From the Daily Skeptic
by Eugippius
German climateism is accompanied by all sorts of naive ideas and bright pink fairy tale slogans. A dubious proverb among the latter declares “The sun sends no bills” (German: “The sun doesn't send bills”). These proverbs seemed to make sense at first (is there anything more liberal and democratic than sunshine?), but turned out to be essentially the opposite. In fact, the energy transition has left German taxpayers paying for the sun to shine billions of euros. This is becoming a complete disaster, and what's worse is that the more we expand our solar power capacity, the more we pay for sunlight in the Federal Republic. It does get very expensive here.
Redness and swelling Call it the “solar trap,” and here's how it works: Our Renewable Energy Act (EEG) promises to pay renewable energy producers a fixed price for every kilowatt-hour of electricity their installations put into the grid. Whether you're a climate-conscious regular person with solar panels on your home, or you run a large solar farm, EEG entitles you to these fixed “feed-in tariffs” for 20 years. The EEG also requires grid operators to accept your power regardless of demand and sell it on power exchanges.
Now, while the sun may not charge for its service, it turns out it has this naughty habit of shining in many places at once. When this happens, electricity supply tends to exceed electricity demand and the exchange rate falls. They can drop all the way to zero, or in extreme cases with lots of sunlight, they can even become negative. A negative price means you have to actually pay the “buyer” to have the excess power taken away from you. Regardless of whether the price is only very low, zero, or negative, German taxpayers are obliged to pay a fixed feed-in price through the EEG to these producers for electricity that is not needed but is extremely green and climate-friendly. That is, we face a discrepancy between the actual exchange value of excess electricity and the feed-in tariff promised to producers. In this way, we actually pay the price for the sunshine.
In September alone, Germany paid 2.6 billion euros to renewable energy producers for electricity, but the market value was only 145 million euros. The sunny fall days are devastating our already fragile government budgets. The federal statistics agency initially allocated €10.6 billion for feed-in tariffs in 2024, but the government already owes €15 billion and the year is not yet over. Scholz's cabinet is therefore trying to allocate an additional 8.8 billion euros for the rest of the year. Still, Congress hasn't approved additional funding, and the damn sun won't stop shining bloody, so even this supplemental appropriation may not be enough. We're bleeding, all for a sun that doesn't send any bills.
This problem will get worse before it gets better. The more solar panels we install, the greater the oversupply we will face when the sun shines, and the greater the spread between fixed feed-in tariffs and the actual market value of this green electricity. As I said, the government expects feed-in tariffs to cost €10.6 billion in 2024, but it could end up costing at least €20 billion. Costs are expected to be higher next year and even higher the year after that. as Redness and swelling The German government reportedly plans to triple our solar power capacity to 215 gigawatts over the next six years – “the equivalent of 215 nuclear reactors” every time the sun emerges from behind its blissful clouds.
The energy converters knew they had messed up. The new plan is to change the rules for solar subsidies. When prices become negative, larger producers lose access to a fixed price for electricity, and they also have to sell their own power. This way, they will become more responsive to market demand and stop overproducing electricity when no one needs it. It's almost like creating a blind system that completely ignores market incentives is a bad idea. Unfortunately, the new rules only apply to new solar installations. The German government will still have to live up to its crazy deal to pay operators of older solar power plants over the next few years. We will burn billions of dollars for nothing.
You'll also notice that these new rules are only for larger carriers. Millions of small business owners — all the ordinary people who attach solar panels to their roofs — pose a serious, ongoing problem for which no one has any solutions:
In the long run, [energy economist and Government adviser] Lion Hirth believes that “all electricity producers must operate directly in the electricity market.” In theory, owners of even small rooftop photovoltaic systems would have to become direct sellers, as only this would provide a financial incentive to take their systems off the grid in times of excess power. “In principle, I think expanding direct marketing is the only sensible approach in the long run,” Hess said. … However, direct marketing is also highly regulated at a bureaucratic level and is very costly, so it is rarely an option for small systems.
Rooftop installation also doesn't make economic sense, Hess noted. The cost per unit of capacity is three times that of a large solar farm. However, we can't get rid of these small operators, as climate change propaganda has given rise to a fervent group of German greenists who want to make a personal contribution to stopping climate change by installing regenerative technology on their roofs. As usual, climate politics prioritizes individual consumer choices and experiences over pragmatic, system-wide outcomes because, fundamentally, Green voters don’t really want to stop CO2 emissions2 emission. he wants Experienced Stop CO2 Emissions, that's not even a thing.
Meanwhile, all budget planners can do is “hope for bad weather” that will “reduce solar generation and cause electricity trading prices to rise again”. Before our Renewable Energy Bill, the sun really didn't send any bills, but in our desperation to change the weather, we've created an artificial system in which it won't stop sending bills. Ours is truly one of the stupidest times in human history.
This article originally appeared in Eugyppius' Substack newsletter. You can subscribe here.
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