2012 ZDF heute journal said they’d posted a handy 60-second video showing how to switch to a cheaper electricity provider, and they broadcast a brief clip of it showing a timer counting down from 00:60 to 00:50 while a lady researched electricity prices and contracts. Yet I have searched and searched for this video and can’t find it. ZDF did have a similar video from 22 Nov 2012 online; this one is 2:10 long and only points out pitfalls to look for in the new contracts. Its general advice to consumers: agree to the shortest term possible, don’t pay in advance in case they go broke, beware low initial prices used as bait.

(SHTRRROAM on bee tah   VECK cell n.)


Electricity storage techniques or technology. ZDF heute journal reports that a new storage method is being tested near Stuttgart: excess electricity produced by solar and wind power is converted to methane which can be stored in a natural gas network. When insufficient “renewable” electricity is generated, the stored methane is converted back to electricity.

I found an article explaining that they are using electrolysis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and then chemically reacting the hydrogen with carbon dioxide to make methane.

(SHTROME shpy chher   TECHH neek.)







(ÖÖÖ koh strome oom log eh.)




(En erg EE venn deh.)

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