Germany gets low marks on electricity sector flexibility – industry report
Clean Energy Wire
Germany is ranked seventh out of nine northern European countries in a report on electricity sector flexibility from the British Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA). The REA found strong commitment to the energy transition and distributed energy resources, while new technologies are encouraged. However, Germany is moving too slowly to change market structures and enable flexibility, writes the REA. The Netherlands ranked highest in REA's report, while the UK itself was found to have even less flexibility than Germany in its electricity sector.
Ensuring flexibility is becoming increasingly important as countries like the UK and Germany replace fossil fuels with more volatile renewable energy sources. But "regulatory uncertainty, lack of visibility on returns, and technical challenges connecting to the network are delaying investment in flexibility and could hamper renewables deployment in the 2020s,"