Renewables Helped France Avoid Freezing in the Dark

Paul Gipe, Contributor
February 10, 2012 | 8 Comments

In a startling development widely reported across Europe in the English-, French-, and German-language press, France imported electricity to meet peak demand during a brutal cold snap February 7, 2012. And one of the countries France imported electricity from was Germany.

Post Fukushima, Germany closed two-fifths of its nuclear reactors and there were fears that Germany would not be able to meet its own demand let alone export electricity.

Nuclear reactors provided one-fourth of Germany's electricity before Fukushima.

Available French nuclear capacity was operating flat-out with three reactors off line. However, France's famed nuclear fleet delivered only 60 percent of the 100,000 MW of peak load experienced at 7:00 p.m. (19:00 hours) as millions of French homeowners switched on their electric heaters.

The remainder of demand was met by oil, coal, hydro, imports from neighboring countries, and renewables.

French wind turbines produced 3,600 MW at the time, or 3.6% of demand. There is 6,600 MW of wind capacity installed in France. Thus, wind delivered 55% of its installed capacity during peak demand, indicating good but not exceptional wind in parts of France.

The amount of wind generation during peak demand was roughly equivalent to the three nuclear reactors that were not available at the time.

France imported 1,800 MW or 1.8 percent of peak demand from Germany. (Note that the following table is subject to change as more information becomes available.)

Both French and German grid operators noted that there was never any danger of a blackout as operators held some hydroelectric capacity on standby as an emergency reserve.

German Supply during French Peak Demand

Meanwhile, Germany was enduring the same Arctic weather as France. The sun had set so Germany's solar photovoltaic capacity was not contributing to supply.

Winds were lighter in Germany than in France, but Germany's fleet of 29,000 MW of wind turbines was generating 6,300 MW at the time for about 22 percent of their potential.

Nevertheless, German wind turbines were providing 9 percent of total German demand, more than enough for Germany to export electricity to France.

Earlier in the day, wind and solar in Germany met nearly 12 percent of German demand.

It is likely that German biogas and biomass plants also contributed significantly to supply. However, the public data source, EEX Transparency Platform, does not report biogas and biomass separately from conventional generation.

8 Comments

Louis Shaffer
March 2, 2012

Why are we fighting about this? This article shows yet another example of the fact that multiple sources of energy are a good thing. Growing Renewable energies is important and will help the overall supply. The more types (Sun, wind, hydro, bio), the better, because it balances out the peaks. We are in the early days still of renewables and the costs keep coming down. Let's keep it going.

Also, Nuclear checks all the boxes on base power and polution -but we simply can't ignore the inherent safety risks and issue of spent fuel. This stuff lasts thousands of years, and our only solution so far is to bury it in the ground!

ANONYMOUS
February 15, 2012

Steven,
A realistic conversation regarding the true cost of nuclear vs renewably generated electricity is incomplete without factoring in the cost of cleaning up major disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima, decommissioning and long term disposal costs of nuclear reactors and waste, and military interventions required in countries like Iran, who use the pretext of generating electricity to disguise the goal of building nuclear bombs, causing regional instability and the possibility of all out war between neighboring countries (Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, etc.)

For example, from Wikipedia:
"In March 2011, Japanese officials announced that "radioactive iodine-131 exceeding safety limits for infants had been detected at 18 water-purification plants in Tokyo and five other prefectures".[335] As of July 2011, the Japanese government has been unable to control the spread of radioactive material into the nation's food. Radioactive material has been detected in a range of produce, including spinach, tea leaves, milk, fish and beef, up to 200 miles from the nuclear plant. Inside the 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant, all farming has been abandoned.[336][337]"

You can't put a dollar value on a disaster of this magnitude because there is no possibility of ever cleaning up the mess. Only natural radioactive decay over time will make this area safe for human habitation.

Any one of these concerns makes renewables, at 2 or 3 times the cost of "conventional" fuels, look reasonable. I haven't even mentioned other myriad concerns posed by nuclear power, such as preventing terrorists from making "dirty" bombs, or the possibility of stranded costs incurred when building a new nuclear power plant - such as occurred at Shoreham in NY (2 billion in the 1970's,) at Morong in the Philippines, among other places.

ANONYMOUS
February 13, 2012

Dimitar:
1) It is clearly relevant to the topic of the article to know whether or not Germany was importing electricity from some third country at the time it was exporting to France.
2) While it may be better to import on the spot market than go with expensive peaking power sources, when averaged over a year it is clearly better to be a net exporter than a net importer. Probably France was importing on the day in question above rather than using expensive peaking power.
3) Quantity matters. Germany plans to dramatically reduce its generation capacity by eliminating cheap con-CO2 producing generation from nuclear power. That is going to affect prices and grid stability on a continent-wide basis. The decision is good news for sellers of coal but bad news for ratepayers and the environment.

