Re:Germany Runs Up Against the Limits of Renewables
by mtgx on Tuesday June 14, 2016 @12:54PM
(#11903338)
> Because fossil-fuel power plants cannot easily ramp down generation in response to excess supply on the grid, on sunny, windy days there is sometimes so much power in the system that the price goes negative—in other words, operators of large plants, most of which run on coal or natural gas, must pay commercial customers to consume electricity.
Sounds like they need to encourage EV acquisition so that the extra supply of energy can go to EVs, while the pollution is reduced by taking diesel and petrol cars off the roads. They could also make use of batteries for storage so they can retire coal plants and better handle the variability of energy use.
> The auction system is designed to reduce the rate of new renewable-energy additions and keep Germany from producing too much power. It might seem like an easy way to solve the oversupply issue would be to shut down excess power plants, especially ones that burn coal. But not only are the coal plants used to even out periods when wind and solar aren’t available, they’re also lucrative and thus politically hard to shut down. Because German law requires renewable energy to be used first on the German grid, when Germany exports excess electricity to its European neighbors it primarily comes from coal plants. Last fall, the German subsidiary of the Swedish energy giant Vattenfall started up a 1,600-megwatt coal-fired plant that had been under construction for eight years, defying opposition from politicians, environmental organizations, and citizens who want to see coal plants eliminated.
Okay, that's just stupid. This is nothing but a short term problem that could be easily solved with batteries. Anything else seems to be a political problem, not a technical one.
Sounds like they need to encourage EV acquisition so that the extra supply of energy can go to EVs, while the pollution is reduced by taking diesel and petrol cars off the roads. They could also make use of batteries for storage so they can retire coal plants and better handle the variability of energy use.
> The auction system is designed to reduce the rate of new renewable-energy additions and keep Germany from producing too much power. It might seem like an easy way to solve the oversupply issue would be to shut down excess power plants, especially ones that burn coal. But not only are the coal plants used to even out periods when wind and solar aren’t available, they’re also lucrative and thus politically hard to shut down. Because German law requires renewable energy to be used first on the German grid, when Germany exports excess electricity to its European neighbors it primarily comes from coal plants. Last fall, the German subsidiary of the Swedish energy giant Vattenfall started up a 1,600-megwatt coal-fired plant that had been under construction for eight years, defying opposition from politicians, environmental organizations, and citizens who want to see coal plants eliminated.
Okay, that's just stupid. This is nothing but a short term problem that could be easily solved with batteries. Anything else seems to be a political problem, not a technical one.