Electricity in Czechland

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, prices have soared across Euroland.  

Looking at the cost of electricity in capital cities across Euroland, Prague comes in as having the 5th most expensive electricity at €0,41 per kilowatt-hour.  The top 4 are London, Copenhagen, Rome, and Amsterdam. 

However, when you account for purchasing power parity then Prague has the most expensive electricity in Europe.  Followed by Rome, Berlin, Dublin, and London.  One of the reasons for electricity being so expensive is that the Czech government taxes it at 24% while the average across Europe is 18%.

© https://www.energypriceindex.com/price-data

What's odd is that Czechland is one of Europe's biggest exporters of electricity.  This year, the country has exported more than 5 million megawatt-hours more than was consumed.  Only Sweden, Germany, France, and Spain have exported more electricity than Czechland.  I wasn't aware than in 2020, Czechland was the 9th-largest exporter of electricity in the world.

In order to cut the country's dependency on gas from Russia by one-third, the government and ČEZ, a Czech energy company, have secured storage capacity for LNG, liquefied natural gas, in the Netherlands.  Construction of the space is underway and it should be complete in September.  This is just for the storage space which should cost tens of millions of Czech Crowns per year.  The Czech government still needs to secure the LNG to be stored there.  

Here's a video I found on YouTube that talks about the high cost of energy right now in Europe, especially in neighbouring Germany.

©NBC

Я за Україну. Я за Україною. Слава Україні  Stojím za Ukrajinou!  I stand with Ukraine. 

Update: Here's an interesting Al Jazeera story I found on YouTube that talks about the high cost of electricity and its impact on the Czech glass industry.

©Al Jazeera

Chernobyl Tour, Ukraine

Chernobyl, Чорнобиль, is about 104 km (65 miles) north of Kyiv.  It was founded in 1193 and gained city status in 1941.  Chernobyl is most known for the world's worst nuclear accident which occurred on 26 April 1986 in what was the Soviet Union.

Here's a video I found on YouTube that does a very good job of simplifying the science behind what went wrong.

©Radio Free Europe

And here's an RT video about some of the delays in evacuating people following the accident.

©RT News

First Responders Memorial

Prior to the accident, Chernobyl was home to about 14,000 people.  Today the population is about 690.  Chernobyl falls within the 30 km (18.5 miles) exclusion zone.  It's pretty much a ghost town and many of the people there work two-week shifts there and then leave for two weeks.

In 2015, Ukraine passed legislation for decommunisation.  Street names and public places with communist-related themes received new names while communist symbols were removed.  But there's still a statue of Lenin standing in Chernobyl.

There were about 160 villages that fell within the exclusion zone and were evacuated.




Zalissya, Залісся, was home to 2,849 people.  Nature has taken over the village and it really looks like something out a zombie apocalypse movie.

Within the exclusion zone is the once top-secret Duga radar station. It was an over-the-horizon radar system that functioned as an anti-ballistic missile early-warning system.  The system used to produce powerful shortwave radio bursts that produced a repetitive tapping sound so it became known as the Russian Woodpecker.

The station  was in service from July 1976 until December 1989.

The other two stations that made up the system have since been destroyed.  However, this site can't be demolished because of the radioactive particles that would be released in to the air.

Kopachi, Копачі, is another village that has been evacuated since 1986.  All of the houses were torn down and buried but at the time the government hadn't realised that this further contaminated the soil and water.

There's a WW2 monument and just a kindergarten and another brick building still standing.  Going in to the kindergarten is hauntingly surreal.



The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is 14,5 km (9 miles) from Chernobyl and 16 km (10 miles) from the border with Belarus.

It used to be called the Lenin Nuclear Power Station and in Soviet times it produced 10% of the electricity in Ukraine.

Reactor #4 was the one that exploded.  Even still, the other three reactors remained in service.

It is now covered with the new sarcophagus which was the world's largest movable structure.

Here's a video about the new sarcophagus.

©NBC News

Pripyat, Припять, is 1.5 km (1 mile) from power plant and it was built for the workers.  It was founded in 1970 and declared a city in 1979.  It had been home to 49,360 people before everyone was eventually evacuated in the afternoon on 27 April 1986.

It was once a model Soviet city but today it is a full on ghost town.

The city's amusement park never actually opened.  It was scheduled to open on 1 May in time for the annual May Day festivities.

There are strict rules to be followed while on the Chernobyl tour.  As a safety precaution, we were scanned three different times throughout the day.

Visiting Chernobyl and Pripyat is another item I get to cross off of my bucket list.  I've been on many tours before but I must say that this was by far the best one I've ever been on.  It's a long day but definitely a must do.

10 Years in the EU

Today is 1 May and it's a public holiday.  Today is also the 10th anniversary of Czech Republic joining the European Union.

In 1952, six countries (Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, France, Netherlands, and West Germany) formed the European Coal and Steel Community.  In 1953, Denmark, Ireland and the UK also joined.  This eventually developed in to a European common market.

Greece joined in 1981 and Portugal and Spain both joined in 1986.  After German reunification in 1990, the EU picked up what used to be East Germany.  Sweden, Finland, and Austria all joined in 1995.

2004 was a big year for the EU.  The single largest EU expansion (number of countries, territory, and population) occurred in 2004.  The EU welcomed Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

In 2007, Bulgaria and Romania joined.  Last year, Croatia became the newest member.  Today, the EU contains 28 countries and more than 500 million people.

Still, not every country in Europe is an EU member.  Norway, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland are not members.  Iceland, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey are all candidates to join the EU.  Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Ukraine are not yet even candidates to join. 

Czechs have gained economically from joining the EU.  Plus it's a heck of a lot easier for Czechs to travel now.  However, many Czech people consider EU legislation as a negative and only around 20% or so of the people want to give up the Crown for the Euro.

Update:  Here's a video I found out on YouTube about the European Union.

©CGP Grey

Update:  15 years in the EU.

Update:  The UK officially left the EU on 31 January 2020.

Update:  Here's a short 5½-minute video on how the EU works.

©CNBC International

Update 2025:  Here's a short video about the EU.

©EU Made Simple

Hagia Sophia, Turkey

Ayasofya or Hagia Sophia (Greek for "Holy Wisdom") is in İstanbul's Sultanahmet district near the Hippodrome and the Blue Mosque. It has been a church, a mosque and is now a museum.

It was dedicated in 360 and was the world's largest cathedral for a thousand years.

In 1204, Constantinople was sacked by the Latin Crusaders and the golden mosaics in Hagia Sophia were shipped off to Venice.

Then in 1453, the Ottoman Turks conquered the city and the building was converted to an imperial mosque.

The church bells, alter and other Christian paraphernalia were removed and replaced with a mihrab, minbar and four minarets.


Since Islam bans representational imagery, many of the church's mosaics were simply plastered over.

It remained a mosque until 1935 when it was converted in to a museum.

Turkish law now prohibits it from being used as a place of worship, either as a church or as a mosque.

Hagia Sophia is considered the greatest surviving example of Byzantine architecture, especially the dome.

Update 2020:  Turkey's president Erdogan converted Hagia Sophia back into a mosque. 

©NBC News

Update 2023:  Here's a short TED-Ed video I found on YouTube about Hagia Sophia.

©TED-Ed