Sounds like it's time for Germany to invest some money into energy storage solutions rather than relying on coal-burning plants to take up the slack when solar and wind are slacking.

This applies equally so to most nations, of course.

I'm tempted to argue that storage makes renewables more expensive, but that argument would rest on the assumption that it was even possible to buy storage capacity at a scale of multiple terawatt-hours.

Solar wind and hydro only provide 25% of Germany's energy needs.

That figure is out of date -- looks like it was 33% last year and climbing. Source: https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-c...

All told coal accounted for 37% last year. So if the trends continue (and it seems like they will), then renewables will eclipse coal by around the end of this year.

Build more solar and wind and add more energy storage to get you through the lagging periods and no more coal capacity will need to be added to the grid, nor new coal mines dug.

It's still not currently obsolete, then. More like, "hopefully obsolete soon".

Deprecated then?