Electricity from wind and solar plants is outstripping demand at certain times of the day and the resulting fall in power prices is causing problems for German, Australian and US power companies. “Energy market price signals are critical to telling generators where to build new resources,” said Abe Silverman, deputy general council at NRG Energy, which is concerned about the anomaly in California. Negative prices occur during midday sun or early morning wind when demand is low. That means power firms have to close plants, a difficulty for coal and gas plants that cannot be be switched on and off quickly. The German government has been trying to find ways around this problem by building more nuclear plants. In Australia, however, energy company Origin has built gas plants that can activate at short notice.
Electricity from wind and solar plants is outstripping demand at certain times of the day and the resulting fall in power prices is causing problems for German, Australian and US power companies. Negative prices occur during midday sun or early morning wind when demand is low. That means power firms have to close plants, a difficulty for coal and gas plants that cannot be be switched on and off quickly. The German government has been trying to find ways around this problem by building more nuclear plants. In Australia, however, energy company Origin has built gas plants that can activate at short notice.