“Why coal and gas returned”

A particularly dark and windless January has led to natural gas and coal plants becoming Germany’s sole warrantor of a secure power supply, Jürgen Flauger writes in Handelsblatt. But “coal and gas plants are increasingly being pushed out of the market,” Flauger writes, even though “on some days, wind and solar power sources for the most part lay idle due to the weather”. A “fossil back-up” would therefore remain “necessary for a few decades”, Norbert Schwieters, of consulting firm PwC, told the newspaper. But current power prices made it difficult to operate conventional power plants without losses, which is why Matthias Hartung, manager at utility RWE, is convinced that “we’re bound to have a capacity market”.

Read the article in German here (behind paywall).

For background, read the CLEW factsheet How can Germany keep the lights on in a renewable energy future?