Germany’s Power Market Bailed Out by Gas Plants as Wind Plunges
This article is for subscribers only.
Germany added more onshore wind turbines in the past decade than any other European country, but a severe slump in output this month shows how the nation’s energy system is still at the mercy of the weather and its old fossil-fuel plants.
Wind speeds slumped about 12% in March from a year earlier, because of a North Atlantic ocean pattern that put Germany in an unusually long-lasting high-pressure bullseye. That sent average daily power generation from the nation’s thousands of turbines to its lowest level since 2016 and kept power prices elevated.