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Germany has nearly as much installed solar power generation capacity as the rest of the world combined and gets about four percent of its overall annual electri

by sasvari 14y ago

Germany has nearly as much installed solar power generation capacity as the rest of the world combined and gets about four percent of its overall annual electricity needs from the sun alone. Despite the discussions in Germany about the high costs of PV for consumers, this still shows something remarkably: a (in general) not so sunny country in the northern hemisphere installed approximately half of the solar power capacity of the world. It's not easy, and even in Germany there are huge challenges lying ahead, but especially industrialized countries should take this as a sign to accelerate their own renewable energy strategies.

michaelbuckbee 14y ago
That's a very good insight that I didn't consider, it's as if Maine had achieved the highest level of PV usage in the US.
- celoyd 14y ago
  In fact, most of Germany gets less sunlight than most of Maine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Insolation.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Insolation.png
aaronblohowiak 14y ago
also, half of the pv capacity of the world is only 4% of the power needs for germany.
- danielharan 14y ago
  growing > 50% CAGR in the last 5 years. Don't write it off just yet :)
- nknight 14y ago
  Yeah, but there just isn't much installed PV capacity in the world yet, Germany is one of the few countries to have anything like a concerted effort toward it. It's also very much a first-world country in terms of power usage. Importantly, the same investment Germany has made would get you a lot more power in sunnier places. Just within Europe, Spain, Italy, and southern France could be significantly more efficient, nevermind places like Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and the Americas.
riffraff 14y ago
let's not forget that renewable sources are not only solar panels, e.g. the US produces energy comparable to germany from wind (given populations) and the same has always been popular in, say, netherland or denmark. Or, Italy produces about 7% of the consumed energy from hydro alone, and I believe norway has about 99% of the energy produced from hydroelectric plants.
ams6110 14y ago
The 4% overall vs. 50% of these few hours illustrates the fundamental problem. Societies don't need electricity "for a few midday hours" on very clear, sunny days at a time of year where the sun is "in" the hemisphere. They need it more or less consistently all the time. Let's see how much electricity this massive investment is producing on a cloudy day in December.
- sasvari 14y ago
  I don't see a 'fundamental' problem here at all. Yes, place the German solar panels in a region where the sun is shining more intensely and constantly over the whole year and you get a lot more power out of it. And IMHO _that_ is the problem: nations with these areas haven't installed this capacity, and effectively Germany is significantly responsible for the massive decline in the cost of PV. So the question is: why hasn't a country with more and more intense sunlight hasn't done it? And why aren't they scaling up massively now, with the price of PV much much lower than when Germany decided to do it?
  - orijing 14y ago
    That's a great question. Take the US as an example, since it has plenty of sunshine. Nowadays investment in renewable energies is politically risky after the Solyndra failure, after the DOE gave Solyndra over half a billion dollars of loan guarantees. After the dramatic failure of its own renewable energy initiative, it began attacking other countries' initiatives to expand solar use. For example: "The U.S. yesterday imposed tariffs of as much as 250 percent on Chinese-made solar cells to aid domestic manufacturers beset by foreign competition, though critics said the decision may end up raising prices and hurting the U.S. renewable energy industry." [1] It's a sad state when the US government--presiding over one of the sunniest and advanced nations in the world--will not only refuse to sponsor domestic initiatives to bolster renewable energy development, but also punish countries that do. [1] http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/18/1092726/-250-Tariff-on-Chinese-Solar-Cells http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/18/1092726/-250-Tariff...
    - Klinky 14y ago

by sasvari 14y ago

michaelbuckbee 14y ago

That's a very good insight that I didn't consider, it's as if Maine had achieved the highest level of PV usage in the US.

celoyd 14y ago
In fact, most of Germany gets less sunlight than most of Maine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Insolation.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Insolation.png

aaronblohowiak 14y ago

also, half of the pv capacity of the world is only 4% of the power needs for germany.

danielharan 14y ago
growing > 50% CAGR in the last 5 years. Don't write it off just yet :)
nknight 14y ago
Yeah, but there just isn't much installed PV capacity in the world yet, Germany is one of the few countries to have anything like a concerted effort toward it. It's also very much a first-world country in terms of power usage. Importantly, the same investment Germany has made would get you a lot more power in sunnier places. Just within Europe, Spain, Italy, and southern France could be significantly more efficient, nevermind places like Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and the Americas.

riffraff 14y ago

let's not forget that renewable sources are not only solar panels, e.g. the US produces energy comparable to germany from wind (given populations) and the same has always been popular in, say, netherland or denmark. Or, Italy produces about 7% of the consumed energy from hydro alone, and I believe norway has about 99% of the energy produced from hydroelectric plants.

ams6110 14y ago

The 4% overall vs. 50% of these few hours illustrates the fundamental problem. Societies don't need electricity "for a few midday hours" on very clear, sunny days at a time of year where the sun is "in" the hemisphere. They need it more or less consistently all the time. Let's see how much electricity this massive investment is producing on a cloudy day in December.

sasvari 14y ago
I don't see a 'fundamental' problem here at all. Yes, place the German solar panels in a region where the sun is shining more intensely and constantly over the whole year and you get a lot more power out of it. And IMHO _that_ is the problem: nations with these areas haven't installed this capacity, and effectively Germany is significantly responsible for the massive decline in the cost of PV. So the question is: why hasn't a country with more and more intense sunlight hasn't done it? And why aren't they scaling up massively now, with the price of PV much much lower than when Germany decided to do it?
- orijing 14y ago
  That's a great question. Take the US as an example, since it has plenty of sunshine. Nowadays investment in renewable energies is politically risky after the Solyndra failure, after the DOE gave Solyndra over half a billion dollars of loan guarantees. After the dramatic failure of its own renewable energy initiative, it began attacking other countries' initiatives to expand solar use. For example: "The U.S. yesterday imposed tariffs of as much as 250 percent on Chinese-made solar cells to aid domestic manufacturers beset by foreign competition, though critics said the decision may end up raising prices and hurting the U.S. renewable energy industry." [1] It's a sad state when the US government--presiding over one of the sunniest and advanced nations in the world--will not only refuse to sponsor domestic initiatives to bolster renewable energy development, but also punish countries that do. [1] http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/18/1092726/-250-Tariff-on-Chinese-Solar-Cells http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/18/1092726/-250-Tariff...
  - Klinky 14y ago