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Germany will have around 12 GW new solar power installed in 2023 (with about 1/4th of the US population), so a little bit more per capita than the US. It is imp

by jansan 3y ago

Germany will have around 12 GW new solar power installed in 2023 (with about 1/4th of the US population), so a little bit more per capita than the US. It is important to know that almost all of Germany is more to the north than the most northern parts of the US (except Alaska), so solar power in Germany is much less efficient and in winter almost completely useless.

atwrk 3y ago
Fortunately wind power is almost exactly anticyclic to solar in Germany, so cumulated they produce a nearly flat curve over the seasons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Wind-power-germany-1.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Wind-pow...
- huijzer 3y ago
  Do you have more information about that? If you average the power over a month, then yes it might be true in the plot, but I suspect it's less smooth in real-time.
  - atwrk 3y ago
    Here's a great graph with finer than hourly data: https://www.agora-energiewende.de/en/service/recent-electricity-data/chart/power_generation/24.08.2023/07.09.2023/today/ https://www.agora-energiewende.de/en/service/recent-electric... It doesn't average out on an intraday basis, but neither does consumption, which has its peaks during the day. I know someone working at an energy provider heavy on renewables, there they use gas turbines (=biomass) for compensating heavy fluctuations, because those are online in a few minutes.
nixass 3y ago
> solar power in Germany is much less efficient and in winter almost completely useless. Good thing they were thinking ahead and shut down all nuclear plants they had. Fricking unbelievable
- jansan 3y ago
  Yeah, shortening energy supply when you already have a supply crunch is very good way to kill the economy. The only question is if this was done by stupidity or malice.
- wewxjfq 3y ago
  The shutdown had nothing to do with renewables. It was done by conservatives who, in the same year they took this step, proudly proclaimed that they stopped the buildout of PV in Germany.
  - nixass 3y ago
    What difference it makes who did it? It's utterly stupid given circumstances

by jansan 3y ago

atwrk 3y ago

Fortunately wind power is almost exactly anticyclic to solar in Germany, so cumulated they produce a nearly flat curve over the seasons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Wind-power-germany-1.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Wind-pow...

huijzer 3y ago
Do you have more information about that? If you average the power over a month, then yes it might be true in the plot, but I suspect it's less smooth in real-time.
- atwrk 3y ago
  Here's a great graph with finer than hourly data: https://www.agora-energiewende.de/en/service/recent-electricity-data/chart/power_generation/24.08.2023/07.09.2023/today/ https://www.agora-energiewende.de/en/service/recent-electric... It doesn't average out on an intraday basis, but neither does consumption, which has its peaks during the day. I know someone working at an energy provider heavy on renewables, there they use gas turbines (=biomass) for compensating heavy fluctuations, because those are online in a few minutes.

nixass 3y ago

> solar power in Germany is much less efficient and in winter almost completely useless. Good thing they were thinking ahead and shut down all nuclear plants they had. Fricking unbelievable

jansan 3y ago
Yeah, shortening energy supply when you already have a supply crunch is very good way to kill the economy. The only question is if this was done by stupidity or malice.
wewxjfq 3y ago
The shutdown had nothing to do with renewables. It was done by conservatives who, in the same year they took this step, proudly proclaimed that they stopped the buildout of PV in Germany.
- nixass 3y ago
  What difference it makes who did it? It's utterly stupid given circumstances