Grey skies? no problem for Germany to break solar energy records...

[PA5COR]

Germany gets a little bit less sun compared to Alaska.
Still they keep breaking solar energy records.

Germany just broke its monthly solar power generation record once again. In July, the grey-skied country logged 5.1 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity from solar power, slightly better than the 5 TWh of electricity generated by wind turbines it produced in January.
As Inhabitat points out (http://inhabitat.com/germany-shatters-monthly-solar-power-generation-record-with-5-1-terawatt-hours-of-clean-energy/), “The accomplishment proves once again that a lack of sunshine is no obstacle to scaling up solar energy — and if the Teutons can produce record amounts of solar power under grey skies, then the potential for countries with sunnier weather and more land mass (like the United States) is limitless.”
This recent milestone is one of many for the country that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the world in its rapid embrace of solar energy. As a point of comparison, Clean Technica notes (http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/19/germany-breaks-monthly-solar-generation-record/),

In terms of total solar power capacity per capita, Germany crushes every other country. At the end of 2012, it had approximately 400 MW of solar power capacity per million people, considerably more than #2 Italy at 267 MW per million people, #3 Belgium at 254 MW per million people, and #4 Czech Republic at 204 MW per million, and #5 Greece at 143 MW per million people. The US came it at #20 with about 25 MW per million people.


Germany’s long-term policies to incentivize renewable energy have had a significant impact on reducing the “soft” costs associated with solar installation, such as permitting, inspection, interconnection, financing, customer acquisition. In fact, residential PV systems installed last year in Italy, Australia, and Germany are nearly 40 percent lower (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/08/13/2455121/solar-getting-cheaper/) than in the U.S.
Soft costs represent approximately half of the total installed cost of residential solar systems here in the U.S., according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), but there are multiple options (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/07/24/2345511/the-future-of-us-solar-power-opportunities-in-soft-costs/) for reducing these and making solar power more accessible without the use of German-style long-term federal incentives.

Source: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/08/22/2508191/germany-solar-generation-record/

[mw0uzo]

Germany gets a little bit less sun compared to Alaska.
Still they keep breaking solar energy records.

Germany just broke its monthly solar power generation record once again. In July, the grey-skied country logged 5.1 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity from solar power, slightly better than the 5 TWh of electricity generated by wind turbines it produced in January.
As Inhabitat points out (http://inhabitat.com/germany-shatters-monthly-solar-power-generation-record-with-5-1-terawatt-hours-of-clean-energy/), “The accomplishment proves once again that a lack of sunshine is no obstacle to scaling up solar energy — and if the Teutons can produce record amounts of solar power under grey skies, then the potential for countries with sunnier weather and more land mass (like the United States) is limitless.”
This recent milestone is one of many for the country that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the world in its rapid embrace of solar energy. As a point of comparison, Clean Technica notes (http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/19/germany-breaks-monthly-solar-generation-record/),
In terms of total solar power capacity per capita, Germany crushes every other country. At the end of 2012, it had approximately 400 MW of solar power capacity per million people, considerably more than #2 Italy at 267 MW per million people, #3 Belgium at 254 MW per million people, and #4 Czech Republic at 204 MW per million, and #5 Greece at 143 MW per million people. The US came it at #20 with about 25 MW per million people.


Germany’s long-term policies to incentivize renewable energy have had a significant impact on reducing the “soft” costs associated with solar installation, such as permitting, inspection, interconnection, financing, customer acquisition. In fact, residential PV systems installed last year in Italy, Australia, and Germany are nearly 40 percent lower (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/08/13/2455121/solar-getting-cheaper/) than in the U.S.
Soft costs represent approximately half of the total installed cost of residential solar systems here in the U.S., according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), but there are multiple options (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/07/24/2345511/the-future-of-us-solar-power-opportunities-in-soft-costs/) for reducing these and making solar power more accessible without the use of German-style long-term federal incentives.

Source: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/08/22/2508191/germany-solar-generation-record/




I have always thought the base generating capacity of large power plants, nuclear, gas etc to be the most important. And that a large distribution network, despite its losses is required to take advantage of the increased efficiency from large plants and provide a predictable way of matching demand and generation so that the network is stable. I do wonder whether this would fall down if there was a really significant amount of solar power generation installed. Certainly for the household consumer part of the network, power requirements could be significantly reduced. A few panels here and there aren't going to made a difference, but panels on every other house could make another way of solving the problem. Personally, I haven't looked deeply at the issue. I wonder if there is going to be a significant rearrangement of the household power network in the future?

[PA5COR]

It will be a mix of renewables to compensate demands in the dark periods, like we have bio energy on farms, waste burning energy producing, water power, wind turbines, tidal and wave generation of energy where feasable, ground heat, heat pumps, etc.
Windturbine energy is used in low demand hours to fill up reservoirs up high to deliver power again at high demand periods, or stacked with large batteries.

An now SK mate of mine his commercial garage is warmed in the winter by ground heat and heat exchangers getting back 4 KW for 1 KW into the system, the same ground water is used to cool the place down in winter by the reversable heat exchanger, in 10 years time the investment was paid off.

Having solar power on the houses will reduce load on the grid, make the losses in the grid go down as well.
Combined blocks of houses are connected to deliver needed energy to other houses if needed to maximise the energy that has been collecred, the rest goes in the grid.

[mw0uzo]

I've got a secondhand 170W solar panel, 38V. Haven't put it on the roof of the shack yet, also need to get a switching controller as I want to run a 12V system. The normal controller I have just pulls the voltage down and I get about 50W from it at 12V. I was expecting wasted power, but not quite that much... I could run a 24V system, maybe getting 110W but then that would need an extra converter to bring the battery voltage down to 12V. Looks like I'll have to get a decent controller.