Europe’s energy market was not built for this crisis

  • 📰 TheEconomist
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 67 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 30%
  • Publisher: 92%

Canada News News

Canada Canada Latest News,Canada Canada Headlines

How to get through the winter without wrecking Europe’s electricity market

Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskIn recent weeks, forward prices for daytime electricity for the fourth quarter of the year briefly spiked above €1,200 per megawatt hour in Germany and above a surreal €2,500 in France. The usual price is around €50. The reason for this is simple: scarcity.

The problem is that designing an electricity market is hard. The juice cannot yet be stored at scale, and has to be delivered at the exact moment it is needed. Producers need to spend a lot of money upfront to build a windmill or power plant, and need to be able to recover it and make a profit over decades. Climate-change policies dictate that more and more renewable electricity is fed into the system, despite being mostly at the whim of wind and sunshine.

The idea behind this is straightforward. To generate electricity at low cost and in an increasingly carbon-free manner requires a lot of information. Some technologies, such as nuclear, are good at providing a constant stream of power. Gas is good for firing up quickly. Solar is best around lunchtime. The marginal price of power provides the information needed to switch between them, by signalling the value of an additional unit of electricity.

For a while, it looked as though the problem with Europe’s market was that prices were too low. With more and more renewable energy entering the market, the price of electricity sometimes fell to zero and even turned negative. The question was how marginal gas power plants—that might be needed to cover a windless, cloudy winter day—could make enough money during the rest of the year to survive.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 6. in CA
 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

這世界是連動的。他媽的西方強盗,中國人絕對撑得比你們更久。。。

Adapting to high price gas from the United States?

Go Nuclear ☢️

What? Like a free market? And stop all the climate change nonsense?

... and shutting down all their nuclear power plants... :p

BURN FOSSIL FUELS! “GREEN ENERGY” IS A SCAM!

It's time to find an alternative of our energy consumption.Definitely, I wouldn't like to live in Europe next winter. But if a genius mind find an alternative it might save the planet.Russia have the right to do business with whom it pleases.Dependant countries will be in trouble

The one where the utter incompetence of the ruling elite destroyed millions of lives for a fake agenda to “go green”?

Start pumping oil and fire up the coal plants. Stupid climate hoax crap will get thousands killed. The so called experts will sleep soundly in their beds this winter, they have plenty of energy for their homes. Bottom line, they could care less it’s about money.

The Green Raw Deal

Be a great time to have a load of wood stoves for sale in Europe

Canada Canada Latest News, Canada Canada Headlines