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Germany renewable energy milestone 2019 saw wind, solar, hydropower, and biomass outproduce coal and nuclear, as low gas prices and high CO2 costs under the EU ETS reshaped the electricity mix, per Fraunhofer ISE.

Key Points

It marks H1 2019 when renewables supplied 47.3% of Germany's electricity, surpassing coal and nuclear.

✅ Driven by high CO2 prices and cheap natural gas

✅ Wind and solar output rose; coal generation declined sharply

✅ Flexible gas plants outcompeted inflexible coal units

In Lippendorf, Saxony, the energy supplier EnBW is temporarily taking part of a coal-fired power plant offline. Not because someone ordered it — it simply wasn't paying off. Gas prices are low, CO2 prices are high, and with many hours of sunshine and wind, renewable methods are producing a great deal of electricity as part of Germany's energy transition now reshaping operations. And in the first half of the year there was plenty of sun and wind.

The result was a six-month period in which renewable energy sources, a trend echoed by the EU wind and solar record across the bloc, produced more electricity than coal and nuclear power plants together. For the first time 47.3% of the electricity consumers used came from renewable sources, while 43.4% came from coal-fired and nuclear power plants.

In addition to solar and wind power, renewable sources also include hydropower and biomass. Gas supplied 9.3%, reflecting how renewables are crowding out gas across European power markets, while the remaining 0.4% came from other sources, such as oil, according to figures published by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in July.

Fabian Hein from the think tank Agora Energiewende stresses that the situation is only a snapshot in time, with grid expansion woes still shaping outcomes. For example, the first half of 2019 was particularly windy and wind power production rose by around 20% compared to the first half of 2018.

Electricity production from solar panels rose by 6%, natural gas by 10%, while the share of nuclear power in German electricity consumption has remained virtually unchanged despite a nuclear option debate in climate policy.

Coal, on the other hand, declined. Black coal energy production fell by 30% compared to the first half of 2018, lignite fell by 20%. Some coal-fired power plants were even taken off the grid, even as coal still provides about a third of Germany's electricity. It is difficult to say whether this was an effect of the current market situation or whether this is simply part of long-term planning, says Hein.

Activists storm German mine in anti-coal protest

It is clear, however, that an increased CO2 price has made the ongoing generation of electricity from coal more expensive. Gas-fired power plants also emit CO2, but less than coal-fired power plants. They are also more efficient and that's why gas-fired power plants are not so strongly affected by the CO2 price

The price is determined at a European level and covers power plants and energy intensive industries in Europe. Other areas, such as heating or transport are not covered by the CO2 price scheme. Since a reform of CO2 emissions trading in 2017, the price has risen sharply. Whereas in September 2016 it was just over €5 ($5.6), by the end of June 2019 it had climbed to over €26.

Ups and downs

Gas as a raw material is generally more expensive than coal. But coal-fired power plants are more expensive to build. This is why operators want to run them continuously. In times of high demand, and therefore high prices, gas-fired power plants are generally started up, as seen when European power demand hit records during recent heatwaves, since it is worth it at these times.

Gas-fired power plants can be flexibly ramped up and down. Coal-fired power plants take 11 hours or longer to get going. That's why they can't be switched on quickly for short periods when prices are high, like gas-fired power plants. In the first half of the year, however, coal-fired power plants were also ramped up and down more often because it was not always worthwhile to let the power plant run around the clock.

Because gas prices were particularly low in the first half of 2019, some gas-fired power plants were more profitable than coal-fired plants. On June 29, 2019, the gas price at the Dutch trading point TTF was around €10 per megawatt hour. A year earlier, it had been almost €20. This is partly due to the relatively mild winter, as there is still a lot of gas in reserve, confirmed a spokesman for the Federal Association of the Energy and Water Industries (BDEW). There are also several new export terminals for liquefied natural gas. Additionally, weaker growth and trade wars are slowing demand for gas. A lot of gas comes to Europe, where prices are still comparatively high, reported the Handelsblatt newspaper.

