*From Bloomberg News reporters Eamon Farhat and Eva Brendel:*
Over the past decade, hundreds of millions of solar panels have been installed from Sicily to Lapland, turning what was once a niche technology into Europe’s biggest source of power during the summer months. That rapid buildout is now running into a new problem: The system around it hasn’t kept up. Capacity growth is slowing, financial returns are falling and a record amount of electricity is being wasted because grids can’t handle the surge in output.
With longer daylight hours, the solar season is in full swing. Capacity added over the past year has expanded the generation base and records have already been broken this spring in major markets including Germany, the UK and France. More are expected in the months ahead.
That’s more electricity than the region can use with producers increasingly being forced to shut down plants for hours at a time on sunny days — a practice known as curtailment. In the coming months, about 40 terawatt-hours of electricity, enough to power Greater London for a year, could go to waste. That’s up by a quarter from 2025.
ebookfrance on
Then why are my bills keep going up, now the most expensive in world here in Ireland
MajorGrub on
How to fix it ? Add more battery storage capacity ?
iqisoverrated on
It’s just a very natural progression. As long as there isn’t a lot of days with near zero energy prices (or even negative prices due to guaranteed feed in tariffs) battery storage isn’t economically viable…and during the first years where this is the state of things battery storage (or stuff like seasonal thermal storage) isn’t yet built up fully to take advantage of that.
It’s only to be expected and it will be just temporary.
EmperorAlgo on
Oil production in the US is so big that natural gas is being wasted.
TAV63 on
They need to increase battery usage or at least storage of some type like gravity. Once they do that they will waste much less.
Lopsided_Quarter_931 on
Solar is racing ahead cause it has imminent use for the installer. Batteries and networks are lagging cause it’s harder to coordinate. Though it should not be this hard.
surfrider0007 on
🙋🏽♂️ I’ll have some free power please 👍🏽
Key-Alternative5387 on
Good. That’s how you make solar cheap and reliable without batteries. You overbuild.
9 Comments
*From Bloomberg News reporters Eamon Farhat and Eva Brendel:*
Over the past decade, hundreds of millions of solar panels have been installed from Sicily to Lapland, turning what was once a niche technology into Europe’s biggest source of power during the summer months. That rapid buildout is now running into a new problem: The system around it hasn’t kept up. Capacity growth is slowing, financial returns are falling and a record amount of electricity is being wasted because grids can’t handle the surge in output.
With longer daylight hours, the solar season is in full swing. Capacity added over the past year has expanded the generation base and records have already been broken this spring in major markets including Germany, the UK and France. More are expected in the months ahead.
That’s more electricity than the region can use with producers increasingly being forced to shut down plants for hours at a time on sunny days — a practice known as curtailment. In the coming months, about 40 terawatt-hours of electricity, enough to power Greater London for a year, could go to waste. That’s up by a quarter from 2025.
Then why are my bills keep going up, now the most expensive in world here in Ireland
How to fix it ? Add more battery storage capacity ?
It’s just a very natural progression. As long as there isn’t a lot of days with near zero energy prices (or even negative prices due to guaranteed feed in tariffs) battery storage isn’t economically viable…and during the first years where this is the state of things battery storage (or stuff like seasonal thermal storage) isn’t yet built up fully to take advantage of that.
It’s only to be expected and it will be just temporary.
Oil production in the US is so big that natural gas is being wasted.
They need to increase battery usage or at least storage of some type like gravity. Once they do that they will waste much less.
Solar is racing ahead cause it has imminent use for the installer. Batteries and networks are lagging cause it’s harder to coordinate. Though it should not be this hard.
🙋🏽♂️ I’ll have some free power please 👍🏽
Good. That’s how you make solar cheap and reliable without batteries. You overbuild.