"Why are electricity prices so high if renewables are so cheap?" I have been asked.
The main reason: expensive fossil gas still sets the price 63% of the time in wholesale electricity markets in EU27 & >90% in some countries.
The graphic is from Draghi Report.
The main reason: expensive fossil gas still sets the price 63% of the time in wholesale electricity markets in EU27 & >90% in some countries.
The graphic is from Draghi Report.
Comments
Been looking at various price data over country for 2023 and there is huge variation between them. 🤓
Some farms are good fertile land, others are rocky with poor soil. If all your food comes from good land, it's cheap, but if you need to farm some /1
There is even poorer land; farming it would drive the price up further, but a free market ensures nobody works that land (nuclear?).
You'd think a farmer on good land /2
Fossil gas the biggest factor in price
Data from Australia
https://bsky.app/profile/profraywills.bsky.social/post/3lbgrd4c7622m
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352484723013057
Right now there's always some gas plant on, as a reserve.
It’s a pseudo-market price-setting mechanism with rules.
It can, and should, have other rules.
Like - pay suppliers just what they bid.
Or pay them what they bid plus a modest set of uplifts as more expensive sources come on line.
But of course you're right, its overlaid with a whole mess of other mechanisms, and sorely needs a redesign. Locational pricing among other possibilities.
https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/setting-power-price-merit-order-effect
Not sure that this is the full answer. At the place where I live I can get an electricity contract for roughly 30 ct/kWh, at least 22 ct/kWh of which are grid fees, taxes, levies etc. It is not (only) the wholesale price which makes electricity expensive
Taxes ought to be flat, independent of spot prices.
As consumer, roof top solar also saves you the grid fee and tax.
@brettchristophers.bsky.social 'The Price is Wrong' is the perfect reading on this topic for anyone wanting to understand the detail. @versobooks.bsky.social https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3069-the-price-is-wrong?srsltid=AfmBOop65Gu2jgjatGmlxL37xJVMi-rX4s0F_b6cZlzJpx_F45bj1AX4
HOW LONG does it take for that to REPLENISH ITSELF...?
Last I checked we don't have OIL SEEDS?
Also?
Mr "population collapse"?
(Elon SUBPAR "genius")
When will earth's population be what is required?
What's required?
5 billion.
We have had well over 100 years to realign with logic. And we chose gluttony instead.
That said?
Reducing the use of fossil fuels and factory style farms will reduce the chemicals in the water and air.
We have already reached CRITICAL MASS.
In supermarkets the price of eggs don’t determine the price of beer - but in electricity markets this seems to be the idiotic case.
You need to be thinking of total eggs farms vs demand for eggs. When avian flu wipes out some but not all eggs farms, the price of eggs goes up everywhere. The concept of a market clearing price is not a scam dreamt up by FFs.
Imagine someone saying
“A hurricane made more severe by fossil fuel burning is identical to a hurricane not made more severe by fossil fuel burning”.
The additional flooding of the consumer’s house is certainly not identical.
Just because the end product of an egg or a beer is a bit more of a beer belly doesn’t make both the same.
Renewables still depend on petroleum to function.
Do windmills require frequent regular maintenance to replace the oil lubricants? Yes.
Do oil lubricants leak from windmills? Yes.
How much oil does a windmill gearbox require? Depending on size, from 10 to 60 gallons.
Costs money to run windmills.
Costs money to maintain windmills.
Costs money to repair windmills.
Costs money to replace windmills.
Windmills are not free. They're not cheap.
I said it was not cheap.