• az04@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Solar power in sunny weeks, wind power in overcast weeks and hydro power in rainy weeks means electricity costs in Portugal and Spain have been incredibly low over the last year.

    Newspapers here have been running articles saying the way the market works will make further investment and maintenance difficult because power generators are barely being paid. A few weeks ago for a couple of hours the price went negative in the wholesale market, meaning power generators had to pay to generate power.

    A friend of mine decided to index his costs to the wholesale market and pays 4c/kWh, while with a normal power plan I’m paying 9-13c/kWh. Meanwhile coal, oil and gas guzzler Germany is paying 4x these prices. At least their geopolitical energy play worked out /s