r/RenewableEnergy • u/DVMirchev • 8d ago

Germany hits 62.7% renewables in 2024 electricity mix, with solar contributing 14% – pv magazine International

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/01/03/germany-hits-62-7-renewables-in-2024-energy-mix-with-solar-contributing-14/
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u/DVMirchev 5d ago

And what happened after that rant?

Nothing

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u/jka76 4d ago

Depends how much more it will happen.

Still, it does not make what Germany is doing right. They need to improve a lot.

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u/DVMirchev 4d ago

We'll see.

By the way, I do not hear them thanking Germany for the negative prices ;)

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u/jka76 4d ago

Negative prices might be also a problem = huge transport need => often an overload in transport network. I know that Poland had to install regulators on transit points with Germany as there were causing sever problems in windy times.

The biggest issue with renewables as they are being implemented now is unpredictability.

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u/DVMirchev 4d ago

False. You are mixing intermittentcy and unpredictability.

They are not the same.

In fact, wind and solar are extremely predictable for all TSO purposes - with modern meteorological models their output is predicted with more than 95% accuracy days in advance. That is more than enough for any TSO.

On the other hand, a Nuclear reactor, for example, is waay more unpredictable while being totally not intermittent. Why?

Because the automatic safety systems can take it off the grid in a matter of minutes without any notice. Totally unpredictable event. And all grids with 1 GW reactors are built around this totally unpredictable event. They know that 1 GW can disappear without notice at any given moment that's why they keep idle capacities to be able to react.

Keeping this capability all the time is not cheap and is never added to the price of the power coming from the nuclear plant ;)

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u/jka76 4d ago

English is not my first language. So I might use the terms in a wrong way. What I was thinking about is that the nuclear power plant will be delivering stable planned output on request. For solar and wind you depend on the nature who decides when you have energy. How would you call this?

As for the nuclear reactor getting off, I would like to see statistics of how many unplanned incidents like that happened and how it compares to other power sources. Do you have statistics somewhere?

Guess, spare capacity idle is needed for both nuclear as well as for solar and wind replacement. And IMHO this will grow with use of those. At least until we manage to regulate weather. Otherwise we need giant batteries somewhere and those are for all purposes idle capacity too.