Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

Re:Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of... by modriano on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @04:17PM (#29655338)

> excessive export means more wasted electricity.

I'm not an expert so please forgive me if this is a stupid question, but how is exported electricity wasted electricity? My intuition is that (assuming the exported energy is used) it would both prevent the generation of electricity by other (less environmentally friendly) means, and it would generate income. What is wasted here?

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Re:Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of... by JAlexoid on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @05:06PM (#29656066)

You should understand the source of that exported electricity.

Electricity is exported from the capacity that is inflexible, as you cannot scale it up/down. Common low flexibility electricity sources - coal, nuclear, hydro.

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Re:Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of... by modriano on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @06:30PM (#29656817)

I was under the understanding that coal and hydro were more flexible and hydro even being pretty responsive (just reduce the flow rate and build up the water level in the reservoir). But in any case, wouldn't the surplus just cause the price to drop, causing other power sources to just dial down production thereby stabilizing the price?

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