OREANDA-NEWS. The policy of switching to clean energy sources could lead Europe to disaster this winter, writes Forbes.

According to the author of the article, David Blackmon, the record rise in gas prices in the world can provoke the transition of many thermal power plants to oil or coal, which will increase the cost of these resources. However, in the case of Europe, this option is problematic due to the transition to "green" energy. Many countries have shut down the vast majority of coal and gas power plants. Last summer, this led to a crisis, when, due to weak winds, it was necessary to return to combustible fuel again.

The analyst notes that the sudden increase in demand triggered a jump in gas prices. Moreover, Russia in response limited exports, which further affected its value. The Europeans, in turn, turned their attention to coal, but even here they did not have much room to maneuver: as Natasha Tyurina, an analyst with the consulting group Wood Mackenzie, notes, only Russia has sufficient reserves for sale in the EU.

"If all European utilities switch to coal, this will lead to huge demand that Russia is unable to compensate in such a short time. This will require supplies from other countries, such as the United States, but the situation is similar there," she said.

According to the author of the article, we are talking about similar problems due to following the same policy of abandoning combustible fuels and switching to renewable energy sources. While Europe is in the spotlight today, the crisis is slowly becoming global, Blackmon added.

He stressed that in the current situation there are no options for a quick solution to problems due to "meaningless political decisions." Overcoming the difficulties will take the same ten years that it took for the transition to clean energy sources. The expert also referred to the report of analysts from Wood MacKenzie and Rystad Energy, who estimated the lack of investment in the search for new fields at hundreds of billions of dollars.

"This is not something that can be fixed overnight," - summed up the author of the article.