[ExI] Energy markets

[Eugen Leitl]

On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 05:25:02PM +0200, Alfio Puglisi wrote:

> Quote:
> "...The wholesale market as it was designed 20 years ago (de facto based on
> gas-fired plants of various efficiency targeted at different points of the
> merit order curve setting up the marginal price) is irreversibly broken.
> The system is now dominated by plants with very low marginal cost of
> production (but high upfront investment), which means that spot prices are
> systematically too low for everybody - you can't invest in plants with high
> upfront investments (like nukes), and you can't invest in plants with high
> marginal running costs (gas-fired plants) unless you are betting on
> persistently low gas prices into the future."

Yes. We need a ban on new coal and subsidies for natural gas peak
plants, which are not cost effective due to low duty factor. Also,
no more favoring off-shore wind for onshore.