Germany's Wind Turbines Could Cause Blackouts this Winter

Germany has installed too many wind turbines without the necessary infrastructure to support them. This means that on windy days the German electrical grid cannot cope with the increased power being produced at the wind farms, and as an effort to avoid a collapse they send the excess power to Poland and the Czech Republic.

The problem is that their power grids cannot cope either, and in a move of self-preservation they are considering disengaging the connectors between their grids during windy days, which will only compound Germany’s problem even further.

Renewable energy is causing similar problems around the world due to the fact that, unlike oil, any excess production cannot be stored; it must be consumed or there is risk that it will cause a grid collapse. Sometimes utilities have even been known to pay consumers to use the power.

Commenting on the Czech decision to install security breakers near the border with Germany in order to disconnect from the troublesome grid and avoid potential overloads, Pavel Solc, the Czech deputy minister of industry and trade, told Bloomberg that “Germany is aware of the problem, but there is not enough political will to solve the problem because it’s very costly. So we’re forced to make one-sided defensive steps to prevent accidents and destruction.”

Germany’s electrical grid threatened collapse in February when a period of high winds created a huge glut of power, during that period the Czech Republic and Poland warned that they would disconnect their grids unless a solution was sorted. The coming winter, when high winds are expected, could be critical.

By. James Burgess of Oilprice.com