Berlin – Offering a combination of solar and wind energies in an energy market across Europe would minimize the risk of power outages, the German weather service (DWD) said on Tuesday.
“On average, the sun and wind are complementary sources,” DWD Vice President Paul Becker said.
The risk of having to deal with power shortages is the most prominent argument against a quick move away from fossil fuels as a main power source in Germany.
There are times when neither energy source produces sufficient power in the country, prompting the weather service to point to the necessity of reserve power stations and a “large-scale power exchange” in the development of sustainable energy.
The German weather service collected data to analyse how many times over the course of 48 hours the average energy production levels from wind and solar energies fell under ten per cent of the nominal output.
The evaluation of the data collected by experts showed that, on average, when combining the use of wind and solar energies, power outages would only happen in Germany twice a year. This average would decrease further – down to 0.2 times a year – if an internal European energy market were implemented.
