Reporter | Anjing
Since June, many countries in the northern hemisphere, from the United States and Spain to China and Japan, have suffered historic high temperatures. For Europe, which is mired in an energy crisis because of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and Western sanctions, the heat presents more complex challenges.
This month, Europe ushered in the second heat wave of the summer.
Temperatures in parts of Portugal exceed 46 degrees Celsius, and 238 people in the country lost their lives in a single week. Wildfires broke out in France, Spain, Greece and other countries; Britain declared a national emergency on Friday and issued its first-ever red alert for extreme heat.
Under the high temperature, the demand for electricity surges. Europe is already facing a natural gas supply crisis, and the high temperature and drought have led to a decline in renewable energy generation such as hydropower and wind energy, which has made Europe's energy problem worse.
Extreme heat
The UK issued its first ever red warning of extreme heat last week for Monday and Tuesday.
The British Weather Service warned that on July 18 and 19, local time, the central, northern, eastern and southeastern parts of England will experience extreme high temperatures, including London, or temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius. Even at night, high temperatures occur in urban areas.
This is also the first time that the UK has issued a 40 degree Celsius forecast. The highest temperature in the country's history came at 38.7 degrees Celsius at the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens on July 25, 2019.
The current heat wave in Europe is linked to north african-Iranian high pressure. Earlier this month, North African countries such as Libya and Tunisia experienced temperatures above 44 degrees Celsius before hot air entered Europe and Asia.
But the MET Office also points out that climate change is the root cause of the increase in extreme heat weather in the UK. Compared to natural climatic conditions that are not affected by human activities, the likelihood of a 40 degree Celsius heat in the UK is 10 times higher than in the current climate conditions.
With extreme heat hitting, British Rail has called on passengers not to travel by train on Monday and Tuesday without necessity. To prevent the rails from expanding at high temperatures, the rail network company temporarily painted some of the tracks white to reflect more light.
Health departments have also issued warnings to protect vulnerable groups such as the elderly. NHS officials also pointed out that many medical institutions have old buildings, inadequate air conditioning and fans, and are difficult to cope with large numbers of patients in extreme heat.
The UK Health Security Agency has raised the heat wave health safety warning to level four, which means that not only high-risk groups, but also healthy people can also get sick or die due to high temperatures.
Before britain issued an early warning, large numbers of people had already lost their lives to the heat in Portugal and Spain.
According to the Portuguese Ministry of Health, from July 7 to 13, 238 people in the country lost their lives due to the heat wave; Spanish statistics show that from the 10th to the 15th, the high temperature caused at least 360 deaths. Last Thursday, Pinhao, northern Portugal, reached 47 degrees Celsius, breaking the local record for a July high.
In addition to causing health hazards, extreme heat also brings economic losses. Portugal, Spain, France, Greece and other countries suffered a number of wildfires, and more than 14,000 people in southwest France were evacuated urgently. As of last Sunday, there were still three uncontrolled wildfires in France, covering nearly 11,000 hectares.
French lawmaker Melanie Vogel posted on Twitter that she directly referred to this year's heatwave as "hell."
The energy crisis is intensifying
Among European countries, Italy was the first to experience the impact of extreme heat on electricity supply.
Under normal circumstances, hydroelectric power provides 15% of Italy's electricity needs. But the continued low rains since this spring have severely shrunk Italy's longest river, the Bo River. Earlier this month, statistics from the Po River Basin Authority showed that the amount of water in the Po River was only one-sixth of the normal level, the lowest in history.
Five regions in northern Italy have declared a state of emergency due to drought. With the onset of high temperatures, more than 170 municipalities in the north have implemented or are preparing to implement a water quota system that prohibits residents from using water for purposes other than necessities and medical care.
A spokesman for the Italian Federation of Special Companies for Public Water Services revealed that in the first five months of this year, Italy's hydroelectric power generation fell by 40% compared with the same period last year. Hydroelectric power generation is expected to be only half of the same period last year.
The Italian Farmers' Federation expects this year's high temperatures and droughts to put 30 percent of the country's agricultural production and half of the country's livestock industry at risk.
The Po River is not the only major river that has dried up. The Rhine, the largest river in Western Europe, the Ebro River, the longest river in Spain, and the Long River in Switzerland and France, have all experienced varying degrees of water levels. The water level of the Rhine at the observation point near Cologne, Germany, fell to a 15-year low.
Hydroelectric power in Spain is currently the second lowest in 20 years, France is down to a 10-year low, and Portugal's hydropower generation last month was only a quarter of last June's. Under normal circumstances, hydropower provides 14% of the eu's electricity needs, behind natural gas, nuclear and wind.
In addition to directly affecting hydroelectric power generation, the decline in river water levels also affects the operation of nuclear power plants, which require a large number of water sources to cool the units.
Last month, EDF cut production at the Saint-Arbon nuclear power plant and shut down more than a dozen reactors as the Rhine water level fell. Last week, the company warned that five more nuclear power plants were at risk of production cuts.
The decline in winds associated with drought is also affecting wind power generation in Germany. On Tuesday, less than 3 GW of wind power was generated in Germany; When the winds were strong in February, The german wind power generation reached nearly 50 GW.
In terms of natural gas, which is the EU's most dependent on electricity, Nord Stream 1, Russia's main pipeline for European gas transmission, has entered an annual maintenance shutdown. German energy giant Uniper announced over the weekend that it had begun to use its inventory to supply gas as Russia's gas supply decreased and demand for gas rose.
In preparation for this winter, the EU is working to replenish gas stocks to meet the target of 80% of its stocks by November 1. However, if Nord Stream 1 still stops gas transmission after completing maintenance, the EU will not be able to achieve this goal, and the winter gas supply will be in crisis.
In order to reduce the use of natural gas in the summer, many European countries have called on people to save electricity.
Italy prohibits schools and other public places from setting air conditioning temperatures below 25 degrees Celsius; French President Emmanuel Macron last week proposed turning off useless public lighting at night; The UK's National Grid is considering compensating companies that conserve electricity.
But for consumers in Europe, high electricity bills are inevitable. Germany's baseload electricity price rose to 410 euros/MWh on Monday, up 23.1 percent from Friday, due to reduced wind supply.
On Tuesday, electricity prices in France rose to their highest level since April 3, with spot trading at 432.43 euros/MWh on European electricity exchanges. In May last year, the average price of electricity spot market in Europe was still in double digits.