Professor Dr. Alexandros Flamos, director of the Technoeconomics of Energy Systems laboratory (TEESlab), participated in the informative tv show “From 6 o’clock” of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation. The discussion that took place focused on the current energy crisis in Europe caused by the Russian invasion in Ukraine.

During the discussion, Dr. Alexandros Flamos talked about the impact of the invasion on the European energy policy. The Russian government uses the natural gas and the Nord Stream pipeline 1 as a leverage towards the European countries which has an impact especially on countries that are more dependent on the Russian natural gas, such as Germany. Thus, the “weaponisation” of the natural gas is a tipping point for Europe. According to Dr. Alexandros Flamos, the limited flow of the natural gas will lock Europe into a future of high electricity prices and drive European countries to adopt emergency measures aiming to reduce gas consumption. An example of such measures, is the possibility of gas rationing in Germany or other major European economies that could also possibly affect other countries, including Greece.

When it comes to Greece, although the dependency of electricity production is 45%, only 10% comes from Russia, while a viable option would be the replacement of the latter with liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Professor Flamos also highlighted the fact that the energy crisis will not be a short-term issue, and thus, it creates the need for structural reformation of the national energy policy that used natural gas as transition fuel.

You can find the discussion here.