Mon Jun 23, 2014 at 06:18 AM PDT
50% of Germany's electricity produced by solar in one hour on June 6, also achieves grid parity
Here are two remarkable pieces of good news from the German solar energy sector that I did not expect to see so soon. Germany is rapidly becoming one of our model countries for transitions to renewable and sustainable energy proving that "yes, a transition to a renewable energy economy can be done, and it can be down with continuous improvement to existing technology.
Germans have a special word for it -"'Energiewende', or energy transformation - which aims to power the entire country by renewable resources by 2050." Germans are now laying down a challenge for other countries saying there is no longer any excuse for countries to say this is impossible.
For a sound track for this post just select the play triangle while you continue to read.
The Beatles- Here Comes The Sun
The afternoon of June 6, 2014 was a record breaking day for the solar power industry in Germany when the country broke through the symbolic barrier of generating more than 50% of its total electricity needs with solar power for one hour in an all time record, according to Tobias Rothachter, and expert on renewable energy at Germany's Trade and Invest. Yes, solar power is now the dominant number 1 producer of electrical power in Germany, and wind electric is the second with the two together providing 74% of all the countries electrical power needs - in 2014! Wind also set a single day record producing 39% of the countries electricity in December.
But, in terms of good news this story is like a Ginzu knife commercial - how happy would you be to hear even more good news this morning?
As a special bonus for our readers who keep reading now, we will add an extra bit of spectacular good news from the German solar industry at no extra charge! Yes, you heard me right. Another recent study has shown that solar electrical generation in German has just achieved the longed-for, but illusive, grid parity with other forms of electrical generation in the country.
Andres Loubrielhttp of The Guardian brings us all this good news in 50 Percent of the Energy Produced in Germany Is Solar: New Record.
Let the kids make their own breakfast this morning, so you can grab your coffee, sit down, and start your day with this vision of Germany having now achieved goals coal industry skeptics have been claiming for the last 40 years could not be achieved even by 2050.
Fraunhofer ISE research institute revealed that solar panels in the eastern European country generated a record breaking 23.1 GW of electricity in one hour on June 6th. On June 9th, a national holiday, solar energy production peaked at 24.24 GW, which equalled approximately 50.6 percent of the electricity demand.That week was extra hot with highs of up to 37 C, but with new photo voltaic solar panels being added every day at record rates they experts expect Germany will be breaking this rate ever few months now.
According to Rothacher, the critical component for the high solar energy production is the encouragement to the public of Germany to install solar panels on their homes as opposed to the construction of giant solar farms. Rothacher said 90 percent of the solar panels in the country are on individual’s rooftops. He said that solar power production increased by 34 percent in the first five months of the year and he believes that the warm weather is responsible for this.
The new record of the large amounts of solar energy being produced in Germany, 50 percent of the demand, demonstrates that the energy companies will need to develop improved storage capacity. Rothacher said that 1.4 million photovoltaic systems are generating a surplus of energy, especially on sunny days around midday. He describes that with every new solar system that is installed, the need for electricity storage solutions increases.
The next article on German solar storage strategy which I reported before takes on a much greater significant as now the solar and wind energy have achieved this fraction of Germany's energy production the problem of "intermitancy" becomes a limiting factor for further expansion. Solar storage is Germany's strategy for overcoming this limit to achieve it "Energiewende," or transformation to a 100% renewable energy economy by 2050.
But, one quick word on grid parity.
The economic attractiveness of combining solar energy with breakthrough batter storage systems will be an even bigger deal in Germany which has identified solar-energy- storage-battery systems as a critical new national economic goal for Germany to commit to taking a leading international competitive advantage in.
A recent analysis by the consulting firm Eclareon discovered that solar power in Germany has achieved grid parity. Which means that once all the costs are accounted for, the price of commercial solar is equal to retail electricity rates. Wind power also reached record breaking output levels last year, producing 25.2 GW and accounting for 39 percent of the electricity demand in a single day in December.
