Germany Records Historic 12B KWh Solar Feed-In in July 2026

I think the biggest impact for Germany is gonna be economical from shipping. Much of Germany's industry is along the Rhine and they get their raw materials via barge on the Rhine. The Rhine is already close to all time low which reduces capacity and increases cost. Usually low water happens between August and November. It was already close to record low in July! I wouldn't be surprised if shipping will have to stop entirely some time this year.

I watched a report that has an interview with the CEO of a cereal factory. They get all their wheat via barges. He said they already paid €100k extra this year for low-water surcharges for shipping and that they'd need 6,500 trucks annually if they'd replace the barges with trucks.

Europe is only going to get hotter and more dry for the foreseeable future.

Extreme Heat Has Transformed What Summer Means Across Generations in Europe - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/world/europe/europe-summe... | https://archive.today/XsX2m - August 1st, 2026

Europe’s Heatwaves Are a Taste of the Climate Costs Yet to Come - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-07-27/europe... | https://archive.today/AqWba - July 27th, 2026

Why Is Europe Warming Twice as Fast as the World Average? - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-26/europe-he... | https://archive.today/o68OH - June 26th, 2026

I was going to write that too, same thing in France: warmest month ever recorded since 1900, 35% sunnier than usual, large fires in places which rarely had small ones in the past, 4 consecutive heat waves in a bit more than a month... nothing to be happy about

It's truly unbelievable hot right now, this "good news" of solar production is pretty sad actually

The comparison with France right is interesting. They are shutting down nuclear reactors because the drought means they don't have enough water to cool the reactors.

Base load, eh?

I'm in Zurich and twice now the weather apps radars said it was raining heavily right where I am but no rain was making it to the ground. Instead it was unbelievably humid. I think the rain was falling but evaporating before it could reach the ground.

Southern Germany to be more precise. Northern Germany is slightly affected, but nothing unusual.

Vienna, Austria, checking in .. I'm Australian, been here for decades, this is definitely the warmest I've experienced it. I love it though, feels like home. ;)

I'm in Germany right now and it rained today

To be frank the best summer I’ve ever had in Berlin. Everyday warm and sunny and love it.

The electricity prices for the industry are around the same since 2014: https://www.bdew.de/service/daten-und-grafiken/bdew-strompre...

The further we go down the renewables route the less we depend on despotic states for our energy.

Energy may well be cheap in the US but you have been paying for that for decades through military misadventures in the middle east.

Germany's electrical prices are mostly in line with it's neighbours, not super high. If a company makes good usage of batteries, they could actually have quite low prices since the electrical price undergoes huge swings throughout the day. All spring through fall the spot price goes to or near zero at midday almost daily.

Throughout the winter, wind is a bit more random but causes spells of high prices and spells of low prices.

The main thing causing electrical usage prices to be high in Germany is grid charges for the gigantic grid infrastructure buildout.

Germany's electrical grid is one of the most resilient and interconnected in the world, and it's rapidly being upgraded to accommodate the huge build-out of wind, solar, and batteries that is underway. I agree that the government should probably shoulder more of these grid-costs to take some burden off of major industrial users.

Ember Energy: European electricity prices and costs - https://ember-energy.org/data/european-electricity-prices-an... (updated daily)

For that to change they need to not depend on expensive power plants (such as coal, gas, etc.), the bidding process for the electricity market in the EU will price the 15-minute window kWh price to the most expensive source providing power to the electricity zone being supplied.

Unless there's a revolution in this pricing mechanism the only way for Germany to lower its electricity prices is through renewables build out to push away the more expensive sources.

They are also one of the few nations with high export to import ratios. If it is weighing down industry then it is a great loss factor in the race against china.

The problem with electricity for industrial use is, that you also need electricity during long, dark, cloudy winters, when there is very little solar power available. Somehow all the "green" supporters are all afraid of nuclear powerplants for some reason and instead prefer coal, even though there's more radioactive crap going into the air from that than from nuclear plants.

Always look on the bright side of life.

Just do it. Don’t wait for the govt to tell you. Solar is almost free at this point.

I see this in so many sunny countries, which is such a shame. So what prevents you from just installing panels on your roof?

In Greece there is an unjustified support for natural gas. They deliberately stop renewables adoption (no more netmetering, no more batteries) because the Prime minister sleeps at the same bed with gas-people (like Mytilinaios). We have to burn gas from a few to many hours per day.

817 kWh here. Though june last year was the record at 904 kWh. Maybe the effect is that solar panels lose efficiency when too hot.

1.8 MWh, highest production since we built our 12 kWp system five years ago.

530 kWh here in July pushed to the grid with a 5kWp system

Merit-order pricing keeps consumer prices high.

Whether it is the best mechanism to incentivize a transition towards renewable energy sources is debatable, but OP at least implies that we’re on the right direction.

At some point we will have enough renewables to turn off the old and expensive gas and coal plants. Until then we just have to live with the feeling that it’s an investment towards future generations.

Perhaps humanities biggest flaw is to prioritize instant gratification over long term benefits.

But how many AAA-batteries is that?

Also about 16 GW. They don't say what the installed capacity is but average midday generation is 40 GW for usage of 40% which is not bad.

I don't get it

12B KWh = 12M MWh = 12,000 TWh?

To answer tyromaniac's question that is dead and therefore I can't reply to: The United States utility companies bill by the kWh, so American-centric news will report in multiples of that unit.

And as a sidenote, why do people downvote a question rather than answer it? Some of us like answering questions and deadening a question removes that ability.

Or 12 trillion nuclear power plants with a capacity of 1 Wh each