There Was So Much Wind Power In Germany This Weekend, Consumers Got Free Energy

A stormy weekend led to free electricity in Germany as wind generation reached a record, forcing power producers to pay customers the most since Christmas 2012 to use electricity. Power prices turned negative as wind output reached 39,409 megawatts on Saturday, equivalent to the output of about 40 nuclear reactors. To keep the grid supply and demand in balance, negative prices encourage producers to either shut power stations or else pay consumers to take the extra electricity off the network.

Link


Pretty Cool. Germany has really done a lot with renewable energy.

It would be nice if all could generate our own power needs.

a reply to: pavil

We could if it wasn't almost impossible to get around the extreme environmental impact studies, crazy permits, and interference from environmental groups who block almost every damned large project.

Environmental groups sue to block wind turbines on Steens Mountain
wildartsfestival.org...

Environmental groups suing Alameda over windmills
www.recordnet.com...

Environmental Groups Strongly Endorse "None Of The Above" Energy Plans
www.forbes.com...

A 2011 U.S. Chamber of Commerce report titled “Project/No Project” found 140 renewable projects that had stalled, stopped, or been outright killed due to “Not in My Back Yard” (NIMBY) environmental activism and a system that allows limitless challenges by opponents. The study concluded that it is just as difficult to build a wind farm in the U.S. as it is to build a coal-fired plant, with about 45% of all challenged projects being “renewable energy”. This is accomplished by a variety of strategies, including organizing local opposition, changing zoning laws, preventing permits, filing lawsuits, and using other long delay mechanisms, effectively bleeding projects dry of their financing.

The environmental groups who's only existence is to sue to prevent any alternative energy, stop everything. Hydroelectric dams kill fish, biomass burning produces greenhouse gases, and geothermal power releases toxic ground and water contaminates, wind turbines slaughter birds and bats, even solar power "disrupts" fragile desert ecosystems.

We are not getting alternative energy with these organizations preventing any progress.

Environmentalists successfully blocked a proposed 500 megawatt wind project on private land in a remote part of Montana near the Canadian border planned by GreenHunter Energy. Plans were shelved after the Montana Wilderness Association and the Montana Audubon and Wilderness Society protested that 400-foot tall turbines would loom over an adjacent wilderness area about 10 miles away.

a reply to: pavil
and yet people complain about the electrical cost of...etc..

like bitcoin for example.

a reply to: pavil

It's good news but try wrenching the power back from those who profit the most from fossil and nuclear energy

originally posted by: Zcustosmorum
a reply to: pavil

It's good news but try wrenching the power back from those who profit the most from fossil and nuclear energy

LOL

You must have not read my post above. The leftest environmentalist groups will not allow it... they are the ones taking anyone who tries to put in wind and solar to court, not the fossil fuel industry (who surprisingly have tried to put in windmills).

a reply to: pavil
See. Thats where the website grabs ya by the cahoneys . They know if they put "in Germany" most folk would think the entire country . No , it was for a small area....

a reply to: pavil

Not all areas are conducive to wind power.

Some areas like Nebraska (windiest state in the U.S.) are a great because of the high winds and relative flat landscape. Other areas like where I live in Ohio are terrible for wind power.

a reply to: Metallicus

I knew a wind company head, they find the areas wind is viable. Michigan has some pretty viable areas and the area east of the Rockies for example he said. It's an area that need to grow.

Wind power is great in windy areas. West Texas generates large amounts of wind energy which is used to help power the Texas grid.

originally posted by: pavil

A stormy weekend led to free electricity in Germany as wind generation reached a record, forcing power producers to pay customers the most since Christmas 2012 to use electricity. Power prices turned negative as wind output reached 39,409 megawatts on Saturday, equivalent to the output of about 40 nuclear reactors. To keep the grid supply and demand in balance, negative prices encourage producers to either shut power stations or else pay consumers to take the extra electricity off the network.

Link


Pretty Cool. Germany has really done a lot with renewable energy.

It would be nice if all could generate our own power needs.

The article is misleading to say the least.

Power producers did not pay German households to use electricity or anything like that.

Rather German power producers had to pay Austrian power producers to take excess electricity to use it to run pumped storage power plants in the alps. IE the Austrians are getting paid for taking excess green electricity, they use it to pump water into higher reservoirs and getting payed a second time when they use the water to run turbines to produce electricity to sell to Germany when it cant meet its green power requirements. Which happens just about every Tuesday.

German electricity customers pay for this crap. Electricity costs have risen dramatically since the ‘Energiewende’ , Germans pay close to 50% more than the European average, only Denmark has even more expensive electricity costs due to higher taxes.

Renewable energy based soley on wind and solar energy doesnt work. You just end up too much producing electricty when you dont need it (during the day if its windy and sunny outside) and still need to run conventional power plants the rest of the time.
The fact is, every wind turbine or solar panel you put up needs to be backed up by a conventional power plant somewhere. Germany can keep up this charade only because they have the rest of the EU to help out. French and Czech nuclear power plants prevent blackouts in Germany on a regular basis.

originally posted by: infolurker

originally posted by: Zcustosmorum
a reply to: pavil

It's good news but try wrenching the power back from those who profit the most from fossil and nuclear energy

LOL

You must have not read my post above. The leftest environmentalist groups will not allow it... they are the ones taking anyone who tries to put in wind and solar to court, not the fossil fuel industry (who surprisingly have tried to put in windmills).

The point still remains

As far as the wind turbines one thing i noticed over here is they spread them out, where in the states it seems like we try to stuff as many into an area as possible.

Every day in NW germany I walk past wind turbines very rarely see dead birds my guess is that by spreading them out the birds actually have a chance to fly through and not die, and we got a lot of birds here.

Most of the areas that report large bird deaths around the turbines (that I have seen) were packed in tightly allowing zero room for error on the part of the bird.

Change the way its implemented and you cut the legs out from the lawsuits.

that is my wild arsed guess.

*not looking into local media since 10 years or so. now reading here article about my #ry*

originally posted by: sedna9
*not looking into local media since 10 years or so. now reading here article about my cun-try*

arg mistoo the edit button with the quote one

Er, nothing's free.

In Germany's case where the cost of electricity is c. 1.5 times higher than the UK and nearly three times higher than in the US, a free day for electricity is cold comfort.