Germany's Solar Boom Leads to Plunging Electricity Prices and Challenges

TapTechNews May 26 - According to BusinessInsider, Germany has vigorously developed solar energy, resulting in a surge in power generation that exceeds consumer demand, causing electricity prices to plummet and even fall to negative values, creating a fantasy energy market where consumers can get paid for using electricity instead.

Bloomberg said that the decline in electricity prices has damaged the profits of solar power generation companies, thereby slowing the pace of further expansion of solar energy and hindering the process of the overall carbon emissions reduction plan. But the main problem lies in the lack of efficiency. Consumers often use the most electricity when the sun is not shining, such as in the evening when they come home from work, which means a lot of electricity is wasted.

The reason for the plunge in electricity prices is that Germany vigorously developed solar energy last year, and the newly added installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation reached an astonishing 14,280 megawatts, nearly twice that of the previous year.

TapTechNews noted that Germany is not an isolated case. The same problem has also occurred in California, USA. The decline in electricity prices has slowed the pace of installation of solar panels, and thus delayed the process of California achieving the carbon neutrality goal. The short-term response measure of California legislators is to reduce subsidies to solar power generation companies, which makes the industry dissatisfied.

Obviously, the long-term solution is to install energy storage facilities to store this excess solar energy so that consumers can use it on cloudy days and during peak electricity demand periods (usually at night).