(Åseral, Norway) In this Nordic country famous for its rugged fjords, where water is almost a part of the way of life, Sverre Eikeland scaled the rocks that form the walls of one of Norway’s main reservoirs, walked past the driftwood sticking out like something caught in the teeth of the dam, and stood on dry land that should have been deeply submerged.
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“Do you see the strip where the vegetation stops? said Mr. Eikeland, 43, chief operating officer of Agder Energi, pointing to a barren line fifteen meters above the surface of the Skjerkevatn reservoir. “That’s where the water level should be. »
“We don’t know the drought,” he added with a shrug. We need water. »
The summer has been marked by heat and drought across Europe, affecting almost all sectors of the economy and even its usually cool regions, a phenomenon exacerbated by human-induced climate change. France has been marred by extensive forest fires, and the Loire Valley is so dry that in some places you can cross the river on foot. In Germany, the Rhine is a few centimeters deep in places, paralyzing essential commerce and blocking boat cruises. Italy is drier than it has been since 1800, and growers of its iconic rice used for risotto now risk losing their harvest.
PHOTO INGMAR BJORN NOLTING, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Coal is loaded onto a barge in Rheinberg, Germany. Due to the low level of the Rhine, freighters can only carry a third of the usual amount.
But perhaps the most surprising impact of the drought has been in the usually wet south of Norway, where sheep have become stuck in exposed mudflats and salmon have run out of water to swim up rivers. .
Hydroelectric reservoirs — responsible for 90% of Norway’s electricity and electricity exports to several neighboring countries — have reached their lowest point in 25 years, leading to shortages that have raised prices and tensions policies.
The extreme heat and devastating drought of the summer, combined with the militarization of natural gas exports by Russia — in response to European Union sanctions imposed as part of the war in Ukraine — have combined to expose vulnerabilities in the European energy system in unexpected places and in unforeseen ways.
In France, warming rivers have compromised the washing of nuclear reactors, threatening their use. In Germany, the Rhine is too low to transport the coal the country uses to compensate for the loss of Russian gas. And in Britain, the driest July in nearly 90 years sparked wildfires around London and left thousands of homes in the north of the country without power.
The Norwegian “energy crisis”
“We call it a perfect storm,” said Steffen Syvertsen, CEO of Agder Energi, who was in nearby Arendal, where the country’s political and industrial leaders gathered to discuss whether the “energy crisis”, as local media now call it, demanded a revision of electricity export agreements with the European Union and Great Britain, or new subsidies for Norwegians to mitigate the surge prices.
In addition to Russian gas cuts, a spike in demand as the economy emerges from the pandemic, an inability to add other renewables like wind to its energy portfolio and the worst drought in years have pushed up electricity prices in Norway at record highs, especially in the more densely populated South.
While Norway is eager to join the European market, the resource-rich country, which is a major gas exporter, is under pressure to keep more of its energy for itself.
The best way to resolve this crisis and achieve energy security is to become independent of Russian gas as quickly as possible. But it is a huge task.
Steffen Syvertsen, CEO of Agder Energi
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a visit to Oslo that if Norway met its commitments to deliver electricity to the European market, it would not be able to do without additional gas exports.
But Germany needs more gas. The severe drought there has rekindled talks about investing in nuclear power and has dried up the waterways essential for transporting coal.
A reality for all of Europe
German coal-fired power stations dot the banks of the Rhine from Duisburg in the west to Karlsruhe near France, but low water levels mean large coal-carrying cargo ships can only haul about a third of their capacity.
PHOTO INGMAR BJORN NOLTING, THE NEW YORK TIMES
The waters of the Rhine in Bingen, Germany are falling. Normally, the island on the right can only be reached by boat.
Last week, Uniper, a large German utility company, announced that it was going to have to cut production at two of its coal-fired power stations because it was not possible to travel up the Rhine with enough coal to run them at full speed.
France’s worst-ever drought has also taken a toll on the country’s power generation, with nuclear plants responsible for more than 70% of the country’s electricity having to temporarily curtail activity to avoid releasing carbon dioxide. dangerously hot water in the rivers.
Many of France’s 56 nuclear power plants were already out of service for maintenance reasons. But the rivers that cool the reactors have gotten so hot from the searing heat that strict rules to protect wildlife have prevented even hotter water from the plants from being discharged into the rivers.
France’s nuclear energy regulator this month granted temporary waivers allowing five power plants to continue discharging hot water into waterways due to what it called “a public”.
In Britain, extreme heat that has turned lush fields into straw has led power grid operators to hire more workers amid fears of power shortages.
Alarm bells ringing
In Norway, a winter without much snow and an exceptionally dry spring, including the driest April in 122 years, caused lake and river levels to drop. The shallow waters of Mjosa, the country’s largest lake, forced the famous paddle wheeler Skibladner to remain moored in port and prompted Oslo city officials to send text messages urging people to take shorter showers and avoiding watering lawns.
Do it for Oslo so that we still have water for the most important things in our lives.
One of the messages sent by Oslo city officials
In May, Statnett SF, the national electricity grid operator, sounded the alarm over shortages.
PHOTO DAVID B. TORCH, THE NEW YORK TIMES
A hydroelectric plant located in Åseral, Norway, which supplies the south of the country and Denmark, had to reduce its production due to drought.
But the sky offered no respite and this month, as the country’s hydroelectric reservoirs — particularly in the south — approached what Energy Minister Terje Aasland called “very low », the hydroelectric producers have reduced their production in order to save water for the coming winter.
Reservoirs were about 60% full, 10% less than the average for the past two decades, according to data from the energy regulator.
Southern Norway, which holds more than a third of the country’s reservoirs, is dotted with red barns on green fields and fishing boats along the coast. On a river in the region of Agder, a panel put up by the energy company, like a relic from another time, warned: “The level of the water can rise suddenly and without warning. »
But recent months have shown that there is also a danger that the water level will drop. Reservoirs have reached their lowest point in 20 years, at just 46% capacity. One of them, Rygene, was so low that the plant had to be temporarily shut down. On Tuesday, the thunderstorms resumed, but the ground was so dry, Mr Eikeland said while inspecting the basin, that the earth was “absorbing all the water” and the level of the reservoirs barely rose.
This text was first published in the New York Times.