As for the claim that solar PV reduces electricity prices, it should be clearly stated that this study only shows a reduction in spot prices due to solar generation overlapping well with peaking energy needs at current production levels. Energy purchased on the spot market has only a modest contribution to overall costs. Overall, solar PV raises electricity prices because the rates paid for it are much higher than other generation sources. In particular, the FIT costs fall heavily on residential users adding nearly $0.048/kWh to the cost of electricity. The FIT charge is expected to increase sharply in the next few years leading to calls to slow the expansion of solar PV. German electricity prices are among the highest in the world and triple those in the US. The FIT policies are a large contributor to that unfortunate situation.
Steven

Dimitar Mirchev
February 13, 2012

Steven

It's not all about quantity. Germany may import energy because it is cheaper than making it domestically.

Also:

Solar PV Reducing Price of Electricity in Germany

a recent study by Germany's Institute for Future Energy Systems (IZES), conducted on behalf of of the German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar), has found that, on average, solar power has reduced the price of electricity 10% in Germany (on the EPEX exchange). It reduces prices up to 40% in the early afternoon, when electricity demand is peaking and electricity typically costs the most.

http://cleantechnica.com/2012/02/09/solar-pv-reducing-price-of-electricity-in-germany/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29

Anumakonda Jagadeesh
February 11, 2012

France can harness Renewables in a big way to supplement its energy needs which otherwise are mostly met through Nuclear.
Already France has major plans in harnessing Offshore Wind Power.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
E-mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com

ANONYMOUS
February 11, 2012

@Karl:
It seems to me you have to have a transmission route to the point you export to and this may have limited some export to Germany at that time. Furthermore, full import/export statistics are relevant to get a full picture of the market--a snapshot often gives a very distorted picture. Before Germany abruptly shut down all those nuclear power plants it was a significant net exporter of electricity. In the data through Nov. 2011:
http://www.iea.org/stats/surveys/mes.pdf
German electricity imports are up 17% over last year and exports are down 7% leaving imports and exports nearly balanced. If we exclude the first 3 months of 2011, when the nuclear reactors were still on line, the data would probably already show Germany to be a net importer. France remains a major exporter of electricity with exports exceeding imports by a factor of 5.5 in the first 11 months of 2011. Clearly their generation mix is working well for them and is producing much less CO2 than Germany, which relies mainly on highly polluting coal.

If you spent less time trying to pigeonhole and insult people you might have some spare time to think clearly about the stability of the electricity markets. The planned sharp reduction in nuclear generation isn't going to be able to be offset by increased renewables if the remaining plants close on schedule so German ratepayers are going to have to pay high spot market prices for much of their energy needs in addition to the ever rising EEG payments. We are going to see lots of cold windless nights when Germany will have to scramble to meet demand.
Steven

Karl-Friedrich Lenz
February 11, 2012

@Steven

The relevance and value of this particular snapshot comes from the fact that it is a standard anti-renewable propaganda talking point to concern troll about the stability of German electricity supply on a cold winter evening, all the while pointing out that the sun doesn't shine at night and less in winter. If you are pro-nuclear as well as anti-renewable, that is usually followed up with a reference to the "safe and reliable baseload supply in France".

Of course no one would have exported electricity from France to Germany at the time. Spot prices were much higher in France.

ANONYMOUS
February 11, 2012

The author writes: "Post Fukushima, Germany closed two-fifths of its nuclear reactors and there were fears that Germany would not be able to meet its own demand let alone export electricity.

Nuclear reactors provided one-fourth of Germany's electricity before Fukushima."

In the year before the plant closures nuclear power provided 23% of generation and in the year after it provided 18% of generation. Germany may have closed 40% of its nuclear reactors, but nuclear generation was only down ~22% in 2012.

The article gives an incomplete picture because it does not mention German imports at all. Conceivably Germany was importing electricity at the same time it was exporting it--on a continent wide grid that isn't inconceivable. Furthermore, a 1-day snapshot is not fully reflective of the import/export situation. Germany HAS been importing electricity following the closure of its nuclear reactors during times when it used to be an exporter. Here is one anecdotal report:
http://www.nucleartownhall.com/blog/after-shutting-down-reactors-germany-imports-nuclear-electricity-from-neighbors/
This report in April 2011 pegs German imports at 12 percent of demand and coming mostly from France and the Czech Republic.

Imports and exports between Germany and France are nothing new. This article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-30/areva-s-lauvergeon-says-germany-will-import-nuclear-power.html
claims in 2010 electricity exports from Germany to France totaled 16.1 TWh and imports from France to Germany totaled 9.4 TWh. It would be interesting to see what the 2011 import/export data was....

If Germany phases out all of its nuclear power on the stated schedule it is hard to see how it does not become a major net importer of electricity. The anecdotal data in the article above should not lead one to believe otherwise.
Steven

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Paul Gipe

Paul Gipe has written extensively about renewable energy for both the popular and trade press. He has also lectured widely on wind energy and how to minimize its impact on the environment and the communities of which it is a part. For his...