03-01-2019, 11:49 PM
Otter Wrote:he build-out rates for new wind and solar projects in places like Texas are a great example of this. The wind/solar boom in Texas is not being driven by bureaucrats.So you're saying that there aren't subsidies (both state and federal) that are being used?
Otter Wrote:I understand the bolded, but Germany's retail power pricing issue cannot be divorced from the fact that more than half the retail cost is being driven by state taxes and fees (so, regulatory policy seems to be substantially responsible for the problem).
Otter Wrote:I don't think these underlying market forces are going to diminish just because the German government has made some interesting choices with respect to the regulation of their domestic electricity market.
Firstly, there are a lot more facts to this than one reuters article. We could even start with talking about a "domestic electricity market" in Europe... this is outdated by about 20 years. It's pretty well connected mess and even dodgier solutions (such as Denmark relying on wind power) seem to work quite well since the markets are so well connected. Nordpool has a good list of spot prices around northern Europe, you can see how even the prices in different regions stay and if you fancy they also have a map where you can see the current flows of electricity throughout northern Europe.
Then when you talk taxes, fees etc you also need to understand that they are the norm, in fact the EU even mandates certain amounts of taxes on different energy sources. In other words, yeah Germany has taxes and fees on their electricity, so does every country in Europe. But this isn't so much of talk about what Germany has or has not done but rather talk on how the whole European electricity market functions and the problems that high level of subsidised renewables presents to it. But let's get to that at the end where I talk a little about base load.
Solar and wind are getting cheaper. Yes, and that will definitely not go away. But they still depend, on every single country I can think of, on government subsidies though I'm sure there are exceptions to this. Even India, a country with a great location and a massively growing demand for electricity is handing out subsidies to their solar power. The big picture is clear, they need subsidies to be competitive. At least in Europe it's the subsidies, not economics, that are driving the massive amounts of investments.
The other MAJOR issue, even bigger than the economical one, is the fact that as I already mentioned renewables CAN NOT function as base load in the current world we live in. In my opinion you need one of two things for that to happen, a new super efficient (and cheap to build) way to store electricity, or a grid that has basically the majority of the planet connected to it. I don't think either is happening anytime soon. Maybe someone will come up with a feasible third alternative but until then we can forget about renewables being used as base load. Then you add in the fact that the geographical areas where renewables work as peak load are very limited.
So yes they can be used to generate electricity but they can't be used for base load and they can't be used for peak load, so they can only act as complimentary generation method. You need base load (nuclear is probably the best right now) and peak load (massive hydro is ideal but isn't feasible in the majority of the world. So natural gas sounds like a good option) if you want the lights to stay on.