GERMANY SHOWS WHAT SUN CAN DO
Germany Added 1.8 GW of PV in June, 4+ GW in 2012; Is growth from smart management of the feed-in tariff or is it out of control?
Herman K. Trabish, August 9, 2012 (Greentech Media)
“Almost 4.4 gigawatts (4,373.5 megawatts of photovoltaic capacity were installed in Germany in 1H 2012, according to new estimated numbers from the Federal Association of Energy and Water (Bundesverbandes der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft, BDEW)…It was the biggest 1H solar PV growth in Germany’s history of carefully subsidized solar PV development, a 47 percent advance on 1H 2011. Adjustments in the feed-in tariff (FiT) and planned further adjustments were a major factor in driving growth…
“For the first time, renewables provided over a quarter (just under 26 percent) of Germany’s electricity (67.9 billion kilowatt-hours of an overall 261.5 billion kilowatt-hours) in 1H 2012…1H 2012 overall power consumption was 1.4 percent down from the 1H 2011 total due to lower production in the electricity intensive industries…Wind led renewables with 9.2 percent, an advance on 2011’s 7.7 percent. Biomass followed with 5.7 percent (2011: 5.3 percent).”
“Solar PV went from 1H 2011’s 3.6 percent of German electricity to 5.3 percent, approximately 14.7 kilowatt-hours generated by 1.2 million PV systems…Considering the turmoil in Germany over the proper adjustments to the FiT, it is interesting that the German Federal Solar Energy Association (BSW) predicts solar will get to seven percent of the nation’s electricity by 2016 while the price will only increase by 2.5 percent.
“BSW Solar CEO Karsten Körnig reportedly noted there will be a cost for such growth when it is supported by a FiT but Germany has carefully ratcheted its ratepayer-funded subsidy down to the point where fossil fuel price rises, Körnig said, exceed the solar incentive costs. And, he reportedly added, Germany’s energy-intensive industries are exempt from any burden from the ratepayer surcharges that support the FiT.”
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