Germany: Familiar Towers, New Opportunities
The focus on shale gas in Germany appears to be increasing with the second article in a major German newspaper this week.
Highlights of the article in Die Zeit /Zeit Online (translated from German), follow:
Familiar Towers, New Opportunities
Drilling rigs are frequent sights in Lower Saxony, which produces more than 13 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, about 90 percent of Germany's production.
But the 30-meter rig near located the sports grounds of the small town of Niedernwöhren in Lower Saxony at the border of North Rhine-Westphalia was something special. For the first time in Germany, drilling for shale gas was being undertaken.
Exxon Mobil had announced test drilling in ten wells in Lower-Saxony in order to explore the shale gas deposits in the region last October, during a visit by the then Prime Minister of Lower Saxony Christian Wulff to Exxon corporate headquarters in Houston.
On this occasion, an agreement between Rice University and the Technical University Clausthal was signed to for co-operation and promotion of the transfer of knowledge related to shale gas development.
Green and Clean
The article extensively discusses the benefit of natural gas as being environmentally friendly.
Natural gas is the cleanest amongst fossil fuels, with no soot or ash discharge, almost no sulfur dioxide and much less nitrogen oxides than coal or oil. The gas emitted by combustion also contributes significantly less greenhouse gases.
With gas powered plants, the CO ₂ emissions per kilowatt-hour declines compared with the coal in half. If heating oil, gasoline or diesel replaced by natural gas, which saves a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Renewable Energy vs. Natural Gas
The availability of cheap gas would indeed be a serious competitor for renewable energy sources and could slow their development. On the other hand are gas power plants could complement renewable energy facilities, compensating for the volatility from wind and solar farms.
Gas powered plants have great flexibility in comparison to nuclear or coal-fired power plants. If necessary, they can ramp to maximum power in minutes and shut down just as quickly again –
Is Shale Gas There?
Whether shale gas present in sufficient quantity and could be promoted at a reasonable cost, is unknown yet. "With the holes in Niedernwöhren , we only collect data for a geological model," said Exxon spokesman Norbert Stahlhut.
"From Sweden to Turkey, from Britain to Italy is currently looking for it," says Hans-Martin Schulz from the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam. The geologist is coordinating a Europe-wide project to shale gas exploration, to which 20 European Geo Research Center have joined forces. The largest deposits are suspected in Poland, Hungary and Ukraine. However, "Geology of Europe is" rugged small scale, says Schulz. And isolated, minor shale layers are difficult to exploit.
Read the Full Article (In German)