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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday January 03 2018, @07:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the making-money-from-home dept.

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.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/25/business/energy-environment/germany-electricity-negative-prices.html


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  • (Score: 2) by pgc on Wednesday January 03 2018, @02:32PM (3 children)

    by pgc (1600) on Wednesday January 03 2018, @02:32PM (#617161)

    When prices are 'negative' it means you aren't selling it anymore. Instead you are paying people to take something from you.

    A negative price isn't a price.

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 03 2018, @11:56PM (2 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 03 2018, @11:56PM (#617429) Journal

    A negative price isn't a price.

    Ok, why isn't it a price?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 04 2018, @03:34AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 04 2018, @03:34AM (#617491)

      its a cost. you pay a cost equal to the price of an item which you hope is less than or equal to its value

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 04 2018, @04:59AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 04 2018, @04:59AM (#617520) Journal

        you pay a cost equal to the price

        Not for the consumer of electricity on the other side of that transaction. They aren't doing that. Similarly, a positive price would be a cost for the consumer rather than the producer. Price is indeed used correctly when referring to negative prices. It is the monetary value of the transaction. Something with a price, which is traded, is always a cost to someone.