The increase in wind and solar power and the decline in nuclear power have also reduced CO2 emissions. In the first half of 2019, electricity generation emitted around 15% less CO2 than in the same period last year, reported BDEW. However, the association demands that the further expansion of renewable energies should not be hampered. The target of 65% renewable energy can only be achieved if the further expansion of renewable energy sources is accelerated.

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India Solar Slowdown and Coal Surge highlights policy uncertainty, grid stability concerns, financing gaps, and land acquisition issues affecting renewable energy, emissions targets, energy security, storage deployment, and tendering delays across the solar value chain.

Key Points

Analysis of slowed solar growth and rising coal in India, examining policy, grid, finance, and emissions tradeoffs.

✅ Policy uncertainty and tender delays stall solar pipelines

✅ Grid bottlenecks, storage gaps, and curtailment risks persist

✅ Financing strains and DISCOM payment delays dampen investment

India, a global leader in renewable energy adoption where renewables surpassed coal in capacity recently, faces a pivotal moment as the growth of solar power output decelerates while coal generation sees an unexpected surge. This article examines the factors contributing to this shift, its implications for India's energy transition, and the challenges and opportunities it presents.

India's Renewable Energy Ambitions

India has set ambitious targets to expand its renewable energy capacity, including a goal to achieve 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy by 2022, with a significant portion from solar power. Solar energy has been a focal point of India's renewable energy strategy, as documented in on-grid solar development studies, driven by falling costs, technological advancements, and environmental imperatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Factors Contributing to Slowdown in Solar Power Growth

Despite initial momentum, India's solar power growth has encountered several challenges that have contributed to a slowdown. These include policy uncertainties, regulatory hurdles, land acquisition issues, and financial constraints affecting project development and implementation, even as China's solar PV growth surged in recent years. Delays in tendering processes, grid connectivity issues, and payment delays from utilities have also hindered the expansion of solar capacity.

Surge in Coal Generation

Concurrently, India has witnessed an unexpected increase in coal generation in recent years. Coal continues to dominate India's energy mix, accounting for a significant portion of electricity generation due to its reliability, affordability, and existing infrastructure, even as wind and solar surpassed coal in the U.S. in recent periods. The surge in coal generation reflects the challenges in scaling up renewable energy quickly enough to meet growing energy demand and address grid stability concerns.

Implications for India's Energy Transition

The slowdown in solar power growth and the rise in coal generation pose significant implications for India's energy transition and climate goals. While renewable energy remains central to India's long-term energy strategy, and as global renewables top 30% of electricity generation worldwide, the persistence of coal-fired power plants complicates efforts to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change impacts. Balancing economic development, energy security, and environmental sustainability remains a complex challenge for policymakers.

Challenges and Opportunities

Addressing the challenges facing India's solar sector requires concerted efforts to streamline regulatory processes, improve grid infrastructure, and enhance financial mechanisms to attract investment. Encouraging greater private sector participation, promoting technology innovation, and expanding renewable energy storage capacity are essential to overcoming barriers and accelerating solar power deployment, as wind and solar have doubled their global share in recent years, demonstrating the pace possible.

Policy and Regulatory Framework

India's government plays a crucial role in fostering a conducive policy and regulatory framework to support renewable energy growth and phase out coal dependence, particularly as renewable power is set to shatter records worldwide. This includes implementing renewable energy targets, providing incentives for solar and other clean energy technologies, and addressing systemic barriers that hinder renewable energy adoption.

Path Forward

To accelerate India's energy transition and achieve its renewable energy targets, stakeholders must prioritize integrated energy planning, grid modernization, and sustainable development practices. Investing in renewable energy infrastructure, promoting energy efficiency measures, and fostering international collaboration on technology transfer and capacity building are key to unlocking India's renewable energy potential.

