Power companies sometimes pay customers to use extra electricity
On exceptionally sunny or windy days, power grids become so overwhelmed with green energy that utility companies actually pay people to keep their lights on.
In April 2026, the German power grid hit a bizarre milestone: the price of electricity dropped to negative 16 euros per megawatt-hour. On that afternoon, the sun was so bright and the wind so strong that power plants produced far more energy than the country could actually use. Because stopping a massive turbine or shutting down a solar farm is often more expensive than keeping it running, grid operators chose to pay industrial customers and savvy homeowners to soak up the excess.
There's more to this story — open the app to keep reading.
Continue Reading in App
1 more paragraphs · plus a 2-question quiz