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Germany Has Too Many Solar Panels, and It's Pushed Energy Prices Negative (markets.businessinsider.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Why Are they talking like it's a bad thing?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago

Because it is a bad thing for the financial interests that Business Insider serves.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

In isolation, it's very obviously a bad thing, because it makes solar less profitable and might slow down the switch to renewables.

In a wider context, it can still be seen as a god thing as it means there has been a significant pivot to solar already and luckily it's also a very solvable problem. There just needs to be more energy storage.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Won't energy storage help drive prices back up too?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I guess that depends. If the costs to invest in storage is cheaper long term than losing money from excess energy, then energy companies would lose less money and thus could offer cheaper prices. But it would definitely help decrease or get rid of negative prices.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

It's a sign of a grid stability issue. A power grid needs to balance input, output and losses. An imbalance in either direction is bad.

A negative price means the grid is worried about a collapse. They are willing to pay sinks to come online NOW, or for production to go offline.

The solution isn't less renewables however! It's more storage, and better smarts on the grid. Most grids are poorly designed for renewables, and their loads characteristics. That needs to change rapidly.