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Sometimes, a Greener Grid Means a 40,000% Spike in Power Prices

  • Texas power price spike is the latest unintended consequence
  • Wind power may have played role in Australia, Britain outages
Buildings stand along the skyline of Houston, Texas, U.S.
Buildings stand along the skyline of Houston, Texas, U.S.

Photographer: Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg

From

The road to a world powered by renewable energy is littered with unintended consequences. Like a 40,000% surge in electricity prices.

Texas power prices jumped from less than $15 to as much as $9,000 a megawatt-hour this month as coal plant retirements and weak winds left the region on the brink of blackouts during a heat wave. It’s a phenomenon playing out worldwide. Germany averted three blackouts of its own in June and has seen prices both spike and plunge below zero within days as it swaps out coal and nuclear energy for wind and solar. In the U.K., more than a million homes lost power on Aug. 9, in part because a wind farm tripped offline.