This would keep our friend Waco Joe awake at night

[Dave Grubb]

I'm not sure if that is an open link.

Electricity That Costs Nothing—or Even Less? It’s Happening More and More
A surge in wind and solar power means many businesses and consumers around Europe can get paid for plugging in. The U.S. could be next.

The EU is drowning in electricity! They are generating 44% of their power needs with renewables, twice that of the US. Some countries (i.e. Norway) are virtually 100% renewables---with a big boost from hydro in their case.

It is s very interesting article. One engineer, who calls himself a green nerd, gets paid to charge his two Teslas at night when wind power exceeds the needs.

Wholesale prices swing wildly each hour of the day, and even more so as a larger share of electricity flows from wind and solar installations. Because the generation costs of wind or solar farms are negligible, market prices will be near zero when there is enough renewable power to cover most of a region’s electricity demand.

Electricity market dynamics get weirder when renewable-energy producers don’t have an incentive to stop feeding power into the grid, usually because of government subsidies. Then grids can be flooded with excess power, pushing prices into negative territory.

Van Diesen said he’s made 30 euros, equivalent to around $34, over the past five months charging his car, enough to cover the service fee from his power supplier, a Norwegian company called Tibber.

“I’m charging the car for free,” said van Diesen, who is part of a group of clean-energy enthusiasts in the Netherlands who call themselves green nerds. “To me it’s also like a hobby and a game—how far can I go?”

[Truckman]

Speaking of Waco, last weekend I drove there for a gun show and could not help but notice all the gigantic wind turbines dotting the countryside, presumably hundreds of them...But of the countless dozens I was able to see from the road, I counted exactly five that were visibly turning and presumably generating power...If there was enough air moving for those five, was there not any air blowing for the others?...Is there some unfathomable reason to idle the other 95 or so % on a hot sunshiny Texas day when demand is certain to be high from power-thirsty air conditioners?......Ben

[Dave Grubb]

Anything I might say would be pure speculation

[Dave Grubb]

Added after more thought:

It may be money.

Those producers sell much of their power to the spot market---I would guess today they are primarily selling into the spot market. They bid, on a daily basis on how much power they will supply for any given period (hours). Those five you saw running could be supplying contract power or the spot market. With the current supply/demand issues those that were idle might be because of a lack of a profitable market.