Conclusion

India stands at a crossroads in its energy transition journey, balancing the need to expand renewable energy capacity while managing the challenges associated with coal dependence. By addressing regulatory barriers, enhancing grid reliability, and promoting sustainable energy practices, India can navigate towards a more diversified and resilient energy future. Embracing innovation, strengthening policy frameworks, and fostering public-private partnerships will be essential in realizing India's vision of a cleaner, more sustainable energy landscape for generations to come.

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California Heatwave Power Crisis strains CAISO as record demand triggers emergency alerts, demand response, and rolling blackout warnings. PG&E prepares outages while solar fades at peak, drought cuts hydropower, and reliability hinges on conservation.

Key Points

Extreme heat driving record demand in California, straining CAISO and prompting conservation to avert rolling blackouts.

✅ CAISO hit a record 52 GW peak load amid triple-digit heat

✅ Emergency alerts spurred demand response, cutting load spikes

✅ Solar drop and drought-weakened hydro worsened evening shortfall

California narrowly avoided blackouts for a second successive day even as blistering temperatures pushed electricity demand to a record and stretched the state’s power grid close to its limits.

The state imposed its highest level of energy emergency for several hours late Tuesday and urged consumers to turn off lights, curb air conditioners and shut off power-hungry appliances after a day of extraordinary stress on electricity infrastructure as temperatures in many regions topped 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius).

Electricity use had reached 52 gigawatts Tuesday, easily breaking a record that stood since 2006, according to the California Independent System Operator. The state issued emergency alerts direct to cell phones in several counties asking for immediate power conservation, and grid data show that demand plunged in response. Emergency measures were finally lifted at about 9 p.m. local time.

Much of California remains under an excessive heat warning through Friday, with authorities already preparing for more severe pressure on the power system on Wednesday amid a looming supply shortage across the grid. “We aren’t out of the woods yet,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a message posted on his office’s Twitter account. “We will see continued extreme temps this week and if we rallied today, we can do it again.”

The state’s largest power company, PG&E Corp. said earlier Tuesday that it had notified about 525,000 homes and businesses that they could lose power for up to two hours. That warning came as temperatures in downtown Sacramento hit 116 degrees Fahrenheit, topping a previous 1925 record.

Newsom earlier signed an executive order extending until Friday emergency measures to free up additional power supplies, rather than allowing them to expire as planned on Wednesday. Many state buildings were ordered to power down lights and air conditioning at 4 p.m., and he urged residents and businesses to conserve the equivalent of 3 gigawatts of power in order to stave off blackouts. 

California's Early Brush With Blackouts Bodes Ill For Days Ahead
The downtown skyline during a heatwave in Los Angeles.Photographer: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg
California faced a similar energy emergency Monday, which was alleviated in part by activating temporary gas-fired power plants operated by the California Department of Water Resources. The current heat wave, which began in the last week of August, is remarkable in both its ferocity and duration, according to officials. 

The prospect of outages underscores how grids have become vulnerable in the face of extreme weather as California transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy, an approach it is increasingly exporting to Western states as well. California's climate policies have aggressively closed natural-gas power plants in recent years, leaving the state increasingly dependent on solar farms that go dark late in the day just as electricity demand peaks. At the same time, the state is enduring the Southwest’s worst drought in 1,200 years, sapping hydropower production.

The average 15-minute wholesale power price in Caiso surged to $1,806 a megawatt-hour at 4:45 p.m. local time, according to the grid operator’s website.

Average day-ahead prices top $300 a megawatt-hour in Southern California
  
A break from the heat will come across Southern California later this week, thanks to Tropical Storm Kay in the Pacific Ocean, according to weather officials. Kay is forecast to edge up the coastline of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. As it moves north, the storm will pump moisture and clouds into Southern California and Arizona, taking an edge off the heat.

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Electricity Grid Flow Prediction leverages big data, machine learning, and weather analytics to forecast power flows across smart grids, enhancing reliability, reducing blackouts and curtailment, and optimizing renewable integration under EU Horizon 2020 innovation.

Key Points

Short-term forecasting of power flows using big data, weather inputs, and machine learning to stabilize smart grids.

