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What is the "GW per hour" referenced several times in the article? Do they just mean GW or do they mean Gigawatt Hours?

by adamt 14y ago

chrisb 14y ago
They mean GW. Many news articles on this subject show irritating ignorance of energy/power and the correct use of units :( GW per hour would be the rate of change of power generation, which is obviously incorrect given the context :)
uvdiv 14y ago
They mean gigawatts of power, at some specific time. Germany has about 24.8 GW [1] of installed solar capacity, which recently peaked about 22 GW of actual power. The time-average is about 2.1 GW as of last year [1] (as 18 TWh/year), because solar panels in Germany only yield about 10-12% of their capacity averaged over the day and year. [a] So this is about the same as a (one) large nuclear reactor in electricity generated, but not peak power. Incidentally it's cost about €100 billion [2] to build this, at taxpayer expense. (Though this a future-spending figure: the subsidies aren't paid at the time a power plant is built, but deferred over 20 years -- the present value is somewhat lower). The specific subsidy rates are listed here [3] (they're set by the year the plant is installed). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Germany [2] http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/inflated-incentive-environment-minister-retreats-on-solar-subsidies-a-811530.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/inflated-incenti... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_incentives_for_photovoltaics#Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_incentives_for_photov... [a] Note that the installed capacity increased a lot over 2011, so you can't do simple comparisons like dividing 2.1/24.8 -- a lot of the capacity wasn't installed at the beginning of the year, and was at the end. But see the example capacity factors in the power plant table in [1]
- blubbar 14y ago
  >€100 billion [2] to build this, at taxpayer expense. At energy consumers expense to be precise. 100 billion € sound scary, but it's just adds another 8,2% to the incredibly expensive German electricity bill. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strompreis https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strompreis
ScottBurson 14y ago
I suppose they could correctly say "GWh per hour", but it's simpler to just say "GW".

What is the "GW per hour" referenced several times in the article? Do they just mean GW or do they mean Gigawatt Hours?

by adamt 14y ago

What is the "GW per hour" referenced several times in the article? Do they just mean GW or do they mean Gigawatt Hours?

They mean GW. Many news articles on this subject show irritating ignorance of energy/power and the correct use of units :( GW per hour would be the rate of change of power generation, which is obviously incorrect given the context :)

uvdiv 14y ago

They mean gigawatts of power, at some specific time. Germany has about 24.8 GW [1] of installed solar capacity, which recently peaked about 22 GW of actual power. The time-average is about 2.1 GW as of last year [1] (as 18 TWh/year), because solar panels in Germany only yield about 10-12% of their capacity averaged over the day and year. [a] So this is about the same as a (one) large nuclear reactor in electricity generated, but not peak power. Incidentally it's cost about €100 billion [2] to build this, at taxpayer expense. (Though this a future-spending figure: the subsidies aren't paid at the time a power plant is built, but deferred over 20 years -- the present value is somewhat lower). The specific subsidy rates are listed here [3] (they're set by the year the plant is installed). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Germany [2] http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/inflated-incentive-environment-minister-retreats-on-solar-subsidies-a-811530.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/inflated-incenti... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_incentives_for_photovoltaics#Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_incentives_for_photov... [a] Note that the installed capacity increased a lot over 2011, so you can't do simple comparisons like dividing 2.1/24.8 -- a lot of the capacity wasn't installed at the beginning of the year, and was at the end. But see the example capacity factors in the power plant table in [1]

blubbar 14y ago
>€100 billion [2] to build this, at taxpayer expense. At energy consumers expense to be precise. 100 billion € sound scary, but it's just adds another 8,2% to the incredibly expensive German electricity bill. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strompreis https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strompreis

ScottBurson 14y ago

I suppose they could correctly say "GWh per hour", but it's simpler to just say "GW".