Comments on: Germany Sets New Solar Record By Meeting Nearly Half of Country’s Weekend Power Demand

By: ugc

ugc — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 10:34:49 +0000

is there any possible for me to venture into this tecnology in india?how to go abt .i will be greatfull if some one could help me out.

mrs udupa

By: Chandalia Sanjiv

Chandalia Sanjiv — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 04:45:05 +0000

Nice project.

By: hermano

hermano — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:30:40 +0000

@ all the Negative comments:
Of course PV alone is not the holy grail. Also the quite bad (in your eyes) efficiency is a problem. It cant be raised a lot higher though and it doesnt have to. Please dont be a PV Efficiency Snob.
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/09/dont-be-a-pv-efficiency-snob/

@sainteco: Ok, I dont really want to know how many subsidies gasoline and especially Diesel got the last 50 years (asking for less tax is subsidy in my eyes and cofinancing refineries as well)

So lets consume less electricity (waste less) and get some storage going. And everything is going to be fine.

By: saintEco

saintEco — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:28:47 +0000

One weekend! We need it all year, 7/7, 24 hours, be it rain, snow, mist or night. So what? And the costs: roughly Euro 18 billion in subsidies per year, to be paid to the solar panel owners by the tenants, the electricity bills of the poor and taxpayers. Keep on dreaming, reality is bitter.

By: elgy bee

elgy bee — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 12:35:22 +0000

Congratulations to Germany for getting “nearly half its week-end electricity demand from PV”. BUT, for how long did the PV supply the energy during that week-end?

Solar PV has an enormous weakness in the very low energy yield it provides, since the peak generation may not last for even an hour (or perhaps 2) a day. What about the energy needs for the remainder of the 24 hours of the day? It must come from some other sources, whether coal, nuclear or other sources.

The nominal energy needs of users is about 6,000 kWh a year for every kW of demand (at least in Malaysia & probably so in other countries as well) while PV can only generate about 1,200 to 1,400 kWh a year pwer kWp of capacity (again in Malaysia) while the yield in Germany is said to be only about 1,000 kWh per kWp a year.

I appreciate that some other renewables (like hydro, biomass & biogas) have a better yield performance compared with PV. I believe that solar thermal power generation in desert areas is a much better solution than PV per se.

So should we get carried away with the apparent (perhaps virtual?) benefits of PV as an energy solution for our future needs?

Sorry to be a “wet blanket” on solar PV, but let’s get real about PV.

By: honeynutcornflakes

honeynutcornflakes — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 16:12:07 +0000

solar power, in Germany? and we’re complaining (UK) renewable energy resources like wind and tidal aren’t good enough? IT ISN’T EVEN THAT SUNNY IN GERMANY! why are we using fossil fuels?! argh.

By: RuhrChick

RuhrChick — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 09:01:12 +0000

Interesting…. that is TOTAL news to me (though living here). We WANT to abandon nuclear power FOR EVER but all we ever hear is that it’s not possible to generate sufficient power by green methods alone. Instead, we are importing nuclear(ly) generated electricity from France, who in turn increase their number of plants and then dump that waste in German coal mines….I say, fork that. Who is fooling whom here?! ….it seems an endless cyclical (lobbyist) battle.

By: RFMarine

RFMarine — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:54:04 +0000

It would have been more impressive if germany didn’t stop using nuclear power plants. To minimize the amount of greenhouse gases, what germany should have done and what every body else should do is to first expand renewables. Then as you are able to produce extra electricity from renewables, you are able to one by one shut down un needed non renewable power plants. To maximize greenhouse gas reduction, you prioritize which plant you shut down first. Priority would be given to plants that produce greenhouse gases – fossil fuel plants. Nuclear plants would be last in line.

Although you slightly increase the risk of a nuclear plant accident by this, you also maximize the greenhouse gas emissions decrease. The accident chance is already so small and the current status of climate change is so bad that this risk is worth it.

AFAIK germany has already shut down 8 nuclear plants. Maybe they should have first shut down 8 coal plants instead.

Also, this report does not mention the huge expenses involved with renewables, including new transmission lines

By: msyin

msyin — Thu, 31 May 2012 17:32:40 +0000

Overall Germany is leading the way and showing that it can be done. It will be very interesting to see where we all are in just the next 4 years. The USA has so much in fighting to even get something done while Europe with all of its problems with the EU is still making strides and individual countries like Germany, Scotland and Spain are chugging right along. We can either get to work or keep picking things apart. Stories like this make me happy because it is some much needed good news.

By: thx.1138

thx.1138 — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:00:02 +0000

Wow! Germany has 79 square miles of photovoltaics deployed. Does anybody know how much that costs?

By: tezz10

tezz10 — Wed, 30 May 2012 20:41:19 +0000

I love it how much power they are getting from sun!
However, there’s one thing Allnoch forgot to mention – energy that Germans import from Poland. Another reason why they “can do with fewer coal-burning power plants, gas-burning plants and nuclear plants” is that they are buying more from polish… coal-burning plants.
Source: http://translate.google.pl/translate?sl=pl&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=pl&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ekonomia24.pl%2Fartykul%2F787243.html&act=url

By: Basti

Basti — Wed, 30 May 2012 18:59:08 +0000

combind with wind bio gas and water plants we had nearly 100 percent Bio Energy On the wekeend
its so fast growing here !!!

By: joseph1990

joseph1990 — Wed, 30 May 2012 12:53:54 +0000

awesome!

By: bigvibes

bigvibes — Wed, 30 May 2012 04:54:10 +0000

Germany’s a great model for the rest of the world. Thanks for proving that carbon emission reduction targets can be met by a developed nation.