Solar power in sunny weeks, wind power in overcast weeks and hydro power in rainy weeks means electricity costs in Portugal and Spain have been incredibly low over the last year.
Newspapers here have been running articles saying the way the market works will make further investment and maintenance difficult because power generators are barely being paid. A few weeks ago for a couple of hours the price went negative in the wholesale market, meaning power generators had to pay to generate power.
A friend of mine decided to index his costs to the wholesale market and pays 4c/kWh, while with a normal power plan I’m paying 9-13c/kWh. Meanwhile coal, oil and gas guzzler Germany is paying 4x these prices. At least their geopolitical energy play worked out /s
For now…
Cheaper for the energy companies to produce/collect… that doesn’t mean they’ll charge consumers less for it.
Certainly, if you on an ‘agile’ tariff in the UK it can be a lot cheaper. There were times a few month ago when it was particularly windy - they were paying me to use electricity/charge my solar batteries from the grid.
See, this is probably one of the greatest benefits of power sources like wind and solar: the ability for individuals to produce their own electricity without the need to invest in hundreds of millions (or billions) in energy production facilities and infrastructure.
