From  KlimaNachrichten Redakteur

By Fritz Vahrenholt

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

In May 2023, the deviation of the global temperature from the 30-year average of satellite-based measurements from the University of Alabama (UAH) rose to 0.37 degrees Celsius as a result of the El Niño approaching in the Pacific (see chart above). The average temperature increase per decade since 1979 is only 0.13 degrees Celsius.

After the heat pump disaster comes the insulation hammer 

On March 9, 2023, the world was still in order for Robert Habeck. His state secretary was still called Graichen and the anger of the citizens over the minister’s encroachments on German boiler rooms was not yet noticeable. At that time, he announced the second attack on the German homes and houses. In his workshop report “Renewing prosperity in a climate-neutral way”, he announced that “the EU Buildings Directive, in particular the minimum efficiency standards contained therein, will be implemented quickly”. What is it all about? The European Parliament has decided by a majority that from 1 January 2030 all buildings must achieve energy performance class E and from 2033 efficiency class D.

This means that there is an obligation to renovate 6 million houses in Germany by 2033, as MEP Pieper (CDU) reported. “The savings in energy bills do not even come close to compensating for the renovation costs,” says Axel Gedaschko, President of the Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW): “The investments due would amount to at least 125 billion euros annually.” One thing is undeniable: this would once again make housing considerably more expensive, but also make investments in new housing less economical.

One really wonders what moves the political forces involved: in a blatant energy price crisis, in a dramatic housing shortage with persistently high uncontrolled immigration pressure, to massively increase the price of home ownership under the banner of climate protection – this can only be explained by an incredibly wide distance from the problems of the citizens of one’s own country.

Habeck and the EU do not even take note of the fact that Germany has one of the best energy efficiency standards of the housing stock in Europe. But the standards are different. What corresponds to an efficiency standard G in Germany is a C in the Netherlands and a D in France. So Germany would have to do more than other countries, even though it has the better standard. But German CO2 – as we have learned in the meantime – is much worse from a green point of view than CO2 from other countries, be it from the Netherlands or from China.

The justification for regulating the CO2 emissions of apartments through drastic bans and commandments comes from the Green side with the following hypocritical argument: they want to protect consumers through insulation and heat pump regulations, as CO2 prices will rise sharply. Costs of € 16,000 for gas heating of a 4-person household are painted on the wall by the Green parliamentary group. In fact, the EU is also planning CO2 emissions trading for buildings and transport from 2027. However, the EU has taken precautions to ensure that the levy will not rise above €45 per tonne of CO2.

So far, only a few countries have their own CO2 levies for buildings and transport, including Germany and Austria. The CO2 levy is currently capped at €30 and is expected to rise to €2025/tCO45 by 2. It is hard to imagine that Germany wants to demand more from its citizens in the future than the European standard prescribes for 2027. The levy currently charges natural gas at €0.54ct/kWh. In the long term, this will be more like €0.8ct/kWh – annoying enough, but not even an additional burden of 10% of today’s gas price. So there is no reason to frighten citizens and threaten them with gas bills of €16,000 per year, especially since the CO2 price is in the hands of the federal government. What is such political communication called? Sanctimonious? Or rather, sneaky? In any case, I have ordered a brand new gas condensing boiler for my house in the past few weeks and thus avoid more CO2 in winter than the CO2-polluted heat pump from Robert Habeck.

RWE’s best-kept secret

In my last newsletter I wrote about the fact that with a fraction of the costs that citizens have to pay for Robert Habeck’s heat pump disaster, many times more CO2 could be achieved by CO2 capture in the still existing lignite-fired power plants. With one-twentieth of the costs, five times as much CO2 would be avoided. I wrote about the miracle of Hohenmölsen, where I was informed by a representative of LEAG that the CO2 capture plant in Schwarze Pumpe is still standing.

