Your links very seldom actually support the arguments you use them for,
Utilities Plan to Shut Down Many Unprofitable Conventional Power Plants
Published on July 16, 2013 i
Due to the renewable energy regime in Germany, several German utilities are considering to close dozens of conventional power plants, citing a lack of profitability, Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) writes. Even nuclear power plants could be shut down prematurely, the paper says.
Officially the regulator, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA), had received 15 applicants for closures of conventional power plants up until the middle of July, but this was likely only the beginning, Süddeutsche Zeitung says. The paper quotes the CEO of an unnamed utility according to whom 20% of the roughly 90,000 MW of conventional capacity in Germany were under review. (For information on power plant capacity in Germany published by BNetzA in March, please see here).
The companies blame the growing amount of renewable energy fed into the German grids that sends down electricity prices at the electricity exchange so that the production costs of conventional power plants cannot be recovered, SZ says. Pursuant to the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) renewable energy has to be purchased and transmitted with priority by the grid operators, who sell the electricity via the European Energy Exchange EEX (with the exception of directly marketed renewable energy). In June the four transmission system operators only averaged 27.63 EUR/MWh for the sale of renewable energy, as prices for electricity had fallen to that point. This has rendered the operation of many conventional power plants economically unattractive. At the same time they are much needed to balance the grids. Hence a discussion about a new “market design” providing incentives for conventional power plants has been going on in Germany for some time.
What this means is that the amount of energy these fossil plants can sell in order to meet expenses is declining below the point where they can remain available during the renewable buildout.
The policy being considered will not change the priority given renewables, it will instead subsidize the steadily declining kilowatts from conventional sources. To put it simply the theory is "the fewer units conventional fuels sell, the more each unit is worth".
Your interpretation fails to capture either the nature of the problem or the simple and necessary solution.
We will have to consider a similar policy here as we put coal out of business.
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