News

Belgium canceled to shut down nuclear power plants

Published

5 months ago

29/03/2022

Belgium canceled to shut down nuclear power plants

In order to avoid energy supply shortages, Belgium decided to extend the operating period of its nuclear power plants, which it had previously planned to shut down in 2025, by 10 years.

Representatives of government partner political parties in Belgium held a meeting to determine the country’s energy strategy.

Making a statement at the end of the meeting, Belgian President Alexander De Croo said that the Russia-Ukraine war increased the uncertainties.

De Croo stated that they gave up the decision to close the nuclear power plants in the country in 2025 and said, “We decided to extend the operating period of the two nuclear reactors for 10 years.” said.

Pointing out that they will extend the duration of the last reactors built in the country, De Croo stated that this will not be enough to ensure energy supply security, and that they will establish two additional natural gas power plants.

De Croo pointed out that they will also accelerate their renewable energy investments in the country and stated that they will provide an additional 1 billion Euros for wind power plants and solar panels in particular.

Explaining that they have also prepared a separate support package, De Croo stated that they will reduce the VAT rate on products such as heat pumps and solar panels to 6 percent.

There are a total of 7 reactors in Belgium, four of which are at the Doel nuclear power plant near the Dutch border, and three at the Tihange nuclear power plant near the German and Luxembourg border.

The electricity produced by these reactors normally meets about half of the country’s needs.

In line with the final decision, the operating periods of the country’s Doel 4 and Tihange 3 reactors, which were built in 1985, will be extended for another 10 years. These thousand-megawatt-hour reactors will continue to operate until 2036.

The Belgian government discussed the country’s energy strategy last year and agreed on a plan to shut down nuclear power plants by 2025. On the other hand, it was decided to meet the electricity generation deficit that emerged as a result of the closure of nuclear power plants with natural gas power plants.

However, the Russia-Ukraine war caused the decision to shut down nuclear power plants to change.

News

Used car prices in the Netherlands fell for the first time this year

Published

18 hours ago

15/08/2022

Berry Fox

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Used car prices in the Netherlands fell for the first time this year. Data were obtained from the vehicle sales platform AutoScout24. According to the platform, the reason for the decrease is the summer holiday.

How much are used car prices in the Netherlands?

AutoScout24 stated that during the summer holidays, people’s interests are generally towards vacationing, so the decrease in prices may be due to this.

An average used car was sold for 23,531 euros in July. This rate is 1.2 percent less than the previous month. At the beginning of this year, the average price of second-hand was 22,158 euros. There has been no decline in used car prices since the spring of 2021.

On the other hand, the increase in second-hand items in other European countries continues. Prices continued to rise in France, Austria and Belgium last month, while Germany saw a small decline of 0.2 percent.

Germany is still at the top of Europe in this field, with an average used car price of 27,361 euros.

Image source: ipravda.sk

News

Declining interest in Randstad region in the Netherlands

Published

18 hours ago

15/08/2022

Berry Fox

Declining interest in Randstad region in the Netherlands

The proportion of people leaving the Randstad area in the Netherlands has increased over the past year. According to the National Statistics Agency (CBS), 75,000 people left the region last year. The number of people who moved to the region was 55 thousand.

CBS data indicated that those over the age of 30 are increasingly leaving the west of the country.

Statistics also show that the number of people leaving the Randstad area has increased since 2014. While 48 thousand people left the region in 2014, this number increased to 70 thousand in 2020.

On the other hand, the proportion of those who moved to Randstad remained roughly the same, reaching 55 thousand last year. Looking at all the data, the number of Dutch people giving up city life has been increasing since 2017.

However, the increase in the number of people leaving Randstad does not mean that the region is empty.

News

Netherlands uses Europe’s most expensive natural gas

Published

19 hours ago

15/08/2022

Berry Fox

The Netherlands became the country that used the most expensive natural gas among the European Union countries with its natural gas prices in July.

Nieuwsuur, which collects data from the comparison site Energievergelijk.nl, last month the natural gas bill of a house in the Netherlands cost 283 Euros. This rate is double that of many EU countries. Neighboring countries of the Netherlands are Germany and Belgium, a few of these countries.

In June, the peak of gas prices was in Sweden, while the Netherlands took the second place. In July, the leadership changed hands. Last month gas bills in Sweden averaged 237.

Electricity bills in the Netherlands are also quite high compared to other countries. The Dutch paid an average of 419 euros for electricity in July. There are only two European countries that face more electricity bills than the Netherlands: Italy and Denmark.

According to the estimates of Energievergelijk.nl, citizens who will renew their energy contracts this year will pay an average of 3,700 euros more per year.

Nibud, who is a budget consultant, stated that many households will have difficulty paying the bills in the future. Nearly 30 percent of them highlighted the difficulty ban on this issue last month.