This photograph taken on September 12, 2022 shows workers restarting the installations at the Emile-Huchet thermal power plant, coal plant and combined gas plant, located in Saint-Avold and Carling, e
astern France. - Initially shut down as of March 31, 2022, the Emile-Huchet plant is powering up again and temporarily relaunching its activity to meet France's energy demands, as the country faces an energy crisis with several of its nuclear power plants under repair and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine straining the supply of energy toward Europe. Patrick Vranckx, a bakery owner in Temploux, Belgium — 50 miles southeast of Brussels — is panicked.
Johan Lilliestam, who leads the Energy Transitions group at Germany's Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany, has dubbed the dire situation"Europe's Energy Drama," and says that each day seems to deliver a new cliffhanger. Two weeks ago, it was the suspected sabotage of the underwater Nord Stream pipelines, which closed them down for good and set off European panic about the security of other gas pipelines amid an energy standoff with Russia.
“People are afraid they won’t have heat or it will be too expensive to use,” Goethals said, adding that some Belgian suppliers are already out of wood for the season and that most suppliers’ prices have doubled due to shipping costs.