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Wholesale electricity prices track gas exposure, not renewables share. (janrosenow.substack.com)

submitted 1 month ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/energy@slrpnk.net

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What this means is that wholesale price doesn't drop until gas -burning power plants are not being used. So it takes quite high renewables+ battery deployment to lowe wholesale price.

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[–] MasterBlaster@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Well, I'm somewhat disturbed to find you are basically right. I gather it's partly due to the insane complexity of the market - even here on our side of the pond. The article I linked described pricing in real-time rather than for the annual auctions your reference described. A quote from the end of the article:

It’s tempting to think electricity prices are simply the product of supply and demand, but the reality is far more choreographed. From fuel markets to regulators, the system is layered and opaque. Consumers think they are paying for power; in reality, they are funding infrastructure projects, policy goals, and investor returns.

On the bright side, it does mean the wind and solar renewable energy producers are probably making bank. This explains why investment continues to accelerate even without subsidies.

Eventually, capacity (in theory) will get so high for renewables that the "last provider in the chain" will not be a ludicrously expensive resource. That'd be nice. I'll believe it when I see it.