However, the rapid growth in solar supply capacity throughout Europe's electricity grids is already starting to erode producer profitability, as surplus power from solar sites depresses wholesale electricity prices and results in utilities earning shrinking revenues from renewables.
However, since Russia's invasion of Ukraine snarled Europe's gas markets in 2022, Europe's power generators have accelerated the build-out of renewable energy capacity while cutting back on electricity generation from fossil fuels. This combination of increased renewables alongside diminished gas-fired generation has altered the load profile of Europe's electricity markets and allowed utilities to deploy maximum volumes of renewable power while conserving natural gas.
The capture price is a weighted average price during which the generation asset produces electricity.In the case of a natural gas plant that only produces power during peak demand periods, the typical capture rate can be 100%, as the plant can despatch maximum volumes to fulfil demand needs at peak prices, and then reduce or stop output when demand declines.
Power producers must accommodate increasingly cheap electricity prices when solar output is at its maximum - similar to a duck's down-sloping belly - but then must ramp up output from other sources once the sun sets, producing the duck's neck.European solar power producers are not yet faced with anything like the problems seen in California, where solar can account for 40% of total electricity generation.