The recent triple storm combo, which managed to ruin the weekends (and cancel carnivals) has lead to many complaints.
Not all is that bad, however. If it does compensate in any way for your ruined weekend plans, the wind was so strong last weekend that it generated a record amount of electricity through windmills, RTL Nieuws reports.
So much electricity that the market price went below zero
Yep. It was so darn windy this past weekend, that the market price for electricity went below zero. Thank you storms, I guess? This happened on Sunday between 4 and 6 AM, when so much energy was produced that the cost of electricity went below 0, which meant that the companies that bought electricity also got a refund.
Negative prices happen rarely, happening twice in recent history, once last year in 2019, and in 2012.
There was an average of four gigawatts of energy this weekend being produced when the average is usually around 1.2 gigawatts. More than 30% of all electricity was produced by the wind turbines on Sunday, which is a record.
Part of the reason why we see this spike in electricity production is not just due to the winds, but due to the fact that over the past couple of years, more and more wind turbines have been added the to the energy grids.
February is always the peak month when it comes to the production of wind energy
February takes the prize in most data analyses as the month where the most wind energy usually gets produced. So for all the dark, cold, windy Dutch winter that we get, there’s at least this plus side. Not that it makes life more enjoyable, but still.
The reason why February is so windy is because of the jet stream, Martijn Dorrestein, meteorologist at Buiernadar explains. The jet stream, which is a strong wind current flowing eastwards over the Atlantic, is much more powerful during winter than during summer, due to the interaction between warm tropical air and cold polar air.
All that wind is not always good for wind turbines, however. If the wind blows too strongly, the turbines stop. This happened during Storm Dennis, as well as during Storm Ciara.
Should we pray for more storms to get cheaper electricity or should we just roll on into spring already? Let us know in the comments.
Feature Image: Mads1982/Pixabay