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Comment by throwaway473825 | Hacker News Reader

Germany became a net electricity importer after shutting down its final nuclear power plants in 2023.

On top of that, heating still runs mostly on gas, which won't be fun this winter. Due to the inefficiency of gas heating, there will be less gas available for Germany's gas power plants.

Now imagine if Germany's dream of hydrogen vehicles, where most hydrogen comes from gas, also became a reality...

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By the first quarter of 2026, Germany recorded net exports of 2.6 TWh. In the middle of winter. We are out of the lump.

In absolutely no way is that true. The EU price varies by renewables production. When it's dark and still that's when electricity costs the most, and that's when Germany imports energy. It exports when there's sun and wind, but then the energy is cheap. So Germany sells low and buys high. Doesn't matter if Germany is a net exporter because it exports at the wrong time.

> The EU price varies by renewables production.

This may be technically true at the moment, but the underlying reason for the high prices is fossil fuels: when renewable generation is low, natural gas peaker plants are generating, and these have the highest cost of any generation source, and by the merit order rules under which commodity markets such as electricity operate, the highest source price sets the price of the commodity.

The obvious and affordable mitigation for high prices is to build out massive battery storage capacities so that natural gas plants are needed far less often.

Yes, I agree, but first you need to get planning and connection permission for those battery storage locations. I wouldn't hold my breath.

92 units (1 MW or larger) were connected in the first half of 2026 adding 842 MW/1.8 GWh, which is more than all of 2025 so this is both happening and accelerating. In addition small scale storage also seems to be adding a significant amount of capacity.

https://modoenergy.com/research/en/germany-battery-buildout-...

Germany has excess coal and gas capacity which they can turn on when needed. They, like most people import when it's cheaper than the local alternative.

Interconnected nations all importing when cheap electricity is available lowers costs for everyone.

Looking up the numbers Germany sells high and buys low when it's net importing

https://www.stromdaten.info/ANALYSE/importexport/index.php

In the long term interconnected nations might make electricity cheap everywhere. Currently it's mostly making it more expensive everywhere else. (As someone living in south of Sweden.)

Edit: But to be fair... The biggest reason it's expensive is likely that companies like to make money.

When you look at the first half of the year, Germany was a net importer of electricity:

>Net imports amounted to only 1.3 TWh, compared with 9.6 TWh during the first half of 2025.

Though 1.3 TWH is a huge improvement over 9.6 by any standard.

https://energy-charts.info/?l=en&c=DE

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