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Holy crap.
How does Germany keep the oil and nuke pigs from interfering?
(Reuters) - German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour - equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity - through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said.
The German government decided to abandon nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, closing eight plants immediately and shutting down the remaining nine by 2022.
They will be replaced by renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and bio-mass.
Norbert Allnoch, director of the Ins ute of the Renewable Energy Industry (IWR) in Muenster, said the 22 gigawatts of solar power per hour fed into the national grid on Saturday met nearly 50 percent of the nation's midday electricity needs.
"Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity," Allnoch told Reuters. "Germany came close to the 20 gigawatt (GW) mark a few times in recent weeks. But this was the first time we made it over."
The record-breaking amount of solar power shows one of the world's leading industrial nations was able to meet a third of its electricity needs on a work day, Friday, and nearly half on Saturday when factories and offices were closed.
Government-mandated support for renewables has helped Germany became a world leader in renewable energy and the country gets about 20 percent of its overall annual electricity from those sources.
Germany has nearly as much installed solar power generation capacity as the rest of the world combined and gets about four percent of its overall annual electricity needs from the sun alone. It aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.
SUNSHINE
Some critics say renewable energy is not reliable enough nor is there enough capacity to power major industrial nations. But Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Germany is eager to demonstrate that is indeed possible.
The jump above the 20 GW level was due to increased capacity this year and bright sunshine nationwide.
The 22 GW per hour figure is up from about 14 GW per hour a year ago. Germany added 7.5 GW of installed power generation capacity in 2012 and 1.8 GW more in the first quarter for a total of 26 GW capacity.
"This shows Germany is capable of meeting a large share of its electricity needs with solar power," Allnoch said. "It also shows Germany can do with fewer coal-burning power plants, gas-burning plants and nuclear plants."
Allnoch said the data is based on information from the European Energy Exchange (EEX), a bourse based in Leipzig.
The incentives through the state-mandated "feed-in-tariff" (FIT) are not without controversy, however. The FIT is the lifeblood for the industry until photovoltaic prices fall further to levels similar for conventional power production.
Utilities and consumer groups have complained the FIT for solar power adds about 2 cents per kilowatt/hour on top of electricity prices in Germany that are already among the highest in the world with consumers paying about 23 cents per kw/h.
German consumers pay about 4 billion euros ($5 billion) per year on top of their electricity bills for solar power, according to a 2012 report by the Environment Ministry.
Critics also complain growing levels of solar power make the national grid more less stable due to fluctuations in output.
Merkel's centre-right government has tried to accelerate cuts in the FIT, which has fallen by between 15 and 30 percent per year, to nearly 40 percent this year to levels below 20 cents per kw/h. But the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, has blocked it.
($1 = 0.7992 euros)
Holy crap.
Good for them, hopefully they can continue their progress at the same pace for the next 20 years.
Is that Euros?... If it's Euros, that's 18 cents/KWH in US dollars... I currently pay ~13 cents/KWH here (including delivery charges).
Holy crap.
lol...7.9c here.
Even in euros that's still sticker shock to me. In Austin we pay 7.85 cents in the summer, down around 6 cents in the winter.
Actually, I lied, it's a little more than that. Last bill is $95.23 for 650 KWH... that's closer to ~14.6c/KWH
new jersey = fu
How did you come to 18 cents US?
0,23 € = US$ 0,29
Actually, I lied, it's a little more than that. Last bill is $95.23 for 650 KWH... that's closer to ~14.6c/KWH
Holy crap.
, thanks Slomo... I multiplied by .8 instead of dividing by .8
Too easy to make a simple mistake in math, isn't it.
The stuff's expensive, but Germany makes ecology work but taxing the out of other stuff.
Anyone know fuel prices in Germany right now? When I was over there, the tax alone was 1.01 Deutch marks per liter. That's a tax of about $2.50 per gallon, and this was 1990 ± a couple years. I forget the actual fuel prices then, but it was over $4 per gallon, maybe over $5. I used an exchange rate of 1.53 marks/dollar which varied quite a bit during that period.
Last edited by Wild Cobra; 06-20-2012 at 04:10 PM.
Yeah, I was wrong... you should always get more dollars for less euros... should've been evident, tbh...
How about just remembering that when I have a mathematical oooops......
I was wrong. I simply didn't take offense when Slomo corrected me, I thanked him instead.
How about just remembering that when you have a mathematical oooops?
LOL...
Fair enough.
If US electricity were charged at the total cost of coal (environmental destruction, pollution, etc external costs), it would be up there with Euro prices.
US pays "off sheet" for coal electricity with heavy metal pollution, SuperFund coal ash sites (and horrendous spills), dead miners in for-profit holes called mines, etc, etc.
In 1997 it was about DM 4.50 a liter. At the time it was about 1.6 DM / $1. So about $2.81 a liter or about $10.63 a gallon.
"We would kiss our chancellor's backside to pay $4.45 a gallon for gas," said Stefan Sebastian, 39, who is taking a break from Frankfurt, Germany, to tour Seattle in a Dodge Journey rental car. Earlier this spring, gas prices in Germany reached the equivalent of $8.56 a gallon.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...prices11m.html
If the US ever follows Germany's lead it will bankrupt the world.
Gas prices outside of production countries or the US have always been expensive... people still get by...
The war(s) for diminishing oil will bankrupt the world (the part that is totally dependent on, addicted to oil)
and the price of oil as oil supplies diminish will cripple industrial civilization.
We're heading towards an oil shortage and the whole world will crumble once it's harder to extract. We must STOP fracking right? That just makes sense.
Are we?
Ouch.
I don't remember it being that high, but I had military prices.
So, even without their 1.01 DM tax/liter it would be pretty expensive.
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