Germany Is Producing Way Too Much Electricity, Just As Three New Coal-Fired Power Plants Come On-Line

This is an incredible story .... except for the fact we've been blogging about this for about two years. Europe is simply in trouble with regard to energy. But I didn't expect this. I'm as surprised as Ms Merkel.

Actually, the entire European energy story is very confusing to me.


Having said that, it seems Europe is perfect for all-EVs:

• Germany, Sweden producing excess electricity; exporting electricity
• Europe could be only continent that imports oil, natural gas going forward
• Europe is densely populated, with short commutes

Bloomberg is reporting:

Germany, Europe's biggest power market, is poised to open its first new coal-fired plants in eight years, just as prices slump because of a glut of electricity.

[Germany] will bring three new plants online by December, enough to supply more than 4.4 million homes. The nation is already producing so much electricity that exports will surpass last year’s record in 2013, ...

Power prices may slide 12 percent by 2016, according to UBS AG in Zurich. 

“Merkel’s government has put itself in a dilemma. On the one hand it is promoting green energy, on the other hand, we see all those hard coal plants coming online now. I don’t see anything bullish in the power market.”

German power for next-year delivery is headed for a third annual decline, its longest losing streak since trading began on the Leipzig, Germany-based European Energy Exchange AG in 2002.

Who wudda ever guessed twenty years ago that electricity was going to get less expensive?  Other stories suggest that renewable energy projects could actually make things worse for the European grid. But we'll see.

The irony is that the Germans pay some of the highest utility costs in Europe. And yet, not long ago, it was reported that Europe may be the only continent in the universe to depend on imported energy.