Cleantechnica, where I'm finding an increasing number of excellent leading edge renewable energy articles, reports Solar Energy Storage System Market In Germany Approaching A Boom, due to a number of factors coming together.
The recent surge of solar energy in Germany has already lead to 15 GW of generating capaciy, - a new record. (I think this may be the amount added because else where they report total renewable generation in TW.)
“Many solar installations will have paid for themselves in the next couple of years and some will soon reach the end of their 20-year feed-in tariff contract,” Rothacher, an advisor for international companies planning to invest in Germany, continues.
“With modern and cheaper battery technology now available, these owners are able to store excess power during the day instead of feeding it into the grid at low prices and buying it back at night when it is more expensive. This helps to reduce grid fluctuations and with feed-in tariffs set to fall this summer, it makes even more economic sense.”
EuPD, a leading market research firm, currently expects sales of solar energy storage systems in Germany to rise significantly in the next few years — up to 100,000 units a year in 2018, up from the 6,000 that sold in 2013.
According to recent figures from Germany, renewable energy has grown more than nuclear has declined over the last 12-13 years, as well as over the last five years (since the Fukushima accident). “Since 2014 is still a work in progress, we will have to restrict the analysis to the development between 2009 and 2013. For this particular time frame we get a score of 134.9 TWh for nuclear in 2009, which means a decline of 37.6 TWh until 2013… [and] 38.2 TWh of growth for wind and solar from 2009 to 2013. So the nuclear decline lost again, failing to beat the growth of renewable even when ruling out biomass for some reason (another 17.1 TWh growth in those four years).”Several German politicians see an opportunity for Germany to become a leader of battery manufacturing once again. What a contrast with our politicians, too many of whom seem intent of passing ALEC guided legislation to hold back emerging trends towards renewable energy, in order to protect increasingly obsolete fossil fuel burning power plants, especially coal burning plants.
German did achieved these remarkable achievements with an intelligent, high level national industrial policy, similar to the ones being used by China, Japan, not South East Asian nation, and most developing nations. Just so you know, can can help, I found Kosowatt and Keynesian Kossacks as vehicles to help promote a similar combination economic stimulus - infrastructure investment - renewable energy - sustainable energy transformation of our own - a more expansive version of Paul Krugman's economic stimulus. I don't accept the assumption that we will never be able to bring enough Republicans over to this vision to be able to move forward.
Here comes the sun.
Good Day Sunshine
As further evidence that we are nearing fundamental transition benchmarks in the relative cost of solar, wind, and conventional electrical power generation back on June 10 I wrote this article about Barclay's downgrading Home solar power with power storage will disrupt utilities say Barclay's as they downgrade bonds
A specter is haunting the traditional U.S. electrical utility companies and that specter is the coming boom in solar power storage systems. Solar power systems with storage are already competitive with utility generation rates in Hawaii and California, with New York and Arizona not far behind.
"The bank expects 20% of US electricity consumers will be able to have access to solar with energy storage that will be as cheap or cheaper than utility power within 4 years." The downward trends in prices of renewable energy represent such a threat to the traditional utility industry that Barclay's has seen fit to down grade the U.S. utility industries bond rating even before taking into account the new E.P.A. regulations to reduce the carbon emissions of power plants by 30%.
Image Credit: Panasonic
John Johnston of The 9 Billion covers this under reported story Home Solar Power With Power Storage To Disrupt Utilities: Barclays.
As further evidence that we are nearing fundamental transition benchmarks in the relative cost of solar, wind, and conventional electrical power generation back on June 10 I wrote this article about Barclay's downgrading Home solar power with power storage will disrupt utilities say Barclay's as they downgrade bonds
A specter is haunting the traditional U.S. electrical utility companies and that specter is the coming boom in solar power storage systems. Solar power systems with storage are already competitive with utility generation rates in Hawaii and California, with New York and Arizona not far behind.
