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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MJB" data-source="post: 3298937" data-attributes="member: 88928">The Germans have had to put coal-fired power stations back into commission because they made a knee-jerk decision to close their nuclear power stations after Fukushima. Their extensive wind-power installations allow them to export electricity to other European countries on the same grid when Germany has an excess of generation in favourable conditions and other countries do not. Germany's domestic power bills have increased because the cost of running the recommissioned coal-fired power stations has to be covered, and the long-term decommissioning and mothballing costs of the nuclear stations has to be budgeted for, something the Economist article pointedly avoids mentioning.Austria almost continuously exports power because their hydro/wind mix is much greater than their total average daily consumption. Austria is building more wind-power installations in order to export more to other countries. Several Laender have been reducing domestic tariffs for years; Burgenland has the lowest tariffs of all.Within the EU, there is a long-term project to build a dc grid, which has power storage capacity and lower losses, so that power availability due to wind presence can be easily and cheaply switched from one end of the EU to the other. Needless to say, UK has declined to contribute to this project, or even attend high-level meetings as an observer.MJB</blockquote>