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I thought Germany is buying a lot of energy from its neighbors to offset lack of storage, most of it dirty from what I remember. There were some numbers saying

I thought Germany is buying a lot of energy from its neighbors to offset lack of storage, most of it dirty from what I remember. There were some numbers saying that by closing their nuclear plants they're actually doing quite a bit of harm if you see things at a larger scale. Anyways, things may or may not work if other countries go into renewables. They may have different spike times - but I kinda doubt it. Most Europe wakes up and plugs its kettles at about the same time. And it's small enough that being windy or cloudy will happen in most of it, at least some of the time.

iso1631 5y ago
Looks like Germany is a net exporter of electricity, and that has been increasing for some time https://www.renewable-ei.org/en/activities/column/20180302.html https://www.renewable-ei.org/en/activities/column/20180302.h... https://knoema.com/atlas/Germany/topics/Energy/Electricity/Electricity-exports https://knoema.com/atlas/Germany/topics/Energy/Electricity/E...
- flavius29663 5y ago
  If I put solar panels on my home, say I have an oversized system: produces 10kW on average when I only use 8kW on average. It would appear as I am a net energy exporter to the grid. This alone doesn't tell the story that I use the grid as a big battery which I can use when there is no sun.
SiempreViernes 5y ago
Germany buys power occasionally but is a net exporter. Main import country is France which is mainly nuclear, maybe you heard someone quote partial results for this year where most have been from the Netherlands that mainly burn various sorts of fossil fuels? In any case it seems like an unreliable source. Example of German power imports: https://energy-charts.info/charts/power_trading/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE&stacking=grouped&dataBase=trade_imp_twh&year=2020 https://energy-charts.info/charts/power_trading/chart.htm?l=...
_ph_ 5y ago
Like with car traffic, Germany is a transit country for energy. While Germany is importing a lot of French nucler power, most of the time, it is exporting to other countries at the same time. This might exaggerate now much French electricity Germany gets. And while they might be in the same time zone, there is already about an hour of solar distance between the center of Germany and France and more if you look further eastwards. This smears out the power peaks at least. Definitely, there is about 1 day of time differential between Germany and France when you look at moving weather systems. If I (in Munich) want to know about the weather development, it is often a good guess just to ask a friend in Paris.

iso1631 5y ago

Looks like Germany is a net exporter of electricity, and that has been increasing for some time https://www.renewable-ei.org/en/activities/column/20180302.html https://www.renewable-ei.org/en/activities/column/20180302.h... https://knoema.com/atlas/Germany/topics/Energy/Electricity/Electricity-exports https://knoema.com/atlas/Germany/topics/Energy/Electricity/E...

flavius29663 5y ago
If I put solar panels on my home, say I have an oversized system: produces 10kW on average when I only use 8kW on average. It would appear as I am a net energy exporter to the grid. This alone doesn't tell the story that I use the grid as a big battery which I can use when there is no sun.

SiempreViernes 5y ago

Germany buys power occasionally but is a net exporter. Main import country is France which is mainly nuclear, maybe you heard someone quote partial results for this year where most have been from the Netherlands that mainly burn various sorts of fossil fuels? In any case it seems like an unreliable source. Example of German power imports: https://energy-charts.info/charts/power_trading/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE&stacking=grouped&dataBase=trade_imp_twh&year=2020 https://energy-charts.info/charts/power_trading/chart.htm?l=...

_ph_ 5y ago

Like with car traffic, Germany is a transit country for energy. While Germany is importing a lot of French nucler power, most of the time, it is exporting to other countries at the same time. This might exaggerate now much French electricity Germany gets. And while they might be in the same time zone, there is already about an hour of solar distance between the center of Germany and France and more if you look further eastwards. This smears out the power peaks at least. Definitely, there is about 1 day of time differential between Germany and France when you look at moving weather systems. If I (in Munich) want to know about the weather development, it is often a good guess just to ask a friend in Paris.