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.
Over the 12 months to 8 August 2026, German day-ahead electricity prices (the DE-LU zone) fell below zero in 542 hours — hours when the grid effectively paid you to consume, because there was more wind and solar than demand could absorb.
The trend is steep: 139 such hours in 2021, rising to 576 in 2025, a figure that reconciles with the German regulator BNetzA's own count for the year.
The longest unbroken run below zero in the rolling window lasted 20 hours.
Questions
How many hours of negative electricity prices did Germany have?
In calendar 2025, German day-ahead prices were below zero for 576 hours, a count that reconciles with the federal regulator BNetzA. Over the rolling 12 months to 8 August 2026 the figure was 542 hours.
What are negative electricity prices?
Hours when the wholesale day-ahead price falls below zero. There is more wind and solar than demand can absorb, so producers effectively pay to keep generating.
Negative hours have climbed as wind and solar have grown. Each bar is a full calendar year; the current year is shown to date (YTD) and isn't comparable to a finished one. Use the selector below to zoom the day-by-day calendar into any year.
Each cell is one day; the colour shows how many hours cleared below zero (pale = none). Negative days cluster in sunny, windy stretches.
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.
Negative prices are largely a spring-and-summer story: long days, strong sun, mild demand. Dark winter months barely register.