Germany's solar power equals 20 nuke plants.

[PA5COR]

Solar power production in Germany has reached a milestone: 22 gigawatts per hour:

German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour - equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity - through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said.

Norbert Allnoch, director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry (IWR) in Muenster, said the 22 gigawatts of solar power per hour fed into the national grid on Saturday met nearly 50 percent of the nation's midday electricity needs. "Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity," Allnoch told Reuters. "Germany came close to the 20 gigawatt (GW) mark a few times in recent weeks. But this was the first time we made it over."
The record-breaking amount of solar power shows one of the world's leading industrial nations was able to meet a third of its electricity needs on a work day, Friday, and nearly half on Saturday when factories and offices were closed.

This amazing production record didn't just happen on its own; it required government support in the form of legislation and subsidies:

Government-mandated support for renewables has helped Germany became a world leader in renewable energy and the country gets about 20 percent of its overall annual electricity from those sources. 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. It aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Another remarkable aspect of this news: anyone who has lived in Germany can confirm it is not a particularly sunny country. I went to the University of Cologne where it was rainy and overcast about 2/3 of the time. Yet Germany leads the world in displacing nuclear and coal-fired plants with solar:

"This shows Germany is capable of meeting a large share of its electricity needs with solar power," Allnoch said. "It also shows Germany can do with fewer coal-burning power plants, gas-burning plants and nuclear plants."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/0...nt-of-20-nukes

[KG4CGC]

That's socialism.

[ki4itv]

...and how do you get the energy if you don't let the smoke out?

[KØWVM]

I noticed that in or near each city, town or local village here in the vicinity of Kaiserslautern, they have these solar panel farms. Now some can be seen depending on where you are at and others are not. Nifty idea for smaller municipalities to look at and start there as they also have wind farms all over the place here, like they do in the midwest. Not saying though it would work everywhere in the US.

[KG4CGC]

Start putting panels on top of water towers and churches. Hey, they put cell towers on church steeples around here.

[ad4mg]

Awesome stuff, could never happen here. We're the dodo bird on this planet, doomed to extinction.

'murica - we're #1

[PA5COR]

Another advantage of using solar/windgenerators etc is that you do it locally, less transport losses too, which can be quite high...

Lots of farmers here have their own 50 or 100 KWH windgenerator, delivering/selling the over capacity to the grid.
Windgenerators deliver power also at night, in case of overcapacity water gets pumped into a higher basin, and used at night to deliver energy again, in Spain they use melted salt ( 800 degrees F ) that can be stored and reused at night.

[NQ6U]

Solar is starting to get big here in sunny San Diego County. Rooftop collectors are showing everywhere and big business (such as Qualcomm) and apartment complexes have begun to shade their parking lots with solar "trees." Not only does it keep the employees/tenants' cars out of the sun, they pay for themselves in a few years.

[n2ize]

...and how do you get the energy if you don't let the smoke out?

You don't. The "smoke" comes in the form of the fuel required to be burned in the process of mining the raw materials, refining them, fabricating them, manufacturing the actual solar devices, the disposal when they are replaced, the delivery required at each step of the way. Fuel is burned at each of these steps. The energy yield is promising and its a great start but there is still a very long way to go and it's still very far from ready for prime time. And certainly not "smoke free".

[W5GA]

Wind power causes climate change. Not quite the panacea that everyone thinks it is.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ear...new-study.html