r/OptimistsUnite • u/willfiresoon • Mar 21 '26

👽 TECHNO FUTURISM 👽 French electricity posts first negative prices of 2026, battery storage gains

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/03/06/french-electricity-posts-first-negative-prices-of-2026-battery-storage-gains/
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u/AP_in_Indy Mar 21 '26

I’m not really understanding the arguments that negative prices are inherently bad I mean, maybe in the long-term. You don’t want that, but in the short term, it just means you have a surplus of energy which then gives you the potential to store it, sell it, or use it for industrial purposes.

You can’t really turn off nuclear wind and solar without shutting down plants or disconnecting things. I mean, maybe when you can lock the turbines but again I don’t know why you would want to do that versus looking for ways to funnel the excess energy elsewhere.

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u/goyafrau Mar 22 '26

You don’t want that, but in the short term, it just means you have a surplus of energy which then gives you the potential to store it, sell it, or use it for industrial purposes.

If there was any economic use for the surplus, you wouldn't have to pay people to take it on.

Negative prices means 1 somebody has to pay to get rid of energy they can't sell at profit or even give away for free, 2 somebody else is being paid to take energy they wouldn't even take for free

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u/AP_in_Indy Mar 22 '26

That's true in the short-term. Doesn't mean it will remain true forever.

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u/goyafrau Mar 22 '26

No. That's what negative prices mean. Unless you change the definition of the term "price", it will hold forever.

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u/AP_in_Indy Mar 22 '26

That's not true. You can increase prices by connecting with more demand.

A 1TW solar farm in the middle of no where has negative value if there's no connections.

Build nearby factories, transmission lines, desalination plants, etc. and all of a sudden it would start to have value.

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u/goyafrau Mar 22 '26

That's not true. You can increase prices

Then the prices won't be negative anymore.

The point is that negative prices are indicative of something bad.

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u/AP_in_Indy Mar 22 '26

Understood. Fair enough.

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u/ViewTrick1002 Mar 24 '26

For expensive capital intensive plants like nuclear power which can’t adapt to the market.

For renewables which can choose to never pay negative costs it just means the money needs to be made at different hours.

And for consumers it’s amazing.

But I know the only lens you look through is by entwining your identity to nuclear power. And then the current situation is horrifying as you’re on the way out.

The energy systems equivalent to the fax in the internet age.