Europe storm leads to negative electricity prices
By Die kalte Sonne
(Translated/edited by P. Gosselin)
It almost hurts a little that “specialist for renewable energies” (own claim on Twitter) Prof. Volker Quaschning gets mentioned here so often. This is simply due to the absurd tweets the man continuously puts out.
His latest prank has to do with the storm Sabine, which earlier this week swept across Germany. It supplied a lot of energy in the form of wind, which made the wind turbines rotate strongly.
Even in the otherwise regulated electricity market, the laws of the market cannot simply be levered out. Supply and demand determine the price. If supply is higher than demand, the price falls.
In the case of electricity, even money might be included with the product when this electricity is purchased, meaning negative prices. Electricity is an extremely perishable “commodity”, it must be consumed at the moment of production. However, the “expert” Quaschning does not blame this oversupply and the negative prices on the volatile wind power plants, but rather on nuclear power and coal. They deliver very reliably and not wildly fluctuating like wind power.
Prof. Volker Quaschning tweeted in response to the negative electricity prices from overproduction which Germany saw during the recent storm:
Sturm und viel Wind sorgen wieder für negative Börsenstrompreise. Ein klares Zeichen, dass Kohle- und Atomkraftwerke zu unflexibel sind und nicht als Backup für erneuerbare Energien taugen. Wir brauchen darum einen schnelleren #Kohleausstieg. #FridaysForFuture #Scientists4Future pic.twitter.com/w7CRrEruoq
— Volker Quaschning (@VQuaschning) February 10, 2020
In English: “Storm and lots of wind are again causing negative stock market electricity prices. This is a clear sign that coal-fired and nuclear power plants are too inflexible and are not suitable as back-up for renewable energies. We therefore need a faster #coal exit.
#FridaysForFuture #Scientists4Future.”
A logical train of thought actually would have been to realize that highly volatile power sources such as wind and the simultaneous provision of base load are difficult to reconcile. Unfortunately, the energy source gas is also being massively fought by people like Quaschning, although it is more flexible and at the same time more CO2-friendly. In any case, however, it is only a crutch that might have to supply a great deal of energy, namely when we have the well-known lulls in wind and sun.
Every wind turbine and every photovoltaic system needs a backup. And anyone who has ever wondered why the wind countries of Denmark and Germany have such high electricity prices knows the reason. We are paying for a double power infrastructure. The prices will not decrease with an increasing share of renewable energies, but rather will continue to rise.
via NoTricksZone
February 14, 2020 at 11:28AM
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