GermanyThe push for green electricity is being criticized for rising energy costs – as the world’s energy sector struggles to cope with rising costs. Wind fieldsexperts have warned.
Germany has become one of the world’s leading wind power generators, installing thousands of wind turbines and nearly doubling its electricity production within a decade.
However, the lack of grid capacity is preventing power from reaching those who need it and raising the cost of electricity for everyone.
And now, energy analysts say the same could happen in the UK later Ed Miliband has been accused of being “obsessed” with extra powers.
About three-quarters of Germany’s wind power projects are offshore in the north while its most energy-intensive industries are clustered in the south – meaning electricity has to flow across the country.
When these green networks produce more energy than the traditional grid can handle, utilities often have to pay producers to reduce emissions.
Worrying, like Work plans to quadruple offshore wind capacity by 2030, experts warn the UK sector could face similar challenges.
Jan Rosenow, energy markets expert at the Regulatory Assistance Project told The Telegraph: ‘The UK’s clean energy targets are very aggressive, and my concern is that if we don’t get things right, we risk the same issues.’
Experts warn that the impact of electricity in Germany could lead to a rise in energy costs because the country’s grid is unable to keep up with the increase in new energy. Photo: A wind farm near the German island of Heligoland
Germany was one of the first countries in Europe to use wind energy, but in recent years it has also been trying to expand this green business.
This has become more difficult after the outbreak of war in Ukraine has highlighted the country’s reliance on power transfers from Russia.
Since 2014, Germany has added enough wind turbines to increase its output from 38.6 gigawatts in 2014 to just under 70 gigawatts today.
As of November this year, Germany has already added another 2.3 gigawatts on top of the 3 gigawatts in 2023.
Likewise, in the first nine months of 2024, wind and solar power will be powered by fossil fuels.
Although this is an important part of the Government’s desire to phase out coal by 2030, it has left electricity with an imbalance that could cause problems.
Most of Germany’s electricity generation comes from offshore projects in the North Sea and a few in the Baltic Sea.
However, most of the power plants and power plants are located in the southern regions of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.
Although Germany has increased its wind capacity, most of these turbines are located in the north. This causes bottlenecks in the power grid because the pylons cannot transmit enough power. When this happens, grid operators must pay generators to produce less electricity. Photo: Electric lamps in Schoenwalde, Germany
This means that when steel mills in the south have to buy electricity, they have to be hauled long distances along the so-called ‘super highways’.
At times when the wind is blowing strongly and the wind farms are approaching their maximum output, the grid does not have the capacity to convert large amounts of energy over such a long distance.
This creates bottlenecks in high-speed vehicles that prevent power from getting to where it’s needed.
According to grid operator TenneT, the grid shutdown caused the North Sea wind fleet to produce less energy in 2023 compared to last year.
Despite increasing capacity, output fell by 9% year-on-year because production must be reduced if there is no capacity to send electricity into the grid.
This is especially difficult when companies in the south have an agreement to buy additional energy from a wind farm in the north.
In such cases, the grid operator must step in and pay power companies to reduce their production while they fire up another power source, usually coal or natural gas, closer to where the power is needed.
So-called ‘transmission costs’ are expected to reach €3.5 billion (£2.9 billion) in 2023 according to Ampion, Germany’s largest grid operator.
This chart shows how much electricity was mixed in the UK last week. On December 15, wind power set a new record by providing more than 70 percent of the country’s electricity.
This is down from €4.2 billion (£3.5 billion) in 2022 when gas problems led to higher electricity prices, but on top of the bill from 2021 and 2022 which was €2.3 billion (£1.7 billion) and €1.4 billion (£1.2 billion) respectively.
Likewise, as the growth of wind power outpaces investment in the grid, the amount of energy being wasted continues to grow.
According to Germany’s Federal Network Agency, grid stabilization measures resulted in a loss of about 19 terawatts of capacity in 2023, up from 14 terawatts in 2022.
This is equivalent to about 4 percent of the country’s total electricity generation.
Germany’s energy crisis has now sparked concerns that the UK could face similar challenges to Ed Miliband’s proposed green energy reforms.
Like Germany, much of the UK’s production is concentrated in offshore wind farms in the north of the country.
This year, the UK exceeded 30 gigawatts of wind power when the Viking Wind Farm on the Shetland Islands was fully activated.
However, this huge growth in the amount of clean electricity will not lead to lower bills if transmission costs continue to rise due to grid problems.
In 2024 alone, the UK has already spent £1bn ‘in vain’ temporarily shutting down wind farms as the sector struggles to operate.
But even as Britain prepares to increase grid connections between the North and the South (pictured), experts warn that the lack of energy could lead to problems similar to those in Germany. These costs can be passed on to the customer, resulting in a higher cost for both
The amount of energy “decreased” hit 6.6 terawatt hours in the first 11 months of the year, compared to 3.8 terawatt hours in the whole year of 2023.
According to the National Energy System Operator, these costs are expected to hit $6bn by 2030 if nothing is done to improve the energy of the group.
Andreas Jahn, an electrician at the Regulatory Assistance Project, says the decline is linked to a lack of cooperation between the four different grid operators, including local opposition to the construction of new pylons.
These problems are exacerbated by the ‘feed in’ from rooftop solar panels which do not face any additional penalty to the existing grid.
If this continues, it could mean that energy providers are able to pass on rising costs to consumers resulting in all paying more.
