--- title: "Man Discovers Trick to Make Power Company Pay Him for Using Electricity" description: "A man in the Netherlands made around $34 while charging his electric car this summer due to negative renewable energy prices." date: "2024-09-25" modified: "2024-09-25" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/man-trick-power-company" categories: - "Energy" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "renewable energy" - "solar power" - "the digest" - "wind power" --- # Man Discovers Trick to Make Power Company Pay Him for Using Electricity ![A man in the Netherlands made around $34 while charging his electric car this summer due to negative renewable energy prices.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Paid to Power A man in the Netherlands has discovered an unusual strategy to get paid for using electricity from the local grid. As the [*Wall Street Journal* reports](), soaring wind and solar power generation has often pushed energy prices below zero in the Northern European nation over the past year. Instead of having a fixed price that changes once a week, month, or year, Dutch software salesman Jeroen Van Diesen picked two power providers that charge him a wholesale power price that changes every hour. In large part thanks to government subsidies, green energy providers aren't incentivized to stop loading even more power into the grid, which allows for a situation where prices can drop below zero. As a result of these strange fluctuations, which tend to only happen when there's a lot of wind or sunshine, Van Diesen says he's made around $34 while charging his electric car over teh past five months, which is roughly enough to pay for the service fees his unusual power provider charges him. "I’m charging the car for free," he told the *WSJ*. "To me it’s also like a hobby and a game — how far can I go?" ## Gaming the System The occurrence of negative prices has soared over the last couple of years in continental Europe. That's especially true in countries with a significant capacity to generate renewable energy, like the Netherlands, Finland, and Spain. As the [*Financial Times* reports](), electric prices dropped into the negative for a record 7,841 hours across Europe in the first eight months of the year. And experts predict the same could soon start happening in the US. With a massive rise in solar power capacity, California has seen [green power flood its grid](), forcing prices into the negative and leaving some generated power unused. As the [*Washington Post* reported]() in April, 95 percent of California's 2.4 million megawatt-hours of wasted electricity in 2022 was solar. The vast majority of Americans, however, still aren't able to take advantage of the system like Van Diesen, according to the *WSJ,* since most states don't allow for real-time pricing. That's because regulators argue consumers could be hit with massive bills if prices were to rise (see the [Texas power crisis in the winter of 2021]()). Subsidies could also eventually be reigned in by governments as well, making negative prices a far more rare occurrence in the future. Solar power in particular could see its subsidies thinned out as rooftop panels become increasingly popular. **More on negative prices:** *[Electricity Prices in France Just Turned Negative Because of Renewables]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()