Grey November weather has driven up electricity prices in Belgium to their highest level in over a year.
In recent days, a period of dunkelflaute (which translates roughly as "dark wind lull") has been characterised by low sunlight and little wind – which is bad news for electricity usually generated by solar panels or wind turbines.
Wholesale electricity prices have reached their highest level in over a year, surpassing €100 per megawatt hour. Electricity delivery (the transfer to end-use customers) for Thursday stands at €129 per megawatt hour, peaking at €233 between 18:00 and 19:00.
This is due to November's grey weather – a far cry from sunny July, when solar electricity production was so high that electricity prices were effectively pushed below zero, and certain end users were paid to use the surplus.
Wholesale prices are now spiking, as solar panel production hasn't been this low since February.
Compounding the issue, the Doel 4 nuclear power plant, with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts, is offline for maintenance until the end of November.
