October 3 was windy and sunny and a holiday in Germany. At noon wind and solar generated power provided 59.1 % of German demand. (Apparently Germany hit peaks of 61 % and 59 % wind +solar earlier this year.) Solar and wind provided 36.4 % of the total electricity generated over the entire 24 hour period Oct 3. Conventional power plants had to reduce their generation by 23 gigawatts at noon because of low overall demand and the large amount of power being generated by solar and wind sources.
Low demand from large conventional power plants drove the electricity price index covering Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland to a low of 2.75 cents per kilowatt-hour at 2:00 p.m.
Transition to renewable energy popular
After the last elections research institute TNS Emnid surveyed over 1,000 people about the Energiewende or transition away from nuclear to renewables.
An overwhelming majority of about 84 percent of respondents said they expect the newly elected government to switch to an energy system powered 100 % by renewable sources of energy. 75% said that citizen-managed, decentralized renewable energy should be prioritized.
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