I will have to drop a couple of questions to my uncle, an engineer, who manages a couple of hydro power plants on this issue which is highly interesting. (Water being a hot topic as a source of potential kinetic energy storage). I personally understand all too little about the issue. It seems to me that an old and quite proven interplay of entities is heavily unbalanced by the influx of this renewable energy revolution. Adaption is necessary to overcome this, but how to do it and who pays for it?Originally Posted by Surferbeetle
Of course, and needless to say E.on is also one of the players and suffered heavily by the Merkel switch which was partly an expropriation for the owner of it's stock which saw their value go down a great deal. (I invested quite recently in E.On IIRC I also wrote so in this thread) So we have to take everything they say with a pinch of salt. Still the basic problem is, I guess, quite clear: The demand does often not match the (forced) supply.
With wind and solar energy the supply side does get of course determined by exogenous variables which can partly be planned for but not positively influenced. A better interBund infrastructure could spread the shocks better, but much more so a European one. As usual the solution will best come at many levels. For example energy-intensive industries might be attracted by a plain lower price to consume more on sunny and windy hours. This will mean some head-scratching and some € invested but may give a good return on it. Or for example boilers might get increasingly get switched on during the day.
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