Is Electric Power Rationing Coming?

To answer the headline -- certainly not yet. However, sharp price increases of electricity certainly are on the horizon as the people in Britain and Germany already experienced.

In Germany, priding themselves to be the greenest country in Europe, the consumer has to pay for all those wind turbines and solar cells as part of their monthly bills. There, the cost per kwh amounts to $ 0.37 (the most expensive kwh cost in Europe).

No wonder, their renewable energy in 2018 reached 40% of the total electricity production. Compare that the to $ 0.135 per kwh here in the United States of America where renewable energy only amounts to about 20% of the total rated capacity. I say, lets count our blessings.

In my blog of June 22, 2021, I predicted electric power shortages in the future, due in part to the switch from gasoline to electric power. Well, it may now come sooner.

In the last few weeks, Great Britain experienced major power shortages due to insufficient winds driving offshore turbines. The overnight electricity cost almost tripled.

Now, we hear for what it amounts to electric power rationing or curtailment in China.

I consider this news a most important geo-economic one considering the important role China plays in the world economy.

The scarcity of suffice electric power resulted in orders by local governments to force the closure or curtailment of major semi-conductor facilities among them critical parts suppliers for Apple and Tesla. This news caused a drop of Apple’s share price.

In order to meet their self-imposed CO2 reduction goals, China for a while stopped building of coal fired power stations.

In addition, they also closed coal mines with the result, that mow there is not enough coal to operate the existing coal fired power plants. In addition, there is an over-reliance on unsteady wind power (18% vs. only 8% of total electricity production in the US).

During the 2021 recovery from the Pandemic induced shut-downs, China’s GDP increased 12.7%, yet their power demand went up 16.7%. This does not abode well – all a sign of bad central planning.

Here in the US, we use 3,750 billion KWh of electricity per year. Out of that, 21% or, 788 billion kwh of rated capacity Is provided for by non-constant wind and solar power. Fortunately, we are still able to use coal to fire our power plants providing still 19% or, 712 billion kwh to satisfy parts of our demand for reliable power.

Our government seems to plan a shut-down of such remaining coal fired power plants, as the foolish Germans are already doing, which would force us to double the capacity of our green energy sources, putting us at the mercy of dark days and wind-still days.

This diminishing of reliable power sources (fossil-fuel) comes at a time, when we can expect millions of extra electricity hungry cars on the road.

In order to replace the 712 billion kwh from coal-fired stations with say atomic energy, plants would require building in excess of 50 additional atomic units as an alternative.

Unfortunately, that is far away.

In the meantime, hold on to your wallet.

This important bit of news is not meant to scare you. My only aim is to keep you informed of what the future may bring, it allows you to be prepared.

Dr. Hans Baumann, a former Corporate Vice President and founder of his company, is a well known inventor, economist, and author having published books on scientific, economic, and historical subjects. Read Dr. Hans Baumann's Reports — More Here.