Electricity prices rose to the sky, fertilizer production plummeted, and European producers issued a "crisis warning"!

The most sad thing at present is Europe.

The epidemic is afflicting the global economy, and Europe has made the situation worse.

Energy shortage, high temperature and drought, and dry rivers are pushing the European electricity price to a new high.

How outrageous is the electricity price in Europe?

18 In August, the average price of European power systems reached 322.28 euros /MWh, of which Lithuania was the highest, with 57 euros1.88 euros /MWh, followed by Germany and France, with prices above 550 euros /MWh.

For example, the benchmark load electricity price in Germany has risen to 563.76 Euro/MWh, which is about 500% higher than the same period of last year and nearly double that before the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The high electricity price is a headache for Europeans, but to make matters worse, I don't know when the rise of electricity price will end, because the factors that cause power shortage and soaring electricity price are still at work.

The surge in electricity prices in Europe is mainly caused by two reasons: one is energy shortage, and the other is high temperature and drought.

Europe's energy shortcomings are very obvious. Natural gas, oil and coal are highly dependent on foreign countries, reaching 90%, 97% and 70% respectively.

Natural gas is mainly used for power generation and heating. However, in recent years, Europe has been committed to energy transformation and has a high degree of dependence on wind energy and electric energy. However, due to the influence of La Nina phenomenon last year, extreme weather occurred frequently, which greatly reduced the efficiency of wind energy and electric energy. Europe had to increase the demand for natural gas, and the price of natural gas naturally rose.

There is a shortage of at least 300 billion cubic meters of natural gas in Europe every year, and Russia is the number one source of natural gas imports in Europe. However, with the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the United States and the West imposed a series of sanctions on Russia, including reducing dependence on natural gas imports, which also made the already insufficient natural gas in Europe even scarcer.

Just when Europe wants to turn around and restart coal power generation, it is found that the price of coal has also risen to an alarming level.

With the entry into force of the European Union's ban on importing Russian coal, member countries can only turn to other markets to snap up coal, which intensifies market competition and pushes up coal prices.

For example, the Australian-Newcastle coal price, which has always been regarded as the benchmark of coal futures prices in the Asia-Pacific region, rushed to the $400/ton mark in July, and has since hit record highs above this mark.

Energy shortage is a headache enough, but Europe's "fever" this summer is also famous.

How hot is Europe?

According to previous reports, the runway of Britain's largest air base was directly damaged by the sun, and the reservoir of farmers in the Swiss Alps has almost bottomed out.

The Po River, the longest river in Italy, dried up, with a large area of riverbed exposed, and the ship stopped directly on the riverbed.

The same happened to the Rhine, the lifeline of Europe, where the water level dropped sharply, and even the water level in some sections of the river has dropped to a critical point of about 40 cm.

If the water level continues to drop, it will seriously affect the waterway transportation in Germany.

The drought in France is also not optimistic.

With the decrease of river water and the increase of temperature, 56 nuclear reactors in France have almost been shut down. The reason is that nuclear reactors need low-temperature cooling water, and the river is too hot to use. If it is forcibly used and discharged, it is likely to endanger the biota in Hanoi.

Under the high temperature, the demand for electricity has surged, which has pushed up the price of natural gas and caused the production cost of nitrogen fertilizer to soar.

Europe's nitrogen fertilizer production capacity has decreased by 25%, but as the cost is still rising, the reduction of production capacity will be further increased in the future.

Many fertilizer companies have warned that European factories will further restrict the production of fertilizer.

This is even more worrying.

Because chemical fertilizer is directly related to food production, and nitrogen fertilizer is the largest fertilizer variety in the world.

The main raw materials for nitrogen fertilizer production are coal and natural gas. Generally speaking, it takes about 1 0.5 tons of coal or 6 15 cubic meters of natural gas to produce1ton of nitrogen fertilizer, but Europe is facing extreme energy shortage, so nitrogen fertilizer production is stuck.

Extreme drought and water shortage have brought great threats to food production, and the sharp drop in fertilizer production has also made European food even more precarious.

Major nitrogen fertilizer producers in Europe also said that the shortage of nitrogen fertilizer should not be ignored, because it may mean that there will be a food shortage in the near future, further aggravating the risk of food crisis.

It's only summer, and Europeans are more worried about the cold winter, because the cold in winter is more unbearable than that in summer.

Recently, many German families began to snap up coal and firewood for the winter.

But in many shops, even the firewood is sold out.

I wonder if Europe will get cold this winter.