Blackout News here reports on how Germany’s uncontrolled solar production without appropriate storage and consumption models is putting a huge burden on the domestic market and consumers.
At the same time, neighboring countries are benefiting from all the free electricity Germany uncontrollably overproduces and consumers just don’t need!
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Experts are warning of the collapse of an over-regulated energy system that is increasingly moving away from reality. Germany has significantly expanded its solar PV capacity in recent years. According to the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), the total installed solar PV capacity in Germany reached 99.3 GW at the end of December 2024.
The country’s massive solar power production is leading to a growing problem due to mass overproduction and the resulting negative electricity prices, which occur particularly when the sun is shining midday and demand is low: all the surplus electricity flows abroad – free of charge! This sort of absurdity is what happens when politicians and bureaucrats take over energy engineering.
In 2023, the proportion of hours with negative prices averaged 18%, in May it was as high as 31%. Despite billions being invested in the expansion of photovoltaics, basic measures such as storage technologies and smart meters are being neglected.
Experts criticize the lack of powerful battery storage systems and the sluggish expansion of smart electricity meters, which could enable the flexible use of surplus electricity. Energy market expert Björn Peters criticizes the current legal situation, which does not allow operators of solar systems to participate in negative prices and thus creates false incentives.
He is calling for a halt to the expansion of PV and the abolition of the EEG green energies feed-in act.
Peters advocates a fundamental change of course towards a more reliable energy supply, including a return to nuclear power, the expansion of coal-fired power generation and the use of domestic gas reserves. The current energy system is neither sustainable nor financially viable. So far, politicians have not provided any clear answers or concrete measures to relieve the burden on citizens and companies.
Originally reported on by Bild.
Madness indeed but very costly very soon: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/04/15/solar-alert-rooftop-decay-facility-decommissioning/
My mother said “Don’t make a mess and then you won’t have to clean it up.”
It seems Germany has two messes, one physical (future waste) and one energy engineering.
It is becoming increasingly clear that CO2 is not the demon-witch controlling the weather (nor climate) and need not be sought and eliminated.
Yet this situation, with the ‘duck curve’ – has been warned about for at least a decade by those with knowledge of power generation and supply.
Yet still the politicians, and bureaucrats, charged into a Valley of Death.
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‘Appropriate storage’ is never going to happen and dumping it to hydrolysis plants to make expensive hydrogen nobody wants is not going to happen either. Germany is lucky to be able to dump it on their neighbours for free but that are rumblings about how it damages their grids by undermining their generation. The solution is to charge Germany for the dumping and give the money to their own generators.