What happens when supply runs tight?
When the Grid Is Tested
A renewable grid's hardest hours: the windless, sunless spells it must plan for, the batteries that ride the gap, and whether there is enough capacity behind them when the gap runs long.
Ask about this section
- How does the grid keep the lights on when wind and solar both stop?
- If enough batteries get built, do they close the price gap they earn from?
- What counts as a commercial battery here, and why does the map stop at the district?
Dunkelflaute measured
The cold, dark, windless spells when wind and solar all but stop and the price climbs. Inside the view: How often, how long · What fills the gap.
What is a Dunkelflaute, and how long does one usually last? →Method: The Dunkelflaute spell detector.
Storage measured
The batteries that earn from the daily price swing, charging at cheap midday and selling into the evening peak. Inside the view: Where storage is being built in Germany.
How does a grid battery make money out of the daily price swing? →Method: The canonical hourly grid, The daily spread (TB1 and TB2), The perfect-foresight arbitrage bound, The battery fleet from the register.
Commercial Battery Storage Map view measured
Where Germany's commercial-size batteries sit, district by district: the power, the usable energy and the count behind each one, in a size class the site states. Inside the view: When they went live.
Where in Germany are the commercial-size batteries, and how much power do they add up to? →Commercial is a size class the site applies by usable capacity, with its bounds stated on the page; the register records no such label. The map stops at the district because the register withholds coordinates for small units, and the newest months are understated while late registrations arrive. Method: The commercial battery class by district.
Capacity and Adequacy target
Whether the plants that run on demand can cover the worst hours, and what the policy to make sure of it costs. Inside the view: When renewables can't cover demand.
Is there enough firm capacity to get through the worst hours of the year? →Forecast Error measured
How far the grid operators' day-ahead forecast of wind and solar output missed what was generated, across Germany and in each grid area. Inside the view: Month by month · Year by year since 2015.
Method: Day-ahead forecast error.