Multiple ways. One interesting one is huge sand batteries that are being heated up to massive temps, then having pipes run through there to collect the heat energy as hot water and doing the industrial processes that way.
Another way is using excess green energy to produce green hydrogen, which can be used as a fuel source in very high energy scenarios.
Past that, we recently have made electric arc furnaces and electric smelting furnaces for steel and aluminum, and several of these are fully solar powered.
It’s a shift to change the energy source for industrial production, but we have the technology and the ability. And the sun is free!
Germany IS suffering from high energy prices, but renewables are only a small part of the problem.
It was a mistake to shut down the working nuclear power plants, and that also coincided with the abrupt loss of all (cheap) gas from Russia. Now, the country imports expensive LNG and renewables generate something like 80% on a good day - but thanks to merit order, the most expensive form of power generation sets the price and that is gas.
It doesn't help that thanks to shifts in industry, the grid has to be re-developed north->south instead of west->east and south-north. NIMBYism is rampant in Germany, so new high-voltage lines can take decades. Meanwhile, renewable capacity has to be shutdown if the transmission capacity of the grid cannot keep up during windy, sunny days.
Things are slowly improving what with grid-scale batteries coming online, and one major north-south connection being done. But yeah, it's going to take years still, and if our current governing coalition have their say, it's going to take even longer.
Multiple ways. One interesting one is huge sand batteries that are being heated up to massive temps, then having pipes run through there to collect the heat energy as hot water and doing the industrial processes that way.
Another way is using excess green energy to produce green hydrogen, which can be used as a fuel source in very high energy scenarios.
Past that, we recently have made electric arc furnaces and electric smelting furnaces for steel and aluminum, and several of these are fully solar powered.
It’s a shift to change the energy source for industrial production, but we have the technology and the ability. And the sun is free!
Germany IS suffering from high energy prices, but renewables are only a small part of the problem.
It was a mistake to shut down the working nuclear power plants, and that also coincided with the abrupt loss of all (cheap) gas from Russia. Now, the country imports expensive LNG and renewables generate something like 80% on a good day - but thanks to merit order, the most expensive form of power generation sets the price and that is gas.
It doesn't help that thanks to shifts in industry, the grid has to be re-developed north->south instead of west->east and south-north. NIMBYism is rampant in Germany, so new high-voltage lines can take decades. Meanwhile, renewable capacity has to be shutdown if the transmission capacity of the grid cannot keep up during windy, sunny days.
Things are slowly improving what with grid-scale batteries coming online, and one major north-south connection being done. But yeah, it's going to take years still, and if our current governing coalition have their say, it's going to take even longer.
It should be noted that Russian gas was more expensive than any other source of electricity in Germany:
https://www.ffe.de/en/publications/merit-order-shifts-and-th...
Hungary still uses it, and it's not helping (aside from potential kickbacks):
https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/price_average_map/char...
China also stopped importing electricity from Russia since it couldn't compete with China's own coal, renewables and nuclear.
The truth is that Germany was bound to struggle as it decided to phase out nuclear and coal but keep gas.
Believe it or not, a large solar field (or several!) can readily densify its energy into a nice small power transmission line.
You turn the machines on when electricity is cheap, and turn em off when it's not?
Folks operating businesses that depend on oil prices would know these tricks?
Surely households using more wind and solar frees up capacity for 'dense energy' though?
when energy is abundant, you use it to hoist a large rock very high up above your head
when energy is scarce, you drop the rock on your head
pretty well? and it can only get better if we continue rolling out renewables?