When power costs less than nothing

Sometimes there's so much wind and solar, and so little demand to soak it up, that the wholesale price falls below zero — producers pay to keep generating. Wattlas treats this as a first-class metric: how many hours a year, when they cluster, and how long each spell lasts.

A year of negative hours

hours per day, last 12 months

Each cell is one day across the whole period; the colour shows how many hours cleared below zero (pale = none). Negative days cluster in sunny, windy stretches.

Negative hours/day

Counted on the canonical hourly grid (not 15-minute settlement periods), grouped by Europe/Berlin local calendar day, so day length varies across DST. Prices real (ENTSO-E).

How long do they last?

episode duration

A short dip is easy to ride through; a long one is what hurts. As midday solar grows, the negative spells stretch from an odd hour into long, continuous runs.

An episode = a run of consecutive negative hours within the canonical hourly series, grouped in Europe/Berlin local time. Prices real (ENTSO-E).

Which months go negative

negative hours per month

Negative prices are largely a spring-and-summer story: long days, strong sun, mild demand. Dark winter months barely register.

Counted on the canonical hourly grid (not 15-minute periods), grouped by Europe/Berlin local month. Prices real (ENTSO-E).

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