Now there are those who say our energy demand cannot be met by solar power. Well Germany just reached a milestone and got 50% of it’s electrical energy from solar in the first week of June.
“German solar demonstrated just what it is capable of in the first two weeks of June,” said Tobias Rothacher, expert for renewable energies at Germany Trade & Invest, the country’s economic development agency.
Analysis from the Fraunhofer ISE research institute showed solar panels in Germany generated a record 24.24 GW of electricity between 1pm and 2pm on Friday, June 6th.
And on Monday June 9th, which was a national holiday, solar power production peaked at 23.1 GW, which equalled 50.6 percent of total electricity demand – setting another milestone.
The week was unusually hot with highs of 37C and Rothacher put the record down to the warm weather and the fact it was a public holiday.
But he added: “I think we could break a new record every two to three months now. We are installing more and more PVs [solar panels].”
The success of Germany’s solar production lies with encouraging people to install them on their roof tops rather than building huge solar farms. Rothacher said 90 percent of solar panels in Germany were on individuals’ roofs.
He added that solar power production had increased by 34 percent in the first five months of the year compared to last year thanks to the better weather.
I lived in Munich for several years and it is in Southern Germany and is at about the same latitude as Vancouver BC. It is very dark in the winter. Solar panels are economically competitive with coal in the US but are being fought by utilities because it decentralizes power production and makes their infrastructure increasingly irrelevant. Here in the Portland area the high end “Street Of Dreams” features a home that will be entirely self dependent when it comes to electricity, although there is an upfront cost it is estimated that the ROI will be about 7 years . If Germany can do it the US should be able to do it even better. The fossil fuel industry will fight it but we can’t let them win.