Will it get dark in Europe?

#CapturingChange 47

As you probably know, taking good photos in low light is difficult. If you don't even pay attention to the exposure time, images like the one above are shot: a blurry picture. 

A little side note today.

Here is the photo data of the image: 

As you can see, I exposed the picture for one second. You can also see the type of camera. I usually take photos with a Sony RX 100, the seventh iteration (sometimes also with an iPhone). I love that camera. It's small, so I can always have it with me (the essential requirement for taking good photos), and I don't know of any camera of that small size (the camera type is called “compact camera”) that takes such high-quality photographs. Here is a review.

Back to the picture.

It shows a street lamp on a lonely path. I took it a few days ago, on a Sunday late afternoon in the village of Wilmersdorf in the German federal state of Brandenburg.

It's a nice symbolic photo for today's little topic here: the electricity situation in the European Union.

To avoid blackouts this winter as the continent faces an ongoing energy crisis amid Russia's war in Ukraine, from today on till 31 March 2023, the EU member states have to cut electricity consumption to avoid blackouts during winters. 

In October, the member states agreed on “extraordinary measures”, including a voluntary 10 per cent cut in electricity consumption and a mandatory 5 per cent cut during peak hours for EU nations.

These measures come into effect today.

Every member state is free to choose the appropriate measures to reduce energy consumption for both of these targets. 

Since the October agreement, governments across the continent announced various measures to tackle energy shortages. Paris is switching off the Eiffel Tower lights an hour early, Milan has turned off public fountains, and Hanover is offering gym users cold rather than hot showers to combat potential energy shortages this winter, writes The Guardian in a well-researched text on what European countries are doing to save electricity.

Central goal of these measures is to prevent power outages. But how likely is a blackout?

Rather unlikely, most experts say. In Germany, for example, the federal network agency (BNetzA) wrote that a large-scale blackout or even brownouts are “extremely unlikely” this winter. 

Onwards, 

Johannes Eber