Coal Glut, Renewables Make EU Power Cheapest in Decade
- Average day-ahead electricity prices in 2015 lowest since 2004
- Prices expected to extend declines in 2016, Bergen Energi says
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Record-low coal prices and increased wind and solar generation that pushed European power prices to their lowest in a decade may cause further declines in 2016.
Average day-ahead electricity prices in Germany, Europe’s biggest market, fell 3.3 percent to 31.68 euros ($34.62) per megawatt-hour in 2015, the least since 2004 on the Epex Spot SE exchange in Paris. Northwest Europe coal fell 33 percent while the share of Germany’s energy demand met by renewable output increased by four percentage points to 30 percent, according to preliminary figures by utility lobby BDEW.