5 ms·

I heard at a power conference last week that Germany halted installation of new solar panels on homes recently due to the problems integrating solar onto the gr

by crusso 14y ago

I heard at a power conference last week that Germany halted installation of new solar panels on homes recently due to the problems integrating solar onto the grid. As the lecturer put it: We've spent the last hundred years building systems to safely and reliably send power on a one-way trip from the utilities to businesses and homes. Modifying the electrical distribution system to be multi-directional is not an easy problem to solve. Anyone know more?

geogra4 14y ago
Probably things like this[0] are designed to help. [0]http://www.siemens.com/press/en/pressrelease/?press=/en/pressrelease/2012/infrastructure-cities/smart-grid/icsg201204017.htm http://www.siemens.com/press/en/pressrelease/?press=/en/pres...
maebert 14y ago
That would be new to me - people here have been able to feed in excess energy to the grid for more than two decades. The real problem however is that the traditional power suppliers are forced to pay users that _feed in_ a very lucrative amount per kWh they produce in excess and recently started to rebel against that policy. So I wouldn't be surprised if the "technical problems" are somewhat politically/economically motivated.
- crusso 14y ago
  Yes, I did also hear about overly-generous power buy-back policies, but that was mostly for Canada.
mtgx 14y ago
I was surprised the energy they get from wind is more than twice what they get from solar. Isn't Germany like a good country for solar? Also, this is the first time I see that they want to get only 35% of the energy from renewables by 2035. So they want to improve it only by 10% in the next 23 years? That's sounds like a very small improvement in a lot of time. I thought their original goal was 40% as renewable energy by 2020.
- _delirium 14y ago
  Germany's not a great place for solar energy in terms of annual sunlight. It's just putting a lot more resources into it than countries that are better situated, and has set up a working system of feed-in tariffs to incentivize small private installations. Here's a map of solar energy potential in Europe: http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/cmaps/eu_opt/pvgis_Europe-solar_opt_publication.png http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/cmaps/eu_opt/pvgis_Europe-s... If Europe had a more integrated economy and power grid, the more efficient thing to do would be to take those same PV panels and put them somewhere further south. But that would take significant changes, so for now, the resources get put into the geography that happens to be at hand.
- bhousel 14y ago
  Germany's solar insolation is actually not good at all.. See maps here: http://www.soda-is.com/eng/map/maps_for_free.html http://www.soda-is.com/eng/map/maps_for_free.html They actually get about the same amount of sun as northern Canada. Which makes their commitment to solar and other renewable energy even more impressive. If solar can work in Germany, it can work anywhere. Here is a pretty good article from earlier this year: http://greenmien.knowledgemosaic.com/2012/01/11/germany-puts-everyone-elses-solar-efforts-to-shame/ http://greenmien.knowledgemosaic.com/2012/01/11/germany-puts...
- Anechoic 14y ago
  Isn't Germany like a good country for solar? Looking at this map, is does not appear so: http://www.alternative-energy-resources.net/solarenergydisadvantages.html http://www.alternative-energy-resources.net/solarenergydisad...
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- liber8 14y ago
  Germany is a horrible country for solar. It's like putting solar panels in the middle of the Quebec province. (http://www.solarpanelsindustry.com/2012/04/solar-radiation-map-for-solar-energy.html http://www.solarpanelsindustry.com/2012/04/solar-radiation-m...)
euroclydon 14y ago
The concept is called High Penetration Solar and there are many challenges. Check out the group of links at the bottom of this page: https://solarhighpen.energy.gov/topics https://solarhighpen.energy.gov/topics
hendrik-xdest 14y ago
I think this is related to statistics regarding how fast the power grid can be expanded in relation to how fast it has to expand. Can't find any news items on this, though. There are not enough land lines to transport the energy that is created in wind farms to the parts of Germany that need it, for example. Seems Germany is missing about 4500 power grid kilometers to supply every household. I'm not completely sure if that is in anyway related to the big players in nuclear energy who won't allow the use of their networks. Could be it's just the basic infrastructure missing. However, it's probably crucial to hook up big wind parks first. Try searching for Energiewende on the matter, maybe.
iamgopal 14y ago
dc micro grid.

