Alternative headline: The Folly of Deemed Generation CfDs.
There’s also reputational risk arising from negative publicity around wind/solar farms getting taxpayer money no matter how well (or how much) they perform. The right-leaning British press would have a field day with that.
Why is there no negative publicity with capacity payments for other flexible sources? They are also paid not to produce, and produce sometimes very little over the year - but we need them.
This just tells you more about the British press than about the energy system...
1. You write about zonal pricing, but what about nodal pricing? It seems to work great in the US. Do you think it would be a good or a bad option in Europe?
2. Do you think a European country can switch to nodal pricing on its own, or would it need some kind of permission from Brussels?
3. What about expanding pumped hydro, or increasing the capacity of existing hydro plants (without increasing their annual electricity generation), thus making them able to operate more flexibly?
Alternative headline: The Folly of Deemed Generation CfDs.
There’s also reputational risk arising from negative publicity around wind/solar farms getting taxpayer money no matter how well (or how much) they perform. The right-leaning British press would have a field day with that.
Why is there no negative publicity with capacity payments for other flexible sources? They are also paid not to produce, and produce sometimes very little over the year - but we need them.
This just tells you more about the British press than about the energy system...
Very interesting. Some questions:
1. You write about zonal pricing, but what about nodal pricing? It seems to work great in the US. Do you think it would be a good or a bad option in Europe?
2. Do you think a European country can switch to nodal pricing on its own, or would it need some kind of permission from Brussels?
3. What about expanding pumped hydro, or increasing the capacity of existing hydro plants (without increasing their annual electricity generation), thus making them able to operate more flexibly?
1 - for the purpose of this article, zonal and nodal are the same - ie more localized pricing linked to grid conditions
2 - it already exists in some countries so it is definitely possible
3 - not my area of expertise, but I'm pretty sure the operators of these plants must see the value of what you are suggesting already...
I don't think there are any countries with nodal pricing in the entire EU, unfortunately.
We need incentives and regulations favouring batteries in the right places, not curb renewables with zonal pricing
Well to a large extent the incentives are the same. Anything that encourages storage will also help build more renewables in that area.