"The bank expects 20% of US electricity consumers will be able to have access to solar with energy storage that will be as cheap or cheaper than utility power within 4 years." The downward trends in prices of renewable energy represent such a threat to the traditional utility industry that Barclay's has seen fit to down grade the U.S. utility industries bond rating even before taking into account the new E.P.A. regulations to reduce the carbon emissions of power plants by 30%.
Image Credit: PanasonicJohn Johnston of The 9 Billion covers this under reported story Home Solar Power With Power Storage To Disrupt Utilities: Barclays.
Well before this week’s news of the Obama Administration’s plan to begin reducing fossil fuel-based power plant emissions by 30%, big British bank Barclays saw fit to downgrade the whole electricity-generating sector of the US high grade corporate bond market. It sees that the traditional utility sector faces big challenges from fast-growing renewable energy, and the market is not yet pricing in those challenges, Australia’s ABC has reported.Within the next day or two I will publish an series of articles contrasting the strategies of the United States and the Chinese in bringing the cost-curves of the production of solar pv down. Several articles are suggesting thatt the Chinese are strategically buying their way down the learning curve, (the realization that for every doubling of the installed base the unit production cost of solar modules comes down 20%), so they may be position to hit grid parity by 2016 to 2017, relative to coal burning plants, some 3 to 5 year earlier than expected. And, with such enormous problems with coal pollution become a big issue with the people the top leadership of the Communist Party is highly motivated to move away from coal, we may soon see a major shift in their longer term strategy. I'm still fact checking, but this looks promising.
Barclays has calculated that it will not be government regulation that will phase down coal-fired power plants first, but rather the advance of renewable technologies and the continued decline in costs of those technologies. The Barclays credit team believes that, over the next few years, the “confluence of declining cost trends in distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation and residential-scale power storage is likely to disrupt the status quo”.
Barclays notes that the cost of home solar power with a storage option is already cost competitive with traditional utilities in Hawaii, and California, Arizona and New York won’t be far behind. The bank expects 20% of US electricity consumers will be able to have access to solar with energy storage that will be as cheap or cheaper than utility power within 4 years.
Also, we have our moving packer here today, so I need go get them
started but another encouraging solar article out this morning announces
Utah has achieved solar grid parity with no RPS, and no state
incentives, so a large spike in solar projects is being initiated there.
Let's imagine, choose, and commit ourselves to creating a sustainable world built on inexpensive, clean, and renewable energy production that can become a foundation for a vibrant economy where we live in harmony with our environment and ecosystems.
Cheers.
And have a bright and sunny day.
6:45 AM PT: If you can tolerate another longer post, please consider checking out this one I spent the whole day on yesterday. Neocons "jolted back to life" like Frankenzombies from hell - must be tried for war crimes.
It's got humor, drama, suspence, information, tragedy, derision of neocons, zombies, awesome pics, me howling the moon, two proposals for holding neocons accountable, and a poll. But, it may be too long for this venue so I'd appreciate feedback of whether it is worth putting that much time into a single post. The number of recs suggests it is not but that may be because I published it so late Sunday night. Thanks - HD.
Let's imagine, choose, and commit ourselves to creating a sustainable world built on inexpensive, clean, and renewable energy production that can become a foundation for a vibrant economy where we live in harmony with our environment and ecosystems.
Cheers.
And have a bright and sunny day.
6:45 AM PT: If you can tolerate another longer post, please consider checking out this one I spent the whole day on yesterday. Neocons "jolted back to life" like Frankenzombies from hell - must be tried for war crimes.
It's got humor, drama, suspence, information, tragedy, derision of neocons, zombies, awesome pics, me howling the moon, two proposals for holding neocons accountable, and a poll. But, it may be too long for this venue so I'd appreciate feedback of whether it is worth putting that much time into a single post. The number of recs suggests it is not but that may be because I published it so late Sunday night. Thanks - HD.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered