What alternative do you suggest? We now have a small photovoltaic system at home – I really like it. During the summer, we were at times completely self-sufficient. For a few weeks now, we also have a hybrid car. So far, we have driven 90% purely electric, and I am very glad not to have to go to the gas station all the time anymore. From my point of view, electrification here is a real gain.
Honestly: decentralized energy generation will become more and more important in the future.
The problem is as follows: in the past, electricity production was quite well controllable, and while consumption had certain fluctuations, these were limited and relatively predictable. Now we have shifted a large part of controllable production to uncontrollable wind and solar power. For that alone, we must maintain expensive, quickly controllable gas power plants, storage, and enormous overcapacities of wind and solar, otherwise the lights will go out. At the same time, we are encouraging households and businesses to install photovoltaic systems on their roofs, which are also uncontrollable. You are practically self-sufficient in summer and in winter when the sun shines during mild weather (and solar power is also cheap and plentiful). In unfavorable weather (cold, dark), consumption rises due to heat pumps, while photovoltaic production drops to very little. The scenarios of high grid demand due to low self-production and low production in the grid are strongly correlated. This cannot be balanced solely by so-called renewable energies, even if we ignore the fact that in the future millions of commuters will plug their electric cars into the grid at 6 p.m.
And here comes the crux. For the individual, of course, having photovoltaic systems is an advantage. I also assume that in the summer half-year, we will practically manage without grid power. However, for the system as a whole, these increased and strongly correlated fluctuations cannot be good. End customers, of course, do not see the enormous effort required to compensate for these fluctuations. And this will not get better if we want to generate less electricity from gas and at the same time phase out coal and nuclear power. Storing electricity is difficult, especially on a large scale. The best we have so far are pumped-storage power plants, and the capacity for further expansion there is limited. Everything else is not truly market-ready and likely will not be for the next 10 years. For me, this is a commons problem. The individual picks the cherries (solar power when the sun shines) and leaves the general problem of producing electricity at night or during dark doldrums to the community.