Green Energy

Ok, lots to unpack in this video, but the primary issue is that it is highly US centric and doesn't apply very well to other large electricity markets like the EU.

Here in the EU there is already a very high percentage of renewable electricity generation, often exceeding 70% of the total.

But we have hit a wall not because of too much competition or low profitability, but the exact opposite.

In the EU the power generation is primarily owned by a few large companies, basically an oligopol. These own both large renewable and fossile fuel plants.

The video is correct in how it describes how electricity spot markets function, but has a blind spot in how it can be gamed if a few large companies conspire in keeping the electricity a mix.

By ensuring the demand is rarely fully covered with cheap renewables, but rather keeping a few expensive to run gas-fired plants in the mix, they can collect the price for the gas powered electricity even for the cheap renewables and thus make record profits as long as they keep the market captured like that.

As a result electricity prices for private and industrial consumers are high, despite a large percentage of cheap renewables, and this is a huge barrier for the much larger non-electricity energy consumption sector to electrify.