European Power Prices Go Below Zero Again as Solar Output Surges

For one, it's awesome that we're producing this much solar.

However, it also means that when the price is negative, you pretty much have to switch off your inverter or something, because you're PAYING for the electricity you sell to the grid + you pay the grid fees too.

And funnily enough, the consumers still have to pay to consume it, at a price of 0.00 + grid fee, because the negative price doesn't reallllly make it to the consumer. Which is definitely super cheap, but why can't we make use of the negative pricing? It would be lovely, people would be more incentivized to consume energy during peak production.

The middle-men make a killing off this while solar producers suffer.

Those negative prices are always on the spot market, the bulk of the energy you get from your supplier was paid for in advance because it's generally cheaper and if your supplier is buying lots on the spot market, well, spot market prices would not be that low.

In a sense it would make sense to lower the price for the consumer, have some smart devices use it up (e.g. an already-loaded washer, an already plugged in EV) but most places don't have that kind of tech installed (yet) and even then it'd be cents, and you don't want consumer prices to oscillate too much. Also, the total impact is going to be limited, who the hell gets off the coach to load their washing machine with half a load just because electricity prices are low. Or re-schedules making pizza.

What makes a lot of sense is having large-capacity storage systems which can soak up this kind of seasonal load. They don't need to be particularly efficient, it's more important that they have a large capacity, both in terms of Watts and Watt-hours. Things like flow batteries. Many district heating systems actually have a giant water kettle just for this reason: Absurdly cheap to build, usually it's just standing around doing nothing, but when electricity prices go negative they can sink tons of energy into water and use that to feed showers for weeks to come. Not the most efficient use there is but it's a start.
- To be clear, I meant contracts that follow the spot market. I used to have one, so my electricity prices went up and down with the spot market, but negative anything meant 0 for me. Same with euribor, when it was negative, it was still 0 for the end user, and the bank got a bigger margin.

Meanwhile in the UK I’m paying £340 a month to power my small two bedroom flat 😢

Don't worry, now your electricity has more than 100% margin profit for rich people :)

How can the price get negative? Why would a producer pay someone to take their electricity instead of just shutting down?

Yes, because that's cheaper than shutting down.