Re: Guzzling?
If that doesn't prove that renewables can provide for a non-trivial amount of a nation's needs, I don't know what can.
The problem that still needs to be solved with renewables is providing sufficient power all the time. I'm a big fan of renewables but, as your example shows, we're moving into the problems associated with over-production. Negative market prices indicate that the market is failing. This is typically on sunny and windy days in spring and summer, because renewables producers are paid for every kwH the produce. But the grid has to be built to provide enough power also on cold, dark and still winter days.
We need storage options that are both big and resistant to manipulation so that excess generating power isn't wasted. You can, of course, use excess power to convert CO2 and H20 to methane and other hydrocarbons but you can't do it for less than the current cost of extracting them from the ground so they wouldn't be competitive unless you were able to sell them without duty. That would be an invitation to abuse. But we already have plenty of those: one of the reasons that electric cars are so cheap to run is that they're produced from duty-free fuel. The renewable gravy train has also opened a lucrative but ludicrous subsidy for oil because the fertiliser for subsidised maize that gets turned into E10 is itself made from oil…
Biting the hand that feeds IT
