2012 record year for PV in Germany. Photovoltaics In December, Germany installed just over 330 megawatts of PV, bringing the country up to almost exactly 7.6 gigawatts for the year as a whole.
In total, the country now has nearly 32.4 gigawatts of PV, equivalent to roughly half of its normal peak demand for power in the summer. But as the figure for December shows, the country is now installing at a slower rate, and ambitious monthly reductions that started in November continue. Germany is likely to fall behind China in absolute numbers this year. The result was published yesterday on the German Network Agency's website. From November 2012 to January 2013, rates dropped by 2.5 percent per month, but the reduction will be lowered to 2.2 percent from February to April. Only 10 years ago, a kilowatt-hour from a small roof array costs closer to 50 cents. $2.24/Watt vs $4.44/Watt: Solar in Germany vs Solar in the US. Clean Power Published on June 19th, 2012 | by Zachary Shahan As reported previously, Germany had about 21.6 times more solar power installed per capita at the end of 2011 than the US (301.47 MW per million people versus 13.973 MW per million people).
In absolute numbers, Germany had about 5.63 times more solar power installed (24,678 MW versus 4,383 MW). These differences also translate into big differences in solar costs, as the most recent installation cost numbers show. According to BSW Solar, the average cost of installed solar power per watt peak was €1.776, or $2.24, in Q2 of 2012 (as we noted back in May). “Since Germany is dominated by rooftop systems (72 percent of installations in 2011), this is an impressively low number,” Greentech Media writes. As our resident German writer Thomas would probably note, a solar revolution in Germany was never a given — it has been fought consistently and solar power myths have been spread far and wide there just as they have in the US.
Why a requirement for local content would do Germany no good - 100% renewable. Part 2 in a series on the German solar sector Germany has an export-based economy, so it would only lose a trade war.
Nonetheless, the country's PV sector is still highly competitive even without a requirement for local content in German law. This article is the second installment of a series contracted by the Heinrich Böll Foundation; a condensed version of the entire series is available as a PDF entitled "German solar bubble? Look again! " Yesterday, we saw that Germany has a trade surplus with China – and a trade surplus overall. Protectionism is common in policies to promote renewables. Downloads/Morris_GermanSolarBubble.pdf. German winners all along the value chain - 100% renewable. Part 3 in a series on the German solar sector Once we move beyond the focus on wafer and panel manufacturers, we see how much Germany stands to benefit from its commitment to photovoltaics as a growing future market.
This article is the third installment of a series contracted by the Heinrich Böll Foundation; a condensed version of the entire series is available as a PDF entitled "German solar bubble? Look again! " Yesterday, we saw how Germany gets local content at various parts of the PV value chain. The value chain for photovoltaics starts with silicon and moves on to wafers, cells, panels, and installation. German PV ahead of schedule - News. Photovoltaics Germany's Network Agency released the figures for Q1 today showing that Germany continues to install at a pace exceeding seven gigawatts per year.
Nonetheless, solar firms continue to file for bankruptcy. In the first quarter of 2012, around 1,800 megawatts of PV was newly installed in Germany according to the statistics published yesterday by the country's Network Agency (in German). At that rate, Germany would install 7.2 gigawatts of PV this year, nearly as much as the approximately 7.5 gigawatts installed in each of the past two years. More importantly, the current installation rate is more than twice the government's target of 2.5-3.5 gigawatts per year. But although the German market continues to roar on, so does the wave of bankruptcies. Going forward, it is anything but clear that Germany will continue to install at a rate of seven or more gigawatts per year. German PV market continues to boom. Solar The rumors are now official.
On Thursday, Germany's Network Agency confirmed that the country installed 4.3 gigawatts of PV in the first half of 2012, far more than the government planned to have for the year as a whole. The official figures released yesterday (XLS) confirm what the former head of the Network Agency, Matthias Kurth, stated on television a week ago: Germany installed nearly 1,800 MW of photovoltaics in June. When combined with the roughly 254 MW from May, Germany now has around 4.3 GW of photovoltaics installed – far more than the government's target corridor of 2.5 to 3.5 GW for the year as a whole.
But what may seem like good news is actually problematic. At that point, it is unclear what policy will replace feed-in tariffs, which will then expire for photovoltaics (but remain in place for other renewables).