Now I received another letter – from an RWE employee. I wonder if I had forgotten that RWE has been operating a fully functional pilot plant for capturing CO2009 in a partial flow of the lignite-fired power plant in Niederaussem since the time of Jürgen Grossmann in 2 (I was his managing director for renewable energies at the time). And it is still running successfully. Frankly, I had repressed it. With great fanfare, the Chairman of the Board of Management, Dr. Markus Krebber, had contractually assured Minister Habeck without necessity that the lignite-fired power plants in the Rhenish mining area would be shut down as early as 2030. Every CEO would have taken the opportunity to point out the fantastic development of RWE, BASF and Linde, which makes CO2 neutrality possible for coal-fired power plants, wouldn’t he? The ex-colleague from RWE sent me the impressive picture of the plant. (Source: BASF)

RWE plans CO2 capture – but not in Germany

The development of RWE, BASF and Linde can now be regarded as state of the art : The capture of more than 90 % of CO2 from a partial flow of the exhaust gas has been proven in the long term, the costs amount to an incredible 30 €/t CO2 ( P.Moser, G Wiechers, S.Schmidt, K.Stahl, G.Vorberg, T Stoffregen, VGB Powertech 1/2 , 2018, S43) . The efficiency loss is less than 10 % (i.e. instead of 43 % efficiency: 39 %). Niederaussem is therefore to be shut down in 2030, including the separation plant. The technology could massively reduce the emissions and CO2 costs of lignite-fired electricity ( 30 €/t CO2 instead of 100 €/t CO2 certificates), even if 50 €/t CO2 were still to be applied for injection. Incidentally, the captured CO2 from Niederaussem is so pure that it is used in the beverage industry for soda bottles.
The technology of BASF’s OASE amine scrubbing in Niederaussem has what it takes to become the world’s leading capture technology for solving the CO2 problem – also in coal-fired power plants.

And even RWE wants to apply it – but only in England for the group’s gas-fired power plants there. “In the future, CCS projects could secure electricity generation capacities of up to 4.7 gigawatts and avoid 11 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year,” it proudly states on RWE’s website. We are talking about the Pembroke, Wales and Staythorpe gas-fired power stations. RWE speaks of “green gas-fired power plant projects”. (Image source: RWE)

RWE also wants to use CCS in the Netherlands. According to the press release, biomass power plants are to be operated there with OASE-CCS technology, so that there are even negative CO2 emissions. In fact, however, the power plants in question in Eemshaven and Amer have so far been mixed coal-fired and biomass power plants. But E.ON also relies on CCS. The company recently acquired a stake in the Norwegian company Horisont Energie to take on a leadership role in the field of CCS, as E.ON CEO Leo Birnbaum explained. Apart from the regional newspapers such as Westfälische Rundschau or Westfalenpost, there was no coverage of this sensational development in FAZ, Spiegel, SZ, ARD or ZDF. It’s not interesting for the mainstream media. Our media landscape is terribly party-green.

But there is even better news: Heidelberg-Zement’s cement production facility in Lengfurt is to be equipped with a CO2 capture plant based on OASE technology. 70,000 tonnes of CO2 are to be separated and purified there and, like Niederaussem’s exhaust gases, will be sold in the beverage industry for carbonated beverages.
Who says it to Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister Wüst and the East German Prime Ministers of Brandenburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt ?

Al Gore’s prognosis – Arctic sea ice is disappearing

Last but not least, some good news. In 2007, AL Gore predicted that by 2015 the Arctic sea ice would have disappeared in the summer minimum (thick blue line). The sea ice did not comply. Since 2007, it has been surprisingly stable. You could draw a horizontal straight line from 2007 to 2023. Antarctic sea ice is also stable. Since 1979, it has even risen slightly in area.

With best wishes
,
Fritz Vahrenholt

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Read also Fritz Vahrenholt’s new book “The Great Energy Crisis – and How We Can Overcome It”:

Blurb:

Never before in the history of the industrial age has energy in Europe been as scarce and expensive as it is today. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is only acting as a catalyst, as price explosions on the gas and electricity markets had already indicated the failure of the energy transition and the European “Green Deal”. A wrong energy policy endangers the daily, secure supply of energy, leads to a loss of prosperity for private households and destroys industrial jobs that are in international competition. The answer to the pressing energy issues of our time must be a technological energy offensive in Germany that includes all alternatives, from shale gas extraction to the CO2-free use of domestic lignite to the development of a new generation of safer nuclear power plants.