✅ Uses big data, weather, and ML for 6-hour forecasts

✅ Improves reliability, cuts blackouts and energy waste

✅ Supports smart grids, renewables, and grid balancing

Three European prediction specialists have won prizes worth €2 million for developing the most accurate predictions of electricity flow through a grid

The three winners of the Big Data Technologies Horizon Prize received their awards at a ceremony on 12th November in Austria.

The first prize of €1.2 million went to Professor José Vilar from Spain, while Belgians Sofie Verrewaere and Yann-Aël Le Borgne came in joint second place and won €400,000 each.

The challenge was open to individuals groups and organisations from countries taking part in the EU’s research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020.

Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said: “Energy is one of the crucial sectors that are being transformed by the digital grid worldwide.

“This Prize is a good example of how we support a positive transformation through the EU’s research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020.

“For the future, we have designed our next programme, Horizon Europe, to put even more emphasis on the merger of the physical and digital worlds across sectors such as energy, transport and health.”

The challenge for the applicants was to create AI-driven software that could predict the likely flow of electricity through a grid taking into account a number of factors including the weather and the generation source (i.e. wind turbines, solar cells, etc).

Using a large quantity of data from electricity grids, EU smart meters, combined with additional data such as weather conditions, applicants had to develop software that could predict the flow of energy through the grid over a six-hour period.

Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel said: “The wide range of possible applications of these winning submissions could bring tangible benefits to all European citizens, including efforts to tackle climate change with machine learning across sectors.”

The decision to focus on energy grids for this particular prize was driven by a clear market need, including expanding HVDC technology capabilities.

Today’s energy is produced at millions of interconnected and dispersed unpredictable sites such as wind turbines, solar cells, etc., so it is harder to ensure that electricity supply matches the demand at all times.

This complexity means that huge amounts of data are produced at the energy generation sites, in the grid and at the place where the energy is consumed.

Being able to make accurate, short-term predictions about power grid traffic is therefore vital to reduce the risks of blackouts or, by enabling utilities to use AI for energy savings, limit waste of energy.

Reliable predictions can also be used in fields such as biology and healthcare. The predictions can help to diagnose and cure diseases as well as to allocate resources where they are most needed.

Ultimately, the winning ideas are set to be picked up by the energy sector in the hopes of creating smarter electricity infrastructure, more economic and more reliable power grids.

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Eastern U.S. Heatwave Electricity Demand surges to record peak load, straining the power grid, lifting wholesale prices, and prompting demand response, conservation measures, and load shedding to protect grid reliability during extreme temperatures.

Key Points

It is the record peak load from extreme heat, straining grids, lifting wholesale prices, and prompting demand response.

✅ Peak electricity use stresses regional power grid.

✅ Prices surge; conservation and demand response urged.

✅ Utilities monitor load, avoid outages via load shedding.

As temperatures soar to unprecedented highs across the Eastern United States, a blistering heatwave has triggered record-breaking electricity demand. This article delves into the causes behind the surge in energy consumption, its impact on the power grid, and measures taken to manage the strain during this extraordinary weather event.

Intensifying Heatwave Conditions

The Eastern U.S. is currently experiencing one of its hottest summers on record, with temperatures climbing well above seasonal norms. This prolonged heatwave has prompted millions of residents to rely heavily on air conditioning and cooling systems to escape the sweltering heat, with electricity struggles worsening in several communities, driving up electricity usage to peak levels.

Strain on Power Grid Infrastructure

The surge in electricity demand during the heatwave has placed significant strain on the region's power grid infrastructure, with supply-chain constraints complicating maintenance and equipment availability during peak periods.

Record-breaking Energy Consumption

The combination of high temperatures and increased cooling demands has led to record-breaking energy consumption levels across the Eastern U.S. States like New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland have reported peak electricity demand exceeding previous summer highs, with blackout risks drawing heightened attention from operators, highlighting the extraordinary nature of this heatwave event.

Impact on Energy Costs and Supply

The spike in electricity demand during the heatwave has also affected energy costs and supply dynamics. Wholesale electricity prices have surged in response to heightened demand, contributing to sky-high energy bills for many households, reflecting the market's response to supply constraints and increased operational costs for power generators and distributors.

Management Strategies and Response

Utility companies and grid operators have implemented various strategies to manage electricity demand and maintain grid reliability during the heatwave. These include voluntary conservation requests, load-shedding measures, and real-time monitoring of grid conditions to prevent power outages while avoiding potential blackouts or disruptions.

Community Outreach and Public Awareness

Amidst the heatwave, community outreach efforts play a crucial role in raising public awareness about energy conservation and safety measures. Residents are encouraged to conserve energy during peak hours, adjust thermostat settings, and utilize energy-efficient appliances to alleviate strain on the power grid and reduce overall energy costs.

Climate Change and Resilience

The intensity and frequency of heatwaves are exacerbated by climate change, underscoring the importance of building resilience in energy infrastructure and adopting sustainable practices. Investing in renewable energy sources, improving energy efficiency and demand response programs that can reduce peak demand, and implementing climate adaptation strategies are essential steps towards mitigating the impacts of extreme weather events like heatwaves.

Looking Ahead

As the Eastern U.S. navigates through this heatwave, stakeholders are focused on implementing lessons learned from California's grid response to enhance preparedness and resilience for future climate-related challenges. Collaborative efforts between government agencies, utility providers, and communities will be crucial in developing comprehensive strategies to manage energy demand, promote sustainability, and safeguard public health and well-being during extreme weather events.

Conclusion

The current heatwave in the Eastern United States has underscored the critical importance of reliable and resilient energy infrastructure in meeting the challenges posed by extreme weather conditions. By prioritizing energy efficiency, adopting sustainable energy practices, and fostering community resilience, stakeholders can work together to mitigate the impacts of heatwaves and ensure a sustainable energy future for generations to come.

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Vehicle-to-Grid Revenue helps EV owners earn income via V2G, demand response, and ancillary services by exporting stored energy, supporting grid balancing, smart charging, and renewable integration with two-way charging infrastructure.

Key Points

Income EV owners earn by selling battery power to the grid for balancing, response, and flexibility services.

✅ Earn up to about $1,530 annually in Denmark trials

✅ Requires V2G-compatible EVs and two-way smart chargers

✅ Provides ancillary services and supports renewable integration

Electric car owners are earning as much as $1,530 a year just by parking their vehicle and feeding excess power back into the grid, effectively selling electricity back to the grid under V2G schemes.

Trials in Denmark carried out by Nissan and Italy’s biggest utility Enel Spa showed how batteries inside electric cars could, using vehicle-to-grid technology, help balance supply and demand at times and provide a new revenue stream for those who own the vehicles.

Technology linking vehicles to the grid marks another challenge for utilities already struggling to integrate wind and solar power into their distribution system. As the use of plug-in cars spreads, grid managers will have to pay closer attention and, with proper management, to when motorists draw from the system and when they can smooth variable flows.

For example, California's grid stability efforts include leveraging EVs as programs expand.

“If you blindingly deploy in the market a massive number of electric cars without any visibility or control over the way they impact the electricity grid, you might create new problems,” said Francisco Carranza, director of energy services at Nissan Europe in an interview with Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

While the Tokyo-based automaker has trials with more than 100 cars across Europe, only those in Denmark are able to earn money by feeding power back into the grid. There, fleet operators collected about 1,300 euros ($1,530) a year using the two-way charge points, said Carranza.

Restrictions on accessing the market in the U.K. means the company needs to reach about 150 cars before they can get paid for power sent back to the grid. That could be achieved by the end of this year, he said.

“It’s feasible,” he said. “It’s just a matter of finding the appropriate business model to deploy the business wide-scale.’’

Electric car demand globally is expected to soar, challenging state power grids and putting further pressure on grid operators to find new ways of balancing demand. Power consumption from vehicles will grow to 1,800 terawatt-hours in 2040 from just 6 terawatt-hours now, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

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