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50 Percent of the Energy Produced in Germany Is Solar: New Record

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wraith808:
50 Percent of the Energy Produced in Germany Is Solar: New Record (Via liberty voice with links to The Local and ThinkProgress)

Apocaloptimist is a good word.

At the start of June, Germany produced 50 percent of its electricity needs from solar power: a new world record. Tobias Rothacher, expert of renewable energies at Germany’s Trade and Invest, stated that what his country has done with solar power is a testament to what the renewable resource can accomplish in modern societies.

Fraunhofer ISE research institute revealed that solar panels in the eastern European country generated a record breaking 23.1 GW of electricity in one hour on June 6th. On June 9th, a national holiday, solar energy production peaked at 24.24 GW, which equalled approximately 50.6 percent of the electricity demand.

That week was unusually hot with highs of 37 C, Rothacher attributed the warm weather and the holiday as major contributors to reaching the new record. He did state that he is confident that they will be able to break a new record every few months now: saying that his company is installing more and more photovoltaic solar panels.

According to Rothacher, the critical component for the high solar energy production is the encouragement to the public of Germany to install solar panels on their homes as opposed to the construction of giant solar farms. Rothacher said 90 percent of the solar panels in the country are on individual’s rooftops. He said that solar power production increased by 34 percent in the first five months of the year and he believes that the warm weather is responsible for this.

The new record of the large amounts of solar energy being produced in Germany, 50 percent of the demand, demonstrates that the energy companies will need to develop improved storage capacity. Rothacher said that 1.4 million photovoltaic systems are generating a surplus of energy, especially on sunny days around midday. He describes that with every new solar system that is installed, the need for electricity storage solutions increases.

The new record of 50 percent of Germany’s energy demand being produced by solar means that 74 percent of all the energy produced in the country comes from renewable resources; wind power being a close second. During the record breaking afternoon, energy prices dipped into the negative for a period of time.

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More at link.

Opposing view courtesy of Forbes, that doesn't know that you can be an apocaloptimist.

Shades:
True, but that was on a holiday, where demands on the grid dropped considerably. But for such a damp place on the globe it is still a very good accomplishment.

wraith808:
True, but that was on a holiday, where demands on the grid dropped considerably. But for such a damp place on the globe it is still a very good accomplishment.
-Shades (June 23, 2014, 06:32 PM)
--- End quote ---

Yup they did mention that as one of the factors in the quoted bit above.

Renegade:
My clairvoyance is kicking in...

I see... a sudden budget spending splurge... it's in a war room... someone is saying something about "we can bring back carpet bombing" and "let the good times roll"...

;D

wraith808:
It's apocal-OPTIMIST Ren. ;)  I do think that just like Tesla, if they tried to ramp up solar production in the US, you might be right though. :(  Hence the Forbes rebuttal.

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