Otherwise a good article.

http://cleantechnica.com/2012/03/01/german-utilities-fight-solars-cost-cutting-merit-order-effect/ )

…but that story got too large with the explanation
and as I edited, left out the chronologies of the 20 year rise in solar after the FIT was introduced there. (I always write too much and have to keep cutting to make manageable stories out of unwieldy hunks)

(No figures out yet on the current effect – likely more now with so much more solar on the grid.)

Nuclear can’t turn itself, or its massive financing costs, off when there’s less expensive wind or solar on the grid. Nuclear has to sell at a loss and then attempt to make that loss up by earning more during the hours that wind and solar are not providing.

The more wind and solar on the grid, the higher nuclear has to price its power in those limited windows. That opens up the market for storage. We’re getting to the point at which cheap wind plus moderate priced storage eats the last of nuclear’s lunch.

This is why RWE, Eon and Vattenfall hate solar so much. It cuts into the easy profits of their coal and nuclear powerplants.