Europe has no shale gas, so, unlike the U.S., natural gas will not be getting in the way of quickly moving to renewable wind and solar energy.

Barbara Lewis and Henning Gloystein wrote for Reuters 23 August 2012, EU Green Energy Drive Says No To Shale Gas, Looks Towards More Renewable Power Sources,

In the medium term, the value of conventional gas is in providing reliable baseload power to supplement unpredictable renewables, which depend on the sun shining or the wind blowing.

Danish state-owned utility DONG Energy, which has relied heavily on coal-fired power generation, sees a combination of gas and renewables as the way to go.

“We see gas-to-power and wind energy as the ideal mix, together comprising clean and stable energy. Wind energy as the clean energy source, and gas-to-power as the balancing power,” Carsten Krogsgaard Thomsen, DONG Energy’s acting CEO, said.

Meanwhile, Windpower Monthly reported 13 August 2012, Dong issues 2012 profit warning,

Dong Energy has issued a profit warning for 2012, forecasting full-year EBITDA to go down by about 10% on last year.

However, its wind energy division achieved sharp increases in profit and revenue during the first six months (H1) of the year. Further growth of Dong’s wind business is expected soon, thanks to new UK and Danish offshore capacity coming online during H2.

Back in the Reuter’s article:

A series of European Commission road maps envisage virtually carbon-neutral power generation by the middle of the century.

Unless carbon capture and storage can be developed on a commercial scale, that means gas as a fuel has a limited future and should not be invested in too heavily, environmental campaigners say.

They are especially against shale gas, whose environmental credentials are questioned in Europe.

“We need natural gas as a transition fuel. However, we don’t need such a huge amount of gas and certainly not cheap gas, because that would kick out not just coal, but also renewables,” Greenpeace renewable energy director Sven Teske said.

It’s not clear even shale gas will actually have much effect on the growth of solar, because solar has Moore’s Law going for it, continually reducing price per watt.

PS: Owed to Michael G. Noll.

-jsq

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