As Bloomberg writes, on the Epex Spot SE exchange, the price of electricity fell to minus 413.77 euros per megawatt-hour between 13:00 and 14:00. In neighboring France for the same period of time, prices fell to minus 412.55 euros per megawatt-hour.
Negative prices are becoming an increasingly frequent phenomenon in the European electricity market following the large-scale construction of solar power plants in recent years. They highlight a serious structural problem: a lack of energy storage systems and logistical bottlenecks in the power grid mean that the system cannot absorb the full amount of electricity produced, forcing some solar parks to temporarily shut down.
Although prices collapsed during the sunniest hours, they spiked again by late afternoon. Lyon Hirt, a professor of energy policy at the Hertie School, wrote on LinkedIn that such enormous volatility shows that the authorities have failed to make the energy system more flexible.
On Sunday, clear skies over much of Europe brought solar generation in Germany to 44 gigawatts at midday. At the same time, relatively mild spring temperatures helped solar panels to become more efficient (in contrast to the intense summer heat, which, on the contrary, can reduce their performance).
According to forecasters, cloudier weather is expected over the next few days in northwest and central Europe, but sunny days should return by the end of the week.