by crusso 14y ago

geogra4 14y ago

Probably things like this[0] are designed to help. [0]http://www.siemens.com/press/en/pressrelease/?press=/en/pressrelease/2012/infrastructure-cities/smart-grid/icsg201204017.htm http://www.siemens.com/press/en/pressrelease/?press=/en/pres...

maebert 14y ago

That would be new to me - people here have been able to feed in excess energy to the grid for more than two decades. The real problem however is that the traditional power suppliers are forced to pay users that _feed in_ a very lucrative amount per kWh they produce in excess and recently started to rebel against that policy. So I wouldn't be surprised if the "technical problems" are somewhat politically/economically motivated.

crusso 14y ago
Yes, I did also hear about overly-generous power buy-back policies, but that was mostly for Canada.

mtgx 14y ago

I was surprised the energy they get from wind is more than twice what they get from solar. Isn't Germany like a good country for solar? Also, this is the first time I see that they want to get only 35% of the energy from renewables by 2035. So they want to improve it only by 10% in the next 23 years? That's sounds like a very small improvement in a lot of time. I thought their original goal was 40% as renewable energy by 2020.

_delirium 14y ago
Germany's not a great place for solar energy in terms of annual sunlight. It's just putting a lot more resources into it than countries that are better situated, and has set up a working system of feed-in tariffs to incentivize small private installations. Here's a map of solar energy potential in Europe: http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/cmaps/eu_opt/pvgis_Europe-solar_opt_publication.png http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/cmaps/eu_opt/pvgis_Europe-s... If Europe had a more integrated economy and power grid, the more efficient thing to do would be to take those same PV panels and put them somewhere further south. But that would take significant changes, so for now, the resources get put into the geography that happens to be at hand.
bhousel 14y ago
Germany's solar insolation is actually not good at all.. See maps here: http://www.soda-is.com/eng/map/maps_for_free.html http://www.soda-is.com/eng/map/maps_for_free.html They actually get about the same amount of sun as northern Canada. Which makes their commitment to solar and other renewable energy even more impressive. If solar can work in Germany, it can work anywhere. Here is a pretty good article from earlier this year: http://greenmien.knowledgemosaic.com/2012/01/11/germany-puts-everyone-elses-solar-efforts-to-shame/ http://greenmien.knowledgemosaic.com/2012/01/11/germany-puts...
Anechoic 14y ago
Isn't Germany like a good country for solar? Looking at this map, is does not appear so: http://www.alternative-energy-resources.net/solarenergydisadvantages.html http://www.alternative-energy-resources.net/solarenergydisad...
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
liber8 14y ago
Germany is a horrible country for solar. It's like putting solar panels in the middle of the Quebec province. (http://www.solarpanelsindustry.com/2012/04/solar-radiation-map-for-solar-energy.html http://www.solarpanelsindustry.com/2012/04/solar-radiation-m...)

euroclydon 14y ago

The concept is called High Penetration Solar and there are many challenges. Check out the group of links at the bottom of this page: https://solarhighpen.energy.gov/topics https://solarhighpen.energy.gov/topics

hendrik-xdest 14y ago

I think this is related to statistics regarding how fast the power grid can be expanded in relation to how fast it has to expand. Can't find any news items on this, though. There are not enough land lines to transport the energy that is created in wind farms to the parts of Germany that need it, for example. Seems Germany is missing about 4500 power grid kilometers to supply every household. I'm not completely sure if that is in anyway related to the big players in nuclear energy who won't allow the use of their networks. Could be it's just the basic infrastructure missing. However, it's probably crucial to hook up big wind parks first. Try searching for Energiewende on the matter, maybe.

iamgopal 14y ago

dc micro grid.