Graph of the Day: Germany’s new solar power record

On Monday, the 15th of April, 2013, the approximate 1.3 million solar power systems in Germany set a new domestic/world record by reaching a peak power output of 22.68 GW at noon.

The New Normal

This new record is almost 0.5 GW above the “old” record of 22.2 GW, which was set on May 25th, 2012. Allthough I love celebrating all solar records, the biggest news might be that “just” 22.68 GW is apparently no longer newsworthy in Germany, because above 15-20 GW of solar have become a regularity.

During the first two weeks of April, solar surpassed the 20 GW mark on several occasions and made a meaningful contribution to the domestic power supply on every single day. For everybody remotely familiar with German or Central European weather conditions, it’s needless to say that it wasn’t all sunshine & cloudless skies in April.

Germany- solar-2013-04-2weeks

Since solar panels last for 25+ years and have almost no marginal costs, I like to use the opportunity to mention the fact that whatever might happen in policy in the coming years, those yellow areas of the electricity market will remain liberated* from the external effects caused by conventional electricity production for at least one generation. (*To use a slightly more energy revolutionary sort of language)

So, lets celebrate the new solar world record of 22.68 GW of solar power on a national grid, despite its relative “mediocrity,” with a little infographic!

2013-04-15-Solar-Germany

In case you are wondering: The equivalents mentioned in the infographic were chosen for the Japanese “market” (for solar and ideas).

  1. The 167 GWh of solar electricity provided a little more than 12% of the total German electricity consumption on a typical Monday in April (presuming that consumption hasn’t changed too much since last year).
  2. The 34,000 tons of oil are calculated by considering a thermal power plant efficency of 42%, meaning that for each kWh of electricity you got to burn 2.4 kWh of oil. (42% is the average for Japanese oil-fired power stations that usually provided peakload electricity before, and now even more so after, the Fukushima nuclear accident.)
  3. The number of nuclear reactors refers to each one running for 24 hours straight. The comparison is intended to show that distributed solar can make a big impact and doesn’t need years to build. I am aware that comparing clean peak-load solar operating in the renewable energy paradigm with old-school baseload nuclear is relatively pointless.

This article was originally published on CleanTechnica. Reproduced with permission

 

Comments

4 responses to “Graph of the Day: Germany’s new solar power record”

  1. petebergs Avatar

    Oh, for goodness sake ! Wot ye gonna do when the sun don’t shine, as in during the nite !

  2. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    We contributed 36KWhrs on the 15 April. Today, we’re unlikely to make 1KWhr. Solar power is one of the best arguments for fracking.

  3. Hill Alan Avatar

    Peterbergs/ so what if the sun dont shine? it is a very useful contribution as will be other forms of renewable energy. Or we could all go to bed early.

  4. Beda Avatar
    Beda

    look carefully at the graph, at the export number: all that solar/wind energy gets exported. Because the sun does not shine at night (and in many days of the German winter) you cannot reduce conventional power plants – you still need all their capacity in case of no sun and no wind. So if the sun shines and the wind blows the price of electricity goes down (more supply) and consequently the demand for energy goes up (since energy is cheaper now). But there are insufficient grids to transport the renewable energy across Germany/Europs so conventional plant have to be revved up to fulfill the demand. This is why Germany’s CO2 emissions are up for 2012 despite all their solar panels and wind parks and staggering high subsidies.

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