Green Energy

• Grid and balancing costs are not in this model — and they matter. This analysis measures wholesale market prices only. The full consumer cost of the renewable transition includes network reinforcement, redispatch costs, and balancing reserves that rise as variable generation increases. Germany’s redispatch costs have climbed sharply since 2020. A future piece will attempt to put a number on whether the wholesale savings outweigh the system cost increases — the net welfare case for the energy transition hinges on this.

This is an important point that does not transpire in the title. But the article is great nonetheless.