Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Germany has spent $200 billion over the past two decades to promote cleaner sources of electricity. That enormous investment is now having an unexpected impact — consumers are now actually paid to use power on occasion, as was the case over the weekend.
Power prices plunged below zero for much of Sunday and the early hours of Christmas Day on the EPEX Spot, a large European power trading exchange, the result of low demand, unseasonably warm weather and strong breezes that provided an abundance of wind power on the grid.
Such "negative prices" are not the norm in Germany, but they are far from rare, thanks to the country's effort to encourage investment in greener forms of power generation. Prices for electricity in Germany have dipped below zero — meaning customers are being paid to consume power — more than 100 times this year alone, according to EPEX Spot.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 03 2018, @11:05AM
Bi-directional meters (selling excess solar power back) are the regular way of doing home solar panels op the north side of your border.
In the Netherlands, the government decided to freeze the ratio of selling back to buying to one-on-one until 2023. So if your panels generate an excess amount of energy that would cost you 10 euros to buy, your bill is reduced 10 euros.
Mind, after 2023 we'll all be wanting powerwalls and other batteries around here.