As coal-fired and nuclear power plants go dark, Germany needs to find ways to balance the grid when weather-dependent renewables cannot get the job done. German and European experts are considering three options. The most promising is the rapid rollout of renewables combined with demand management, diversified storage, and regional smart grids. In 2020, Germany’s clean energy sources—wind farms and solar arrays as well as hydroelectric and biogas plants—ratcheted their coverage of power consumption up to 46 percent, nearly equaling that of coal, gas, oil, and nuclear power combined. With so much renewable energy in the system, the conventional energy sector has long warned about energy blackouts in ominous tones. But thus far, in highly industrialized Germany, there’s been no countrywide blackout for years, and last year, the average German experienced just 12 minutes of outage: the lowest in Europe and infinitesimal compared the U.S. citizen’s 2019 average of 4.7 hours. The Germans’ feat was possible, however, only because the country has mostly just added clean energy capacity to the existing supply over the last … Continue reading Germany’s high-risk clean